Youtube-dl (is it broken?)

1

Since 2021 youtube-downloader is malfunctioning. I can’t explain it and I can’t seem to fix it. Is it me doing something wrong or is Google making it impossible? Have been looking at Firefox extension: “Video Download Helper” ((Recommended)) as an alternative. Does anyone have experience using it? There is another option available at Firefox: “SaveFrom .net helper” with a WARNING, making it unacceptable for me.

2

Hi,

what do you mean by youtube-dl and broken ?

To find out which package is installed by your side :
dpkg -l | grep youtube

I’m pretty happy with YouTube Video and Audio Downloader extension in Firefox which requires some extra steps to work.

Be aware those kinds of extensions may not work if by bad chance your Firefox is installed as a snap :
snap list --all

3

I’m talking about using the youtube-dl command in the Terminal… It doesn’t seem to function anymore.
Not that I’m downloading EVERYTHING from YouTube… just an occasional guitar lesson or documentary film. I know there are copyright issues with some videos, but that’s not it. Have tried deleting and reinstalling to no avail. Guess I’ll try the Firefox extension… just wanted to see if anyone has experience with it first. I don’t like installing just anything on my PC.

4

What version of Ubuntu Budgie are you using? 20.04?

Please give an example command line you are using.

5

I’m using Ubuntu Budgie 20.04.2
The Command: youtube-dl -t -f best http://… etc…

6

youtube must have broken the version in 20.04 - its working fine on 21.04

Please report this so that it can be notified to the maintainers on launchpad

ubuntu-bug youtube-dl
7

Can you give me a link or point me in the right direction? Not sure where I should go to report this?
Thank you.

8

To report the issue please type in the ubuntu-bug command into a terminal

9

I’ve been using youtube-dl for months, almost on a daily basis, without any issues at all on 20.04 (though I installed it direct from their website and not from the Ubuntu repo). Good luck!

10

I was able to figure it out & got it working again… using Terminal.
Command: youtube-dl ytsearch:U

At first I was trying to update using Command: youtube-dl -U (without sucess)

11

Thank you… for your help.