Youtube download speed still slow

[ahm750]

Checklist

• I'm reporting a broken site support
• I've verified that I'm running youtube-dl version 2021.12.17
• I've checked that all provided URLs are alive and playable in a browser
• I've checked that all URLs and arguments with special characters are properly quoted or escaped
• I've searched the bugtracker for similar issues including closed ones

Description

It's great to see that youtube-dl has finally received an update. However, the slow download speed issue is still present. @dstftw Do you plan to update youtube-dl to fix this problem?

[Fritskee]

Issue has been addressed before, fixes have also been provided. I had the same issue and installing this merge request fixed it: pip install --force-reinstall -U git+https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl@refs/pull/30184/merge

Getting solid 5MiB/s now

[ahm750]

Issue has been addressed before, fixes have also been provided. I had the same issue and installing this merge request fixed it: pip install --force-reinstall -U git+https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl@refs/pull/30184/merge

Getting solid 5MiB/s now

What about the Windows binary?

[Fritskee]

Issue has been addressed before, fixes have also been provided. I had the same issue and installing this merge request fixed it: pip install --force-reinstall -U git+https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl@refs/pull/30184/merge
Getting solid 5MiB/s now

What about the Windows binary?

Idk man, I don’t do windows. Just pip install it in a virtual environment…

[FranciscoPombal]

Just use https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp instead.

The current maintainer has proven himself to be incapable of properly steering this project.

Admittedly, this is a hard thing to do for a project of this size and reach, but by no means an insurmountable task - people organize themselves all the time to do this successfully.
However, the total refusal to seek help, delegate, and communicate, resulting in a period of 6 month-long radio silence followed a paltry release that doesn't fix the most pressing issue (throttling) without further explanations or apologies in such a crucial project is just inexcusable.

It is irresponsible and damaging to the FOSS world to run an important project like this.
Less technical users who don't keep up with every little bit of news haven't heard about yt-dlp, and so have been stuck with a barely-functioning youtube-dl release for months.

At this point the maintainer should cede the repository to the maintainers of yt-dlp, so that they can continue its development under the better-known youtube-dl "brand"/name.
The last thing that we need is for youtube-dl to become another Apache OpenOffice: 1, 2.

[fastily]

It's over folks. dstftw has removed himself from the list of active maintainers. Might as well consider this repository done and archived at this point

[ugjka]

Open source is a cut throat business and no one is getting paid

[dirkf]

Issue has been addressed before, fixes have also been provided. I had the same issue and installing this merge request fixed it: pip install --force-reinstall -U git+https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl@refs/pull/30184/merge

See #29326 (comment).

[RichCaloggero]

Having same issue. It's pretty clear IMO that google / youtube is throttling. If they wanted us to be able to download content, they would give us a download button, or other way via the UI to download. Just the facdt that this program and others like it exist should tell you that we're in an arms race with one of the most powerful corporations on the planet, and at the moment, we're losing.

Remember to always check every binary you install for malware!

[FranciscoPombal]

It's over folks. dstftw has removed himself from the list of active maintainers. Might as well consider this repository done and archived at this point

@dstftw

Please consider collaborating with the yt-dlp maintainers and put them in charge of this repository, so that they can continue development of their active fork under the better-known name.

Alternatively, set this repository to archived status and place a big notice at the top of the README stating that it is abandoned, but further development continues on the yt-dlp fork.

Your efforts in the maintenence of the project are much appreciated, but you can't (well, shouldn't) abandon a project without ensuring all users know where they can go next - it's the least you can do when stepping down as a maintainer.

[RichCaloggero]

yt-dlt does seem to fix the issue, and doesn't seem to have installed malware.

https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp

[darksystem23]

Issue has been addressed before, fixes have also been provided. I had the same issue and installing this merge request fixed it: pip install --force-reinstall -U git+https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl@refs/pull/30184/merge
Getting solid 5MiB/s now

What about the Windows binary?

Idk man, I don’t do windows. Just pip install it in a virtual environment…

Thanks @Fritskee , your proposal seems to work. Unfortunately, Fedora decided to stop maintaining this library up-to-date. Last one on Fedora 35 from June... I've seen many people complaining about this issue, but sometimes it's just about how your distribution is maintaining the library. However, yt-dlp is up-to-date, so it seems the Fedora team is supporting the alternative.

Thanks :)

[jk-85]

pip install --force-reinstall -U git+https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl@refs/pull/30184/merge

I tried that command but it says "Did not find branch or tag 'refs/pull/30184/merge', assuming revision or ref." and then installs an old version (2021.06.06.) What can I do?

[dirkf]

Your pip may be too old.

1. Try pipx, or just get the latest commit from the PR (at the time of writing) instead:

pip install --force-reinstall -U git+https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl@905d1d281ddfa5d183fc445010d350cefc6a58ec

[20NE]

come on, just merge it, gdi

[dirkf]

Quite, but ....

[jk-85]

Oops, yes, you're right, thank you, my pip was too old.

[AndNovAtor]

Hey guys:

#30184 (comment)

dirkf wroted:
Closed with merge of 57044ea..af9e725.

Yupi!

[nilsonsales]

Hey guys:

#30184 (comment)

dirkf wroted:
Closed with merge of 57044ea..af9e725.

Yupi!

Hey! Do you know how can I download this latest version? I've tried both via pip or curl latest (as in the instructions), but I can only get the version from 2021.12.17.

[garoto]

only get the version from 2021.12.17.

version date information is only updated when generating a new release:

https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/blob/master/devscripts/release.sh#L74-L75

[HIBFITAS]

I don't know if it has been fixed already, but aria2c seems to ease the pain for me.
I use aria2c to start like 10 connections to the server and it will merge them down to a file.
I didn't try with more than 10. I don't know what the max is, but anyway it should be 10 x 70kb.

This is what works for me in Windows 10 – cmd-box:

youtube-dl.exe -url "https://youtu.be/dvV6x2BQoXk" --username=yourusername@gmail.com --password=yourpassword --audio-quality 256K --external-downloader aria2c --external-downloader-args "-c -j10 -x10 -s10 -k1M"

These are youtube-dl switches:
-url --username --password --audio-quality 256K --external-downloader --external-downloader-args

These are aria2c switches:
"-c -j10 -x10 -s10 -k1M"

Please refer to both youtube-dl and aria2c docs for their command-line switches.
--hope it help those who didn't upgrade (like me :) )--

[mikewesten]

Issue has been addressed before, fixes have also been provided. I had the same issue and installing this merge request fixed it: pip install --force-reinstall -U git+https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl@refs/pull/30184/merge

Getting solid 5MiB/s now

gives me this

Collecting git+https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl@refs/pull/30184/merge
Cloning https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl (to revision refs/pull/30184/merge) to /tmp/pip-req-build-qi7fdes3
Running command git clone -q https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl /tmp/pip-req-build-qi7fdes3
WARNING: Did not find branch or tag 'refs/pull/30184/merge', assuming revision or ref.
Running command git fetch -q https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl refs/pull/30184/merge
fatal: couldn't find remote ref refs/pull/30184/merge
ERROR: Command errored out with exit status 128: git fetch -q https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl refs/pull/30184/merge Check the logs for full command output.

[dirkf]

You can install from the HEAD instead: the PR has been merged. I hope that means just leaving off the @... but check the pip documentation.

[AndNovAtor]

@dirkf , I want to note some interesting behavior. Current master is works fine, all good. But if I use NOW "drop-in-replacement" file from #30184 (your direct link ), it's slow "again". And before ~12.02.2022 - all was fine too with "drop-in-replacement" file.

So, I used "drop-in-replacement" file, to "modify" my youtube-dl installed by pip (I didn't use installing by pip from "merge"), simply download this file, backup "old" file in Python lib dir, paste "new" file there). SImply. Since 2021.06.06 version (I used it since ~12.2021). All worked fine. Till ~12.02.2022.

Now, if I use stable release (from pip) with replaced youtube.py file, I got this multiple (~23 lines) "error":
WARNING: [youtube] Couldn't extract YouTube video throttling parameter descrambling function name
Than downloading "fallback" to simple downloading, so speed again is ~50kb/s. Tested on multiple internet providers (maybe, it's a reason still...).

Again: I tried lastest dev version on master (installed to "dedicated" "clean" virtualenv by pip install git+https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl) - and all works fine, normal fast speed.

I simply noted this behavior. No actions is needed, this old "issue" was "fixed" on master branch (and I know, that "drop-in-replacement" file "can" be "old"). Just a note.

P.s. - Sorry, I forgot that this issue ALREADY marked as solved, and I posted message here, to closed issue 🤦‍♂️ Still, just a note....

[dirkf]

Probably YT brought out new player JS that breaks the now unmaintained drop-in module. The approach used in the master branch is more resilient to player instability.