yt-dlp: Intermittent "Incomplete data received" errors when downloading YouTube playlist JSON

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Checklist

• I’m reporting that yt-dlp is broken on a supported site
• I’ve verified that I’m running yt-dlp version 2023.09.24 (update instructions) or later (specify commit)
• I’ve checked that all provided URLs are playable in a browser with the same IP and same login details
• I’ve checked that all URLs and arguments with special characters are properly quoted or escaped
• I’ve searched known issues and the bugtracker for similar issues including closed ones. DO NOT post duplicates
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Region

United Kingdom

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When running the following command:

yt-dlp -vU --dump-single-json --flat-playlist PL1tiwbzkOjQwgI-BPd0nujKfVkCag3xFf

it sometimes succeeds, and sometimes fails with yt_dlp.utils.ExtractorError: Incomplete data received as can be seen below. It does not always fail; this error seems to be intermittent. It is also not specific to this playlist; I have seen it fail with the same error on other playlists as well. (The specific playlist mentioned above is https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1tiwbzkOjQwgI-BPd0nujKfVkCag3xFf for convenience of linking; it opens in a browser successfully.) In running this command 5 times, it succeeded twice and failed three times.

Provide verbose output that clearly demonstrates the problem

• Run your yt-dlp command with -vU flag added (yt-dlp -vU <your command line>)
• If using API, add 'verbose': True to YoutubeDL params instead
• Copy the WHOLE output (starting with [debug] Command-line config) and insert it below

Complete Verbose Output

[debug] Command-line config: ['-vU', '--dump-single-json', '--flat-playlist', 'PL1tiwbzkOjQwgI-BPd0nujKfVkCag3xFf']
[debug] Encodings: locale UTF-8, fs utf-8, pref UTF-8, out utf-8, error utf-8, screen utf-8
[debug] yt-dlp version stable@2023.09.24 [088add956] (zip)
[debug] Python 3.10.12 (CPython x86_64 64bit) - Linux-5.15.0-84-generic-x86_64-with-glibc2.35 (OpenSSL 3.0.2 15 Mar 2022, glibc 2.35)
[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg 4.4.2 (setts), ffprobe 4.4.2
[debug] Optional libraries: Cryptodome-3.11.0, brotli-1.0.9, certifi-2020.06.20, mutagen-1.45.1, pyxattr-0.7.2, secretstorage-3.3.1, sqlite3-3.37.2
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[debug] Loaded 1886 extractors
[debug] Fetching release info: https://api.github.com/repos/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest
Available version: stable@2023.09.24, Current version: stable@2023.09.24
Current Build Hash: 9c32c2f215a58c33369ec6105b7e97871905b8d757407bea2bc71d265f9f6cfe
yt-dlp is up to date (stable@2023.09.24)
[youtube:playlist] Extracting URL: PL1tiwbzkOjQwgI-BPd0nujKfVkCag3xFf
[youtube:tab] Extracting URL: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1tiwbzkOjQwgI-BPd0nujKfVkCag3xFf
[youtube:tab] PL1tiwbzkOjQwgI-BPd0nujKfVkCag3xFf: Downloading webpage
[youtube:tab] PL1tiwbzkOjQwgI-BPd0nujKfVkCag3xFf: Redownloading playlist API JSON with unavailable videos
[download] Downloading playlist: Exandria Unlimited: Kymal
[youtube:tab] PL1tiwbzkOjQwgI-BPd0nujKfVkCag3xFf page 1: Downloading API JSON
WARNING: [youtube:tab] Incomplete data received. Retrying (1/3)...
[youtube:tab] PL1tiwbzkOjQwgI-BPd0nujKfVkCag3xFf page 1: Downloading API JSON
WARNING: [youtube:tab] Incomplete data received. Retrying (2/3)...
[youtube:tab] PL1tiwbzkOjQwgI-BPd0nujKfVkCag3xFf page 1: Downloading API JSON
WARNING: [youtube:tab] Incomplete data received. Retrying (3/3)...
[youtube:tab] PL1tiwbzkOjQwgI-BPd0nujKfVkCag3xFf page 1: Downloading API JSON
ERROR: Incomplete data received
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/aquarius/bin/yt-dlp/yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py", line 1567, in wrapper
    return func(self, *args, **kwargs)
  File "/home/aquarius/bin/yt-dlp/yt_dlp/utils/_utils.py", line 2427, in <lambda>
  File "/home/aquarius/bin/yt-dlp/yt_dlp/utils/_utils.py", line 2195, in __getitem__
  File "/home/aquarius/bin/yt-dlp/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py", line 4933, in _entries
    response = self._extract_response(
  File "/home/aquarius/bin/yt-dlp/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py", line 944, in _extract_response
    for retry in self.RetryManager():
  File "/home/aquarius/bin/yt-dlp/yt_dlp/utils/_utils.py", line 5112, in __iter__
  File "/home/aquarius/bin/yt-dlp/yt_dlp/extractor/common.py", line 3760, in _error_or_warning
    RetryManager.report_retry(
  File "/home/aquarius/bin/yt-dlp/yt_dlp/utils/_utils.py", line 5120, in report_retry
yt_dlp.utils.ExtractorError: Incomplete data received

[youtube:tab] Playlist Exandria Unlimited: Kymal: Downloading 3 items of 2
[debug] The information of all playlist entries will be held in memory
[download] Downloading item 1 of 3
[download] Downloading item 2 of 3
[download] Finished downloading playlist: Exandria Unlimited: Kymal
{"id": "PL1tiwbzkOjQwgI-BPd0nujKfVkCag3xFf", "title": "Exandria Unlimited: Kymal", "availability": "public", "channel_follower_count": null, "description": "", "tags": [], "thumbnails": [{"url": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/l7SKWVq-jIg/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEWCKgBEF5IWvKriqkDCQgBFQAAiEIYAQ==&rs=AOn4CLBT32UGrM2Tqpe7s33qdytjS7P9Zg", "height": 94, "width": 168, "id": "0", "resolution": "168x94"}, {"url": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/l7SKWVq-jIg/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEWCMQBEG5IWvKriqkDCQgBFQAAiEIYAQ==&rs=AOn4CLCmcD3sfXb7oMv_RafJN03k7Zx70Q", "height": 110, "width": 196, "id": "1", "resolution": "196x110"}, {"url": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/l7SKWVq-jIg/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEXCPYBEIoBSFryq4qpAwkIARUAAIhCGAE=&rs=AOn4CLAbstB9qmaKsecRtnoPYyVadAwn6w", "height": 138, "width": 246, "id": "2", "resolution": "246x138"}, {"url": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/l7SKWVq-jIg/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEXCNACELwBSFryq4qpAwkIARUAAIhCGAE=&rs=AOn4CLDKX9VuKXlRu6DyBITHEYunFNvC9w", "height": 188, "width": 336, "id": "3", "resolution": "336x188"}], "modified_date": "20220405", "view_count": 145063, "playlist_count": 2, "channel": "Critical Role", "channel_id": "UCpXBGqwsBkpvcYjsJBQ7LEQ", "uploader_id": "@criticalrole", "uploader": "Critical Role", "channel_url": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpXBGqwsBkpvcYjsJBQ7LEQ", "uploader_url": "https://www.youtube.com/@criticalrole", "_type": "playlist", "entries": [{"_type": "url", "ie_key": "Youtube", "id": "l7SKWVq-jIg", "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7SKWVq-jIg", "title": "Exandria Unlimited: Kymal | Part 1", "description": null, "duration": 15966, "channel_id": "UCpXBGqwsBkpvcYjsJBQ7LEQ", "channel": "Critical Role", "channel_url": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpXBGqwsBkpvcYjsJBQ7LEQ", "uploader": "Critical Role", "uploader_id": "@criticalrole", "uploader_url": "https://www.youtube.com/@criticalrole", "thumbnails": [{"url": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/l7SKWVq-jIg/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEbCKgBEF5IVfKriqkDDggBFQAAiEIYAXABwAEG&rs=AOn4CLCTHrIg2dsWhdhBUczkJ6YCtIvWuA", "height": 94, "width": 168}, {"url": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/l7SKWVq-jIg/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEbCMQBEG5IVfKriqkDDggBFQAAiEIYAXABwAEG&rs=AOn4CLAPPsyHJ_zLbINH5Bj_EizUd_JBFA", "height": 110, "width": 196}, {"url": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/l7SKWVq-jIg/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEcCPYBEIoBSFXyq4qpAw4IARUAAIhCGAFwAcABBg==&rs=AOn4CLBLXJCGJa__hs4kKBdezOgJXLrdgA", "height": 138, "width": 246}, {"url": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/l7SKWVq-jIg/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEcCNACELwBSFXyq4qpAw4IARUAAIhCGAFwAcABBg==&rs=AOn4CLBMxPROxnMFhsLAEHXBwE-ArJrZFg", "height": 188, "width": 336}], "timestamp": null, "release_timestamp": null, "availability": null, "view_count": 903000, "live_status": null, "channel_is_verified": null, "__x_forwarded_for_ip": null}, {"_type": "url", "ie_key": "Youtube", "id": "E-0bSdoPj5o", "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-0bSdoPj5o", "title": "Exandria Unlimited: Kymal | Part 2", "description": null, "duration": 17645, "channel_id": "UCpXBGqwsBkpvcYjsJBQ7LEQ", "channel": "Critical Role", "channel_url": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpXBGqwsBkpvcYjsJBQ7LEQ", "uploader": "Critical Role", "uploader_id": "@criticalrole", "uploader_url": "https://www.youtube.com/@criticalrole", "thumbnails": [{"url": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/E-0bSdoPj5o/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEbCKgBEF5IVfKriqkDDggBFQAAiEIYAXABwAEG&rs=AOn4CLCtABgAEqt2uIMHBNmGOl-QYtewSg", "height": 94, "width": 168}, {"url": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/E-0bSdoPj5o/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEbCMQBEG5IVfKriqkDDggBFQAAiEIYAXABwAEG&rs=AOn4CLA8CX3O2ydFXuzOF7XerNu8nzjgUw", "height": 110, "width": 196}, {"url": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/E-0bSdoPj5o/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEcCPYBEIoBSFXyq4qpAw4IARUAAIhCGAFwAcABBg==&rs=AOn4CLCGeEicO2uo1HtD_pW5PnqYsWsKQw", "height": 138, "width": 246}, {"url": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/E-0bSdoPj5o/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEcCNACELwBSFXyq4qpAw4IARUAAIhCGAFwAcABBg==&rs=AOn4CLCOwRmzk5veeyUtggdMcxjm2xHrcw", "height": 188, "width": 336}], "timestamp": null, "release_timestamp": null, "availability": null, "view_count": 561000, "live_status": null, "channel_is_verified": null, "__x_forwarded_for_ip": null}, null], "extractor_key": "YoutubeTab", "extractor": "youtube:tab", "webpage_url": "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1tiwbzkOjQwgI-BPd0nujKfVkCag3xFf", "original_url": "PL1tiwbzkOjQwgI-BPd0nujKfVkCag3xFf", "webpage_url_basename": "playlist", "webpage_url_domain": "youtube.com", "requested_entries": [1, 2, 3], "epoch": 1695678694, "__files_to_move": {}, "_version": {"version": "2023.09.24", "current_git_head": null, "release_git_head": "088add9567d39b758737e4299a0e619fd89d2e8f", "repository": "yt-dlp/yt-dlp"}}