yt-dlp: [youtube] Unable to download video data: HTTP Error 403: Forbidden

Checklist

  • I’m asking a question and not reporting a bug or requesting a feature
  • I’ve looked through the README
  • I’ve searched the bugtracker for similar questions including closed ones. DO NOT post duplicates
  • I’ve read the guidelines for opening an issue

Question

Hello. I have a problem downloading some videos from YouTube via yt-dlp. When I try to download it I get the following error: unable to download video data: HTTP Error 403: Forbidden. I read about this error and some tips like remove cache (–rm-chache-dir), but it did not help. I even deleted the cache manually. Such error is not with all of them, but with some videos. I hope for your help. What i can do. Thank you in advance.

Verbose log

yt-dlp -U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwCEafBfEEM
Latest version: 2022.05.18, Current version: 2022.05.18
yt-dlp is up to date (2022.05.18)
[youtube] YwCEafBfEEM: Downloading webpage
[youtube] YwCEafBfEEM: Downloading android player API JSON
[info] YwCEafBfEEM: Downloading 1 format(s): 313+251
[download] Resuming download at byte 1580517
ERROR: unable to download video data: HTTP Error 403: Forbidden

About this issue

  • Original URL
  • State: closed
  • Created 2 years ago
  • Comments: 64 (17 by maintainers)

Most upvoted comments

If turn on vpn and try it, it’s downloading. The strange thing is that other videos can be downloaded without vpn.

[debug] yt-dlp version stable@2023.03.04 [392389b] (pip)

@fillwithjoy1 you are running an old version

@coletdjnz Any idea what else could be cause this? If the issue is #1986, I wouldn’t expect a 403

even if it’s not #1986, it’s almost certainly fixed by #1986

Just so there is no confusion, I don’t mean the googlevideo.com URL, but https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwCEafBfEEM

This link works in incognito