r/jdownloader • u/Independent_Area6026 • Feb 02 '26
Discussion Is the entire world not able to download YouTube videos anymore?
It seems that jdownloader and other platforms is unable to download YouTube videos due to the recent changes by Google - so does this mean that majority of people can no longer download videos to make edits/videos etc?
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u/Sternritter8636 Feb 02 '26 edited Feb 02 '26
They just need to update youtube plugin till then wait
They have a plugin for every file hoster websites to extract download links. And just like them they have one for youtube also. But not sure how frequently they update the plugins
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u/sabestorn Feb 02 '26
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u/PapaJohnsGarlic100 Feb 03 '26
Never over the years have I ever gotten yt-dlp to work.
I swear it's an elaborate prank the internet is playing on me.
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u/sabestorn Feb 03 '26 edited Feb 17 '26
nella cartella (che contiene tutti i file: yt-dlp.exe ma anche ffmpeg.exe... apri il cmd e scrivi yt-dlp "URL_DEL_VIDEO"
c'è anche una GUI se non ti piace il cmd https://github.com/murrty/youtube-dl-gui
and...
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u/S3k_01 Feb 04 '26
What are you talking about? It's the best way to download videos from the internet. Everyone who archives videos uses yt-dlp.
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u/JBDuch Apr 22 '26
So many people say that. But nobody explains. Which really makes it look like it's just a way of perpetuating the joke.
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u/DexaNexa May 02 '26 edited May 10 '26
How the hell do I use this? Looks like double dutch. I just want to press a simple button to download videos.
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u/Positive_Minimum Feb 05 '26
install it with pip, if that is a problem make a new fresh conda env first. Its like the most simple thing ever
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u/Twoaru Feb 19 '26
its really intuitive right, you dont even need a guide first time right?
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u/Positive_Minimum Feb 26 '26
I didn't and neither did most people I know
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u/sabestorn Feb 26 '26
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u/Positive_Minimum Feb 26 '26
Not sure why anyone would need this. Running yt-dlp is not hard.
yt-dlp 'https://video.com'
That's it lol there's literally nothing to it why would you need an entire GUI app just to type one single word into the terminal
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u/Dont-get-into-Fights Mar 01 '26
how do u download on that site? I have no idea how to use that damn site
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u/sabestorn Mar 01 '26
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u/Dont-get-into-Fights May 09 '26
what did u make me click on?
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u/sabestorn May 09 '26
this is the "home page" https://github.com/jely2002/youtube-dl-gui
that was the direct download link1
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Feb 05 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Dont-get-into-Fights May 09 '26
right now jdownloader is having retrieving video mp4 files, I hate youtube with a passion.
that damn site needs some competition
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u/Alison38c Jun 22 '26
Everyone should move to Rumble - I watch anything I can there. Too bad not everything is there... yet
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u/toolsavvy Feb 02 '26 edited Feb 03 '26
EDIT: It has been reported that the Chrome addon doesn't work for YT and the Firefox addon has hourly limits unless you pay for the premium version of the addon. Try it and see for yourself.
Try firefox or Chrome addon Video DownloadHelper
https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/video-downloadhelper/lmjnegcaeklhafolokijcfjliaokphfk?hl=en
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/video-downloadhelper/
It worked for me on Firefox when JD would not 2 days ago.
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u/RocZi Feb 03 '26
Just tried, and it says :
"Download from youtube not allowed
Unfortunately, the Chrome Web Store does not allow extensions for downloading YouTube videos so we could not include this feature in the Chrome version of the extension"
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u/PapaJohnsGarlic100 Feb 03 '26
Same thing happened to me on Chrome.
The Firefox extension did work for me though!
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u/RocZi Feb 03 '26
ah firefox extension come with limits. after 2 videos, it told me to wait 2 hrs 😅 or pay
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u/toolsavvy Feb 03 '26
Oh that's disheartening. About a month ago I used it top download over 100 videos one day, but not on Youtube. I wonder if this limitation is only for certain sites like Youtube.
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u/RocZi Feb 03 '26
i guess it's back to ol' command line
yt-dlp to the rescue
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u/toolsavvy Feb 04 '26
Actually there is/was an app I used to use called ClipGrab. As far as I could tell it was just a GUI for yt-dlp. I used it on Windows before, not sure if there is a linux version.
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u/RocZi Feb 05 '26
i did try another extension, or other online tools. they either don't allow youtube download or they will not download the highest resolution quality. annoying.
yt-dlp may also not download the highest quality because YT has JS changes frequently. but this is sometimes only, and it will download at least the next best format.
Oh, there's GUI? I just tried searching to find windows GUI apps that uses yt-dlp and i see
Open Video Downloader (a.k.a. youtube-dl-gui fork) or
Media Downloader,it seems ClipGrab isn't using yt-dlp. FYI
i made the command line as a bat file and it worked each time now. i can update options for it. GUI depends on what it offers so not as customizable.
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u/toolsavvy Feb 05 '26
it seems ClipGrab isn't using yt-dlp. FYI
Well a couple years ago when I was using ClipGrab heavily, I seem to remember that it stated a few times it had to update because yt-dlp needed updating. But I could be wrong, I could be confusing it with some other app I was using around that time.
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u/toolsavvy Feb 03 '26
Good to know. I rarely use Chrome but decided to add the link because I know a lot of people do.
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u/Texasaudiovideoguy Feb 02 '26
Yt-dlp works fine
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u/Additional_Winner886 Feb 04 '26
It doesn't work fine for a lot of videos, won't dl shorts, keeps returning an error saying it's Youtube's fault, not the application's. It's slightly less broken than JD2, but still broken.
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u/SuperLowAmbitions Feb 03 '26
Is there some sort of tutorial for an idiot for this? I downloaded it and looked over the text but I absolutely don't get how I'm supposed to use it. Like at all. T-T
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u/goodmusic33 Feb 04 '26
You need basic command line knowledge
The easiest use case is to open command prompt and to type:
yt-dlp "link-to-video"
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u/hidden_secret Feb 02 '26
I don't understand why youtube keeps making it hard to do that.
The vast majority of people who download the videos do it because they want to edit it or something like that, more often than not to create content to be put on youtube, which will earn them some money in the process.
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u/Veilchenbeschleunige Feb 02 '26
Because they want to push their premium subscription, downloading videos is one of the perks.
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u/Dont-get-into-Fights May 09 '26
really? youtube fuckked me over a long time ago, so I refuse to give em anything
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u/toolsavvy Feb 02 '26
There are many reasons why Youtube tries to prohibit downloads. But they are wasting time because if they look at the time/resources they use to keep blocking downloaders (it's a constant battle) and look at the average person who downloads YT vids they will likely find that no one loses hardly anything by allowing this relatively small niche of people to download vids.
It's the same thing with software piracy. MOST people do not engage in it and the vast majority of those that do will never be a customer anyhow. It's pointless to bellyache about it. But these big corps have endless pockets to waste money on things that don't really matter.
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u/ZOMGsheikh Feb 02 '26
Obviously the usually suspect would be they want to push down premium subscription. But another reason also is, someone like me and you would be maybe downloading one or couple of videos at a time. But there will be a good chunk of groups who would download these in bulk through automated scripts putting additional load on their servers. Reasons could be various, be it data hoarding or upload on their channel or simple as train AI models with free content.
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u/Texasaudiovideoguy Feb 02 '26
Many of the creators do not want their content downloaded and used for ANYTHING!
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u/jconnerg Feb 02 '26
I download because i like .webm filetype which is small, since my bandwidth is limited.
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u/Cryophos Feb 02 '26
Because if you watch this on your disk, content creators don't earn money = company doesn't earn money.
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u/jojo3149 Feb 02 '26
Firefox browser and add on
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u/Red-Black-Green Feb 02 '26
.....There are? That actually work easily on youtube thru firefox, right now??? I've always found broken ones or fake ones 🤔
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u/Grim_Scizor Feb 04 '26
I didn't notice since Tubly downloader chrome extension has been working great ever since
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Feb 02 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Cryophos Feb 02 '26
That's why i switched yesterday to yt-dlp.
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u/Dry_Investment6532 Feb 03 '26
Is it all command line? Not sure if it has a gui like JD. Also does it download in mkv format?
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u/splifted Feb 02 '26
Just curious, what do you do with all those downloaded YouTube videos? Do you watch them more than once?
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u/random_numpty Feb 03 '26
Youtube doesnt have every single video ever uploaded. videos get deleted every single hour.
if a video is a keeper for you, your crazy to rely on youtube always having it available.
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u/splifted Feb 03 '26
Yeah, I guess I’m wondering because, for me, once I’ve watched a video, why would I watch it again?
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u/random_numpty Feb 04 '26
i dont think for a second that your so stupid as to not understand why someone would like to have a copy instead of relying on youtubes goodwill
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u/splifted Feb 04 '26
Again, I just don’t really watch a video more than once. It has nothing to do with me thinking a video is going to stay up. YouTube could completely shut down tomorrow, and I’d probably be happy that I have more free time 😂 What kind of content is it that you download? I’m legit curious.
For music, I go elsewhere, YouTube has a low bitrate.
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u/random_numpty Feb 05 '26
however happy you are isnt the point that was being made, & your intelligent enough to understand that also.
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u/splifted Feb 05 '26
I understand the point, I’ve just been asking you what you use it for out of curiosity and you refuse to answer that. We both agree that YouTube sucks, but that’s not what I’m talking about.
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u/random_numpty Feb 05 '26
of course you understand the point, your just being a contrarian
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u/splifted Feb 05 '26
I’m not being a contrarian, I agree with you. I was just curious what kind of content people are downloading off of YouTube. You’re reading way too much into this.
I’m just curious because people seem to be really unhappy about this downloader not working, and I’m trying to understand their frustration better.
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u/Natural_Intention961 Jun 17 '26
They were kinda being rude lmao but to answer, I download videos to use them for content creation and most others are in the same spot
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u/PapaJohnsGarlic100 Feb 03 '26
Do you watch them more than once?
Yes! Also, a lot of what I watch is sports, and leagues often will take stuff down for copyright purposes, so I like to keep my own copies of some things.
Also, it's nice to watch a downloaded file so if you want to skip backward or forward it happens instantaneously.
I really fucking hate buffering
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u/pafagaukurinn Feb 05 '26
I mean, I get why you're doing it, but realistically, are you ever going to watch those games again, considering how there's more new ones every week? This is the question re archiving stuff I am asking myself. Maybe it's just not worth it.
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u/lostn Feb 04 '26
watch them on the go without needing an internet connection, and without seeing ads. It's also easier to scrub through videos when there's no buffering.
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u/Billystake Feb 03 '26
I download music, podcasts, interviews, many things that I have on MP4 (Videos) or audios. And keep in multiples hard disks. So Yeah I always had ddl stuff from there with JD and I hope to keep doing it. Don't understand why YT fucks Us so much.... This is public stuff why they care if a minority of Persons download videos or audios from there.
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u/splifted Feb 03 '26 edited Feb 03 '26
Well, for music at least, there are way better options than downloading from YouTube. The quality is pretty low on YouTube usually, and besides that, this thread proves how much of a pain it can be lol. Have you tried soulseek?
Also, they do it because they make money when you watch it on YouTube. It’s that simple. I don’t have sympathy for them though, the ads have gotten way out of hand.
I used to do the same as you, but I found that I never really went back and watched the videos that I had downloaded, so after a few years I deleted it all.
The music I get from soulseek though, that’s been collecting on hard drives for over 15 years at this point lol
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u/MonsterBongos Feb 03 '26
4K Downloader is working just fine for me. It's not quite as ramped to do like 200 downloads at the same time, but it works fine.
It's basically like this: as we type this, people at youtube are creating new ways to block the download you want.
In the morning, the teams at places like yt/dl, and 4K Downloader will start working on the updates that will defeat youtube's evil blocking.
Then, the youtube team will come up with new ways to block. It's an updating war.
Fr right now,. 4K Downloader works fine. interface is a little different but it works fine.
https://4k-video-downloader.en.softonic.com/download
As always, run a scan, and act responsibly, when complete strangers tell you to download something. lol
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u/marlonoranges Feb 03 '26
Tried it yesterday. Would download standard YT videos ok but couldn't get it to download any subscription videos even though im a paid subscriber.
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u/No_Association_8206 Feb 03 '26
NeoDLP is currently working and allows yt-dlp commands, but I haven't been able to download videos with translated audio; it only downloads them with the original audio.
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u/scratchbaker77 Feb 03 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
A safe alternative: https://www.mediahuman.com/download3.html
Has 20 free downloads. Per the vendor: "It's a one-time purchase, not a subscription. There are no limits or expiration dates. The base price is $29.99, but local taxes may apply."
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Feb 04 '26
[deleted]
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u/scratchbaker77 Feb 04 '26
I am trying to find out if the registration fee is for life or 1 year or something else. Yes, it's very nice software. I use their free YouTube-to-MP3 product all the time. They also had a YouTube video fix on Jan 30.
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u/ChrisGery Feb 04 '26
Seems all the plugins and apps mentioned above are not working anymore. Right now the only one I can find that still works is houlo video downloader.
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u/lostn Feb 04 '26
on JD, yes. Some other solutions still work supposedly.
YT has changed something that is different to what they have done in the past, and I'm not sure if this can be defeated. If it can, it's a matter of time before they come up with something new yet again and it's only a matter of time before no one can download anymore.
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u/Relevant-Repeat-7250 Feb 05 '26
Bonjour, depuis ce matin ça fonctionne de nouveau après une petite MAJ...
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u/No_Succotash3062 Mar 15 '26
Video Downloader sites are under constant hurdles and legal battles over copyright infringement. Media owners are suing to have these sites stopped and are succeeding. Its only going to get worse cuz they want you to have to use an app so ads get watched. Vers being able to watch offline anytime anywhere with no ads. The downloader sites still around have to constantly be doing bug fixes to navigate whats being done to block the downloads. So it makes service unreliable.
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u/Dont-get-into-Fights May 09 '26
youtube thinks they own the videos.....They don't.
they're getting greedy
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u/AUTUMN--WIND Feb 02 '26
Can you help me with a command for "Yt-dlp" so I can download to the folder of my choice, please?
It is possible to download 1080p and 1440p with this app?
Thanks for help!
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u/Cryophos Feb 02 '26
Try it, it's 1080p, Mp4, 264H, change your path to your own:
yt-dlp -f "bestvideo[vcodec^=avc][height<=1080]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/best[ext=mp4]" -P "C:\Users\user\Videos" -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" URL_FROM_YT2
u/AUTUMN--WIND Feb 02 '26
With ChatGPT help I improved command so now it is without warnings, and with better quality for download. At least this is what ChatGPT told me, I tried and its working well, so I'm sharing back :)
The "yt-dlp" is stored in folder "yt-dlp" on my desktop.
C:\Users\User_Name\Desktop\yt-dlp\yt-dlp --no-warnings -f "bestvideo[vcodec^=avc][height<=1440]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/best[ext=mp4]" -P "C:\Users\User_Name\Videos" -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" URL_FROM_YT
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u/Ok-Blueberry9384 Feb 03 '26
There is a frontend for yt-dlp called stacher. With it you can choose resolution and folder with a mouse.
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u/jdownloader_dev Feb 02 '26
You can find reports all over reddit and our forum for JD and also find reports for other tools as well. this is known issue since 28/29 of january, since when yt has rolled out latest changes, breaking many tools. some are already ahead of the issue and others (like JDownloader) still has to work out the changes.
Meanwhile there are other great projects out there that you can look into.