Platform-Specific Notes

Platform-Specific Notes

Load this reference when processing non-YouTube URLs or when a YouTube operation behaves unexpectedly.

YouTube

Primary platform. All subcommands fully supported.

Quirks:

• ytsearchdate: was removed in Feb 2026 (PR #15959). Date-sorted search is no longer available; use --after/--before client-side filtering on ytsearch: results instead.
• --flat-playlist on channels returns limited per-video metadata (no description, no like_count). Follow up with individual metadata calls when full detail is needed.
• Auto-generated captions are available for most English-language videos. Other languages vary. Always check --lang all before assuming availability.
• Age-restricted content requires --cookies <browser> with an authenticated browser session.
• Private and unlisted videos require cookies from an account with access.
• YouTube Shorts are accessible via --tab shorts on channel scans. They have standard video IDs and subtitles work normally despite the short format.
• Live streams in progress: yt-dlp downloads the currently available segment range, not a continuous recording. For ongoing live capture, external tooling is needed.

Vimeo

Supported for metadata, transcript, and audio extraction.

Quirks:

• Subtitle availability is lower than YouTube. Many Vimeo videos have no captions.
• Some videos are password-protected; yt-dlp supports --video-password <pw>.
• Private videos on Vimeo use token-based URLs; the full URL with token must be provided.
• Channel/user page scanning works but is less reliable than YouTube.

Twitter / X

Supported for video extraction from tweets.

Quirks:

• Requires cookies for most content (--cookies chrome or similar). Twitter aggressively rate-limits unauthenticated requests.
• No subtitle/transcript support — Twitter videos rarely have captions.
• Audio extraction works normally.
• Search is not supported through yt-dlp; use the Twitter API or twitter skill for discovery, then pass individual tweet URLs to yt_research.py for extraction.

Podcast Feeds

yt-dlp supports some podcast platforms and direct audio URLs.

Quirks:

• RSS/podcast feed URLs may not work directly. Extract individual episode URLs first.
• Spotify is not supported by yt-dlp (DRM-protected).
• Apple Podcasts pages can sometimes be extracted; results vary.
• For reliable podcast transcript extraction, download audio via audio subcommand and use Whisper or another transcription tool separately.

Other Platforms

yt-dlp supports 1000+ extractors. Most video platforms work for metadata and download. Common ones: Dailymotion, Twitch (VODs and clips), Reddit (video posts), Instagram (reels/posts with video), TikTok, Bilibili, PeerTube.

General guidance: try the URL directly. If it fails, check yt-dlp --list-extractors for the platform name and yt-dlp --extractor-descriptions for details.