I use youtube-dl to download videos for watching later offline. Usually, it works fine. However, due to frequent changes on the video sites, it sometimes requires a quick update. It wasn't a problem before on 13.04 but after upgrading to 13.10, I get
# youtube-dl -U
It looks like you installed youtube-dl with a package manager, pip, setup.py or a tarball. Please use that to update.I tried updating it via apt-get but there is no new package. So the app's update mechanism has been disabled and the maintainers aren't keeping up, what is the solution? How do I update it?
And why was it changed at all? It was updating a package manager version just fine in raring.
I'm already running into compatibility problems.
$ youtube-dl ""
[vimeo] 55784152: Downloading webpage
[vimeo] 55784152: Extracting information
ERROR: Unable to extract info section; please report this issue on . Be sure to call youtube-dl with the --verbose flag and include its complete output. Make sure you are using the latest version; type youtube-dl -U to update.QUICK UPDATE:
As requested,
# type youtube-dl
youtube-dl is hashed (/usr/bin/youtube-dl)
# apt-cache policy youtube-dl
youtube-dl: Installed: 2013.08.29-1 Candidate: 2013.08.29-1 Version table: *** 2013.08.29-1 0 500 saucy/universe amd64 Packages 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status9 Answers
First, uninstall the apt version.
sudo apt-get remove youtube-dlThen, install youtube-dl with pip.
sudo apt-get install python3-pip
pip3 install --user youtube-dlTo update it afterwards, for Ubuntu 20.04+ (Python 3 being the default Python) try:
pip3 install --upgrade youtube-dlIf you are using an older version of Ubuntu, or specifically want to use Python2, try:
pip install --upgrade youtube-dlNote: this assumes you have pip or pip3 installed. Avoid using sudo pip3 (use virtualenv instead).
Using pip is a way to install youtube-dl, as reported on the official youtube-dl website, and the --upgrade option makes sure you end up with the latest available version installed.
To find out where youtube-dl has been installed, you can use the pip3 show youtube-dl command (see here and here).
I installed youtube-dl following the official homepage instructions: because youtube-dl installed via sudo apt-get install didn't allow sudo youtube-dl -U.
To get youtube-dl from source:
sudo curl -L -o /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/youtube-dlNow, sudo youtube-dl -U works without problems and I currently see:
$ youtube-dl --version
2021.12.17There you'll also find alternatives using wget, pip3 or Homebrew.
Try ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8.
I do get upgrades every couple of days and I think, according to the message You get, that it should solve/answer Your question.
If You did an upgrade from 13.04 to 13.10 You might have forgot (I guess) to update sources-list.d folder, for example, if You used WebUpd8 before.
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install youtube-dlI had a similar problem with youtube-dl.
Using super user privileges in order to update it might solve your problem:
sudo youtube-dl -Utry the following:
sudo apt-get install python-setuptools
sudo easy_install pip
sudo pip install --upgrade youtube-dlthen if you still get an error do this:
wget -O - | sudo tee /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl >/dev/null
sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/youtube-dlUbuntu 14.04 and later
The youtube-dl snap package (youtube-dl) is updated automatically in all currently supported versions of Ubuntu. To install it open the terminal and type:
sudo snap install youtube-dl # start with snap run youtube-dl
Show the version of youtube-dl snap package with snap run youtube-dl --version
Gydl (Graphical Youtube-dl) is a GUI wrapper around the already existing youtube-dl program. To install Gydl in all currently supported versions of Ubuntu open the terminal and type:
sudo snap install gydlWhen using Gydl, you have the option to download your YouTube video as a Video or Audio.
To get the latest youtube-dl one can install GetDeb repository. For details about installing in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, see here.
To get the difference between getdeb and official Ubuntu versions of youtube-dl, consider this output (as of 23.09.2016):
$ apt-cache policy youtube-dl
youtube-dl: Installed: 1:2016.09.19-1~getdeb1 Candidate: 1:2016.09.19-1~getdeb1 Version table: *** 1:2016.09.19-1~getdeb1 500 500 xenial-getdeb/apps amd64 Packages 500 xenial-getdeb/apps i386 Packages 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status 2016.02.22-1 500 500 xenial/universe amd64 Packages 500 xenial/universe i386 PackagesIn above output, 2016.09.19-1 shows getdeb version and 2016.02.22-1 shows official Ubuntu version.
As of 2017-11-11, if you are using Ubuntu, it seems that precise and trusty have too old versions of youtube-dl .
However, using the version from Xenial works. Otherwise, I'd suggest to install the latest version manually, as suggested in other answers.
Since youtube-dl autoupdate is disabled, try
sudo apt upgrade youtube-dl
