The VideoLAN Forums

so guys, is there any news about the fix for this problem of youtube in vlc?

With the new version of VLC and new luac, streaming YouTube works (for the most part - one video didn't work?). Make sure you move old unused/backup luac files out of the playlist directory, don't just leave them in there.
https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=161198

With the new version of VLC and new luac, streaming YouTube works (for the most part - one video didn't work?). Make sure you move old unused/backup luac files out of the playlist directory, don't just leave them in there.
https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=161198

what do you mean by a new version of vlc and luac scripit? and the version I'm in, which according to what I've seen is the latest, is giving this error:
lua error: Couldn't extract youtube video URL, please check for updates to this script

What do I do?

hi guys, one thing I would like to know, about this problem with Youtube, is there any news about when it will be solved?
because currently, whatever Lua file I use in my VLC will give me this error: "Couldn't descramble YouTube throttling URL parameter: data transfer will get throttled"

It's a cat and mouse game, Youtube periodically changes its algorithm so third party programs have to adapt, then Youtube changes again, etc etc...

It's a cat and mouse game, Youtube periodically changes its algorithm so third party programs have to adapt, then Youtube changes again, etc etc...

but then, when do you think VLC will be able to play youtube videos again?
and is there any news about this?

Whenever somebody bothers to look into it and figures out how to fix it, and until it breaks at the next update.

Your guess is as good as anybody's.

So the new lua file worked - I can at least open a media stream from youtube. However when I paste the codec information inot a new tab on my browser I get access denied, error 403. Is there another way to save youtubes now? Thanks

so, it is already March 2023 and VLC still has the problem of "Couldn't descramble YouTube throttling URL parameter: data transfer will get throttled"
I miss the time when I could play youtube in vlc, when will these times come back?

is there at least some new news about this or any solution?

For me, with the latest youtube script (about from october of 2022) that I upgraded to 3.0.18, I did not came on problems. Check your scripts and
find if maybe you got another thing preventing vlc to play YT videos. Or the debuging mode. Even wmp 12 (that hasn't update on a decade) can open youtube links (if you save them on vlc and .mp3u format, and export it to an a file).

I am somewhat confused, I keep seeing very recent youtube videos showing this method working, with many comments saying it is working as well, but it is not working for me and for most people on this forum. What am I missing? Are those YT videos and comments fake?

I am somewhat confused, I keep seeing very recent youtube videos showing this method working, with many comments saying it is working as well, but it is not working for me and for most people on this forum. What am I missing? Are those YT videos and comments fake?

that is also what I would like to know, because it's not working for me either

For me, with the latest youtube script (about from october of 2022) that I upgraded to 3.0.18, I did not came on problems. Check your scripts and
find if maybe you got another thing preventing vlc to play YT videos. Or the debuging mode. Even wmp 12 (that hasn't update on a decade) can open youtube links (if you save them on vlc and .mp3u format, and export it to an a file).

where do I find this script that you use?

YouTube behaves differently for different videos and potentially different geographies. Also Google most probably performs A/B testing. It is not surprising at all that it works for some and not others.

Ultimately, this is a losing battle. The only reliable ways to play YouTube videos are Chrome and official YouTube apps.

YouTube behaves differently for different videos and potentially different geographies. Also Google most probably performs A/B testing. It is not surprising at all that it works for some and not others.

Ultimately, this is a losing battle. The only reliable ways to play YouTube videos are Chrome and official YouTube apps.

I agree with you. Of course VLC with proper lua script can play YT, but some people unfortunatelly having problems
even with proper scripts, latest versions, etc.. It's just how google manages algorithm.

For me, with the latest youtube script (about from october of 2022) that I upgraded to 3.0.18, I did not came on problems. Check your scripts and
find if maybe you got another thing preventing vlc to play YT videos. Or the debuging mode. Even wmp 12 (that hasn't update on a decade) can open youtube links (if you save them on vlc and .mp3u format, and export it to an a file).

where do I find this script that you use?

It's on GitHub, the official. if you search about "VLC Youtube lua Script", you gonna find it. After, put the file onto C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\playlist ,
and re-write the previous.

For me, with the latest youtube script (about from october of 2022) that I upgraded to 3.0.18, I did not came on problems. Check your scripts and
find if maybe you got another thing preventing vlc to play YT videos. Or the debuging mode. Even wmp 12 (that hasn't update on a decade) can open youtube links (if you save them on vlc and .mp3u format, and export it to an a file).

where do I find this script that you use?

its on that list, actuall : https://github.com/videolan/vlc/tree/ma ... a/playlist

YouTube behaves differently for different videos and potentially different geographies. Also Google most probably performs A/B testing. It is not surprising at all that it works for some and not others.

Ultimately, this is a losing battle. The only reliable ways to play YouTube videos are Chrome and official YouTube apps.

but it will be possible for VLC get right on that and be able to play youtube video again?

I've been trying to play YouTube in VLC as well (because I want to show SRT subtitles with it), but it gets weirder: VLC for Android (version 3.5.4) will play YouTube streams just fine (including SRT), even in an Android emulator like BlueStacks, but VLC for Windows (3.0.18 Vetinari) fails to play the very same YouTube videos.

To follow up on my previous message, it looks like Penguin Subtitle Player might be capable of what I described...

I had the same problem, and tried replacing the youtube.lua file to no effect.

I downloaded the most recent V4 daily, thinking that I could run that and see if it worked. Big, big, BIG mistake. I don't know exactly what it did, but after trying to run it, V3.0.18 didn't work right. (No, I didn't install V4 in the same directory.) I had to do a lot of cleanup work, deinstall V3, re-installed K-Lite codec pack, and dropped back to V3.0.15 for now.

However, once I got all of the crap cleaned out, I was able to go into the VLC directory, rename youtube.luac to youtube.luac.disable (just in case I have to put it back), took a copy of the V4 youtube.lua, put it into the V3 directory, and named it youtube.luac: and when I started up V3 and entered a youtube URL it worked. I've tried two URLs so far, and both work. So the instructions for doing the fix are correct: but you might have to do some cleanup work to make sure you really have a completely clean installation of V3. And don't run a daily build of V4 unless you're willing to take a chance on messing up your system, at least on Windows 7. (Editorial comment: the new interface in V4 is an abomination, but that should be discussed elsewhere.)

I'm assuming (you all know what that can mean) that V3.0.18 will work when I upgrade to it, which will be my next test.

I can also confirm that yt-dlp has not been affected, I just tried it and it downloaded a youtube video with no problems.

I'm just arriving here from another thread, and I apologize for my limited knowledge of all of this.

Am I understanding correctly that there is no longer any way to "rip" or download a YouTube video to my computer? I am running VLC on Windows 11. If that's the case, will any other programs besides VLC do this? I used to use this all the time and very bummed that it stopped working.

I can follow instructions to a tee, but am not a coder or computer expert, myself. Just need to be able to download some YouTube videos to a regular video format to feature in my business' 20th anniversary show next year and hope that someone here can walk me through how to do that!

Thanks so much,
- Lindsey

As I stated in my most recent post, the instructions worked for me. Also, if you can use the Windows command line, yt-dlp is again downloading youtube videos. It will also download the captions / subtitles if there are any. For VLC to work, you have to get the lua file from a version of VLC newer than 3.0.18 (but I strongly advise only using the lua file, don't install a newer version of VLC) and copy that to the VLC directory as has been described. It worked for me, and others have said it works for them. You don't have to be an "expert", but you do have to know how to move around the directories in a Windows system.

If you can't get through that, but you can open a Windows Command window, download yt-dlp.exe (this seems to be a pretty good site for an explanation of how to do this: <https://www.rapidseedbox.com/blog/yt-dlp-complete-guide>, and when it's installed, open a command window and use this command:

yt-dlp -v --write-auto-sub "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6vGs3YnYPY"

of course, replacing the URL with the video of your choice. This will choose the highest resolution available for video and audio.

yt-dlp will also download entire lists of videos if you enter a URL for a play list.

If you want to limit the size of the video that is downloaded, you can do this:

yt-dlp -v --write-auto-sub -f "bv*[height<=1080]+ba/b" -N 4 "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6vGs3YnYPY"

This will limit the size to 1080, or the largest size available that doesn't exceed 1080.

If you have problems playing VP9 video, you can do this:

yt-dlp -v -f "bv*[height<=1080][vcodec^=avc1]+ba*[ext=m4a]" -N 4 ""

But you should will probably want to re-read the various entries here. You really don't have to know a lot about computers to fix the problem.

If you're not stuck to VLC and just want to download a YouTube video for later use, the web is filled with free online tools that can do this. They come and go, but a quick Google search for "download YouTube video" is sure to lead you to one. Just be careful the ads don't lead you to malware...