Unable to download YouTube video

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I have 3 separate programs to download youtube movies/videos to my hard drive. They have all worked in the past, but now none of them work. I can get videos from youtube and view them but when I enter the URL into any of the programs (eg.AnyVideo Converter Ultimate by ANVSOFT) the program tries to download but then fails. There appears to be nothing wrong with my internet but it is almost like these programs are blocked from downloading from the internet. I have checked user account control center and I see nothing in there, but somehow this seems to be suspect to me as I get a note whenever I try to go to a program that access’s the internet, requesting permission, but not from these three programs. I am using Win7 Home premium and google browser.
Alan

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Is RealPlayer installed? I’ve had to disable and/or remove any/all real player add-ons, plug-ins within Firefox, GChrome, and IE; then my downloads were hindered no more — at least not by RealPlayer. There’s also a couple of settings within RealPlayer to alter, however, I don’t have my home PC in front of me to give you the exact two settings.

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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Is RealPlayer installed? I’ve had to disable and/or remove any/all real player add-ons, plug-ins within Firefox, GChrome, and IE; then my downloads were hindered no more — at least not by RealPlayer. There’s also a couple of settings within RealPlayer to alter, however, I don’t have my home PC in front of me to give you the exact two settings.

I use Real Player to download and save any/all videos I want from websites including You Tube videos- but only with Internet Explorer; Chrome doesn’t let it work. Despite all the bad things said about Real Player, this function is the reason I use it and it works perfectly.

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My understanding is that YouTube regularly updates its settings specifically to prevent people downloading. If you provide a URL for a video as a test then I’ll see if my ‘home grown’ YouTube downloader works. If it does, I’ll let you have it.

Hope this helps…

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RickC, can you try this one, if it works, send me your downloader?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46fk02enulQ

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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Roland; I do not have real player on my computer anywhere.
Alan

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@RolandJS – Yes, it downloaded that video fine. My ‘home grown’ downloader is just an AutoHotkey (AHK) front end to a tiny little utility called youtube-dl.exe. I created it to make it easier for my Dad to download and keep his favourite videos.

Have a look at QAD YouTube Downloader for the full instructions. Hopefully I’ve made them as clear as possible. The latest version of my AHK script (v0.3) is on page 3 but to make it easier I’ve copied it to the end of this post. I’ve commented my script as much as possible so everyone can see what’s going on. I haven’t bothered making it pretty, it’s just plain and functional. The coders on the forum will no doubt note that I haven’t even bothered to add any error checking. I’m just lazy and a sloppy coder. 🙂

When run, it shows this dialog:
Download tab
38591-qad1

Update tab
38592-qad2

Hope this helps… let me know if you get any problems or if you want my AHK script already compiled as an executable.

Code:

; http://www.autohotkey.com/board/topic/102045-qad-youtube-downloader/
; 
; v0.1 (17/02/2014) was a very basic downloader.
; v0.2 (19/02/2014) added updating of youtube-dl.exe after I realised it’s updated frequently.
; v0.3 (01/03/2014) amended updating of youtube-dl.exe (Thanks to Garry)

#NoEnv                              ; Recommended for performance and compatibility with future AutoHotkey releases
SendMode Input                      ; Recommended for new scripts due to its superior speed and reliability
SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir%         ; Ensures a consistent starting directory
#SingleInstance force               ; Ensure only one instance is running

f1=%a_scriptdir%youtube-dl.exe

IfExist, %f1%                        ; Test whether youtube-dl.exe is in same folder as script
   FileGetVersion, CurrentVer, %f1%  ; Retrieve the version number of the current exe.
Else
{
MsgBox,16, Warning!, youtube-dl.exe not found in %a_scriptdir%.`n`n Can neither run nor update… ; Inform user
ExitApp                           ; Exit the app
}


; GUI stuff
Gui, Add, Tab2, x0 y0 w370 h100 , Download|Update   ; Define tab names and positions
Gui, Tab, Download                                  ; Add ‘Download’ tab to dialog
Gui, Add, Text, x8 y30 w360 h30 , Please enter/paste the YouTube URL below then click on the ‘OK’ button.
Gui, Add, Edit, x8 y50 w270 h20 vYouTubeURL,        ;Add edit box to input YouTube URL
Gui, Add, Button, x290 y50 w60 h20, OK              ; Add an ‘OK’ button
Gui, Tab, Update                                    ; Add ‘Update’ tab to dialog
Gui, Add, Text, x10 y30 w260 h60 , Current version of youtube-dl.exe is %CurrentVer%.`n`nClick on the ‘Update’ button to update youtube-dl.exe.
Gui, Add, Button, x290 y50 w60 h20 , Update         ; Add an ‘Update’ button
Gui, Show, w370 h80, QAD YouTube Downloader v0.3    ; Show the dialog
GuiControl, Focus, YouTubeURL                       ; Put the focus into the edit box
Return

Guiclose:
exitapp


; Button stuff
ButtonUpdate:                                             ; If user clicks on the Update button
Gui,submit,nohide
IfNotExist, C:Temp                                       ; If this folder doesn’t exist…
  FileCreateDir C:Temp                                   ; then create it
Ifexist,C:Tempyoutube-dl.exe
  filedelete,C:Tempyoutube-dl.exe
IfNotExist, C:Tempyoutube-dl.exe                        ; If a copy of the exe doesn’t exist…
  FileCopy, %f1%, C:Temp                                 ; then copy it
RunWait, %comspec% /c “C:Tempyoutube-dl.exe -U”,,hide   ; Download any updated exe hidden
Sleep, 6000                                               ; Wait 6 seconds for file locks to be removed

FileGetVersion, NewVer, C:Tempyoutube-dl.exe
msgbox, 262208,Update-Info, NewVer=%newver%`nCurrentver=%currentver%

If (NewVer=CurrentVer)
  {
  MsgBox, 64, QAD YouTube Downloader, % “No new version of youtube-dl.exe is available.” ; Inform user
  return
  }
else
  {
  msgbox, 262208,Update-Info, NewVer=%newver%`nCurrentver=%currentver%`nNew youtube-dl.exe available`nOld version will be renamed
  FileMove,%f1%, %a_scriptdir%%a_now%_youtube-dl.exe                                    ;- rename existing old youtube-dl.exe
  sleep,500
  FileMove, C:Tempyoutube-dl.exe, %a_scriptdir%, 1                                     ;- Move updated exe back
  MsgBox, 64, QAD YouTube Downloader, % “youtube-dl.exe has been updated.”               ;- Inform user
  return
  }
return


ButtonOK:                             ; If user clicks on the OK button
Gui, Submit,nohide                    ; Save the input from the user to each control’s associated variable
If YouTubeURL=
  {
  MsgBox, No URL detected.
  return
  }
Else
  {
  RunWait, %comspec% /c “youtube-dl.exe -t %YouTubeURL%”
  MsgBox, 64, QAD YouTube Downloader, % “The video has been downloaded.”
  youtubeurl=
  return
  }
return

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I installed Python for Windows. I cannot get youtube-dl to do as you pictured. It flashes a DOS-screen, then disappears. I have AutoHotKey in my Taskbar notification area. As is said in Finding Nemo: Now what? 🙂

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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@RolandJS

More info would be helpful…

1. I understand that you installed the Python interpreter but you didn’t mention what version you chose (so I can test…).

2. Did you reboot after installing the Python interpreter so the installation could be recognised overall by the OS?

3. Did you download the youtube-dl.exe executable and, if so, where did you store it? (It has to be in the same folder as the AHK script or compiled AHK executable… ‘cos I don’t really want to muck around with creating PATH statements…)

4. Where are you running the AHK script from? Is it the same folder as the youtube-dl.exe executable?

5. Did you see the QAD dialog and enter a URL? I’m guessing yes but confirmation would be useful.

6. What does the commandline window show? (or does it close too quickly?)

7. What version of youtube-dl.exe did you download? I’m using 2014.4.13.0 and the download of your requested video worked perfectly. As a new user you very likely have a much newer version so this could be the problem.

Hope this helps…

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Hey Guys; I think you’ve hijacked my thread.
Please get back to why my download video programs which all used to work will no longer download youtube URL’s
Alan

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@RolandJS – Alan is quite right. His thread WAS hijacked. I’m more than happy to help you sort out using my QAD YouTube Downloader script but I think it best if you start a new thread.

Hope this helps… (with apologies to Alan)

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Alan – Please see post #3 where I suggested you provide a YouTube URL for testing. I’m also using Win7 Home Premium and Google Chrome browser so I’m more than happy to test for you. Is your Win7 Home Premium 64-bit or 32-bit?

Hope this helps…

PS – You only mentioned ANVSOFT AnyVideo Converter Ultimate. What are the other 2 programs that used to work?

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Thanks Rick;
Yes I tried your URL and it works fine on my computer (as do all mine), but it can’t be downloaded with my video “converter?”. I don’t know how to send you my converter. As mentioned my main one is Anyvideo converter Ultimate. The others are “free youtube downloader” and “Movavi Flash converter”
As I mentioned all three worked before and it seems to me that for them all to fail at the same time is unlikely. I am all but positive that my “User account control” is blocking them because when ever I open any other program that access’s internet I get a box requesting approval, but not for these programs.
I have looked everywhere in the user control and can not find anywhere where it blocks specific programs.
Thanks
Alan

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Alan – If my QAD YouTube Downloader downloads YouTube videos for you but your own 3 YouTube downloader apps don’t then I suggest you try running your YouTube Downloader apps as Administrator to see whether this makes a difference and scan your PC for malware, e.g with Malwarebytes.

To Run as Administrator, right-click on the program executable or its shortcut. You should see Run as administrator in the right-click’s context menu.

Hope this helps…

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Thanks again Rick.
I actually haven’t downloaded your QAD because the script looks pretty complicated but as I said all 3 of my converters used to work. I did try running them all as an administrator and that didn’t work either. I have run malwarebyte premium and MSE virus checker and they come up clear.
Alan

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Alan, sorry about your thread! Actually, you and I have had the same problem with no downloading of any YouTube within Firefox! Even though presently, two out of five downloaders work, does not mean that I will cease reading and learning from your thread!
Whatever eventually works for you — I will also do! Thanks for letting us borrow your thread; RickC, I have stored everything we talked about. I will try later, differently, in a new thread.

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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Alan – I downloaded and installed Movavi Flash Converter but it wouldn’t allow me to download from a YouTube URL. I guess this may be a restriction of the trial software. Google shows loads of hits for “free youtube downloader” and I’m not clear which one it is that you are using.

I downloaded and installed ANVSOFT AnyVideo Converter Ultimate (v5.7.6) and this did allow me to download from the YouTube URL. I noticed that there was an update to the download engine so installed this and was still able to download from the same YouTube URL.

Is it a particular YouTube URL you are having problems with using ANVSOFT AnyVideo Converter Ultimate or has it stopped download all YouTube URLs?

What malware protection are you using and have you tried downloading using ANVSOFT AnyVideo Converter Ultimate with the malware protection turned off temporarily?

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The Flash Video Downloader add on for FF is working.

http://www.flashvideodownloader.org/

The on line downloader KeepVid is also a useful option as is usually quick to adapt to any YouTube mods.

http://keepvid.com/?url

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I’ve always had no problems using Download Helper with Firefox.

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+1 for Download Helper with Firefox.

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I may be completely out in left field but I recently ran into strange IE problems caused by EMET 5.0. When I upgraded to 5.0 the problems started but I didn’t immediately notice a correlation with my IE problems. EMET is not just a security monitor, it does prevent some programs from working properly and it does not give good messages of its actions. It was just luck that I googled some relations between my IE problems and EMET. I was able to reduce EMET’s EAF setting to get working again.

Obviously this might have nothing to do with your problem.

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Alan, if you are using FireFox, Chrome, Opera or Safari, try this extension which places a download button directly on the YouTube page:

https://github.com/gantt/downloadyoutube

I download a lot of instructional videos and have had no problems with this extension. I know this doesn’t solve your problem, but it is a workaround.

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Realplayer is good! I have it also. However for me, it dorked all download attempts in FF. I don’t remember IE or GChrome ’cause I don’t use them for youtubing normally. I disabled and/or removed all Realplayer plugins and extensions found in all three browsers. I’m glad realplayer works for ya! 🙂

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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I haven’t had great success downloading videos with a Chromium based browser open. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. I have better success downloading videos with Firefox or Internet Explorer open. I use Freemake Video Downloader (http://www.freemake.com), Free Download Manger (http://www.freedownloadmanager.org), and aTube Catcher (http://www.atube.me).

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Well, Rick, still, has not answered me…

My apologies Drew… I didn’t notice your question, nor can I remember receiving an automatic email. I use Win 7 on my ‘working’ PC and a mixture of XP, Vista and Win 7 on VMs, depending on what I’m testing.

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you can try KrojamSoft KingVideo, it solved my problem

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I’ve been using this page lately, works across all browsers and all OSes as far as I can test.

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Nice one, Drew, couldn’t be easier.

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