can not download youtube video with dash in video key #1753

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opened 2026-02-20 22:16:51 -05:00 by deekerman · 1 comment

deekerman commented

2026-02-20 22:16:51 -05:00

Owner

Originally created by @degenkolb on GitHub (Jan 22, 2014).

I stumbled upon a problem with a dash in the video key for youtube videos.

An example would be the video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vf2RoIhwpg
"CEFRC Combustion Chemistry Day 2 Part 1"

the command line gives me
$ youtube-dl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vf2RoIhwpg
[youtube] Setting language
[youtube] -vf2RoIhwpg: Downloading webpage
[youtube] -vf2RoIhwpg: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] -vf2RoIhwpg: Extracting video information
[download] Destination: CEFRC Combustion Chemistry Day 2 Part 1--vf2RoIhwpg.mp4
[download] 100% of 166.62MiB in 00:00
ERROR: content too short (expected 174714385 bytes and served 8745)

My version is
$ youtube-dl --version
2014.01.22.3

with regards
Christian

Originally created by @degenkolb on GitHub (Jan 22, 2014). Hi I stumbled upon a problem with a dash in the video key for youtube videos. An example would be the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vf2RoIhwpg "CEFRC Combustion Chemistry Day 2 Part 1" the command line gives me $ youtube-dl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vf2RoIhwpg [youtube] Setting language [youtube] -vf2RoIhwpg: Downloading webpage [youtube] -vf2RoIhwpg: Downloading video info webpage [youtube] -vf2RoIhwpg: Extracting video information [download] Destination: CEFRC Combustion Chemistry Day 2 Part 1--vf2RoIhwpg.mp4 [download] 100% of 166.62MiB in 00:00 ERROR: content too short (expected 174714385 bytes and served 8745) My version is $ youtube-dl --version 2014.01.22.3 with regards Christian

deekerman closed this issue

2026-02-20 22:16:51 -05:00

deekerman commented

2026-02-20 22:16:52 -05:00

Author

Owner

@phihag commented on GitHub (Jan 22, 2014):

What makes you think that the dash is part of the problem? This is an error on YouTube's side (most likely filesystem and/or encoding issues), the video doesn't play (after a couple of images) in the webbrowser either. You can switch to the low-quality format, which seems to be unaffected:

$ youtube-dl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vf2RoIhwpg -f 17
[youtube] Setting language
[youtube] -vf2RoIhwpg: Downloading webpage
[youtube] -vf2RoIhwpg: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] -vf2RoIhwpg: Extracting video information
[download] Destination: CEFRC Combustion Chemistry Day 2 Part 1--vf2RoIhwpg.3gp
[download] 100% of 36.53MiB in 00:04

Chances are that Youtube will notice the error and re-encode the video, or restore the defective filesystem from backups.

@phihag commented on GitHub (Jan 22, 2014): What makes you think that the dash is part of the problem? This is an error on YouTube's side (most likely filesystem and/or encoding issues), the video doesn't play (after a couple of images) in the webbrowser either. You can switch to the low-quality format, which seems to be unaffected: ``` $ youtube-dl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vf2RoIhwpg -f 17 [youtube] Setting language [youtube] -vf2RoIhwpg: Downloading webpage [youtube] -vf2RoIhwpg: Downloading video info webpage [youtube] -vf2RoIhwpg: Extracting video information [download] Destination: CEFRC Combustion Chemistry Day 2 Part 1--vf2RoIhwpg.3gp [download] 100% of 36.53MiB in 00:04 ``` Chances are that Youtube will notice the error and re-encode the video, or restore the defective filesystem from backups.

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