How to deal with Youtube asking to sign in for age restricted?

[davexnet]

Cookies from Portable works for me:

[october262]

Cookies from Portable works for me:

are you signed in to youtube ??

[davexnet]

Cookies from Portable works for me:

are you signed in to youtube ??

I was signed into youtube on the tab I saved the cookies from.
Once the the cookies are saved in the txt file, no need to be signed in or have the browser open

[october262]

Cookies from Portable works for me:

are you signed in to youtube ??

I was signed into youtube on the tab I saved the cookies from.
Once the the cookies are saved in the txt file, no need to be signed in or have the browser open

for me, even though i'm signed in to youtube via firefox, this link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMUcrtBGX5w
still refuzes to download even with cookies it still fails. maybe the creator has disabled embedding of the video so the age bypass wont work - https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/8583

[davexnet]

Works OK for me. Is your yt-dlp up to date?

[october262]

Works OK for me. Is your yt-dlp up to date?

just now updated and now downloads via firefox (signed in to youtube)

[cholla]

You are using a quite outdated version of yt-dlp, and not using the latest version of yt-dlp might be one of the reasons you fail to download (seeing all the changes YT made in half a year

I'm using the last version available for Windows 7 32-bit 2024.10.22.
I installed it a while back using: yt-dlp -U
Now yt-dlp -U does nothing. I believe this is because I have the last version available for my OS.

Cookies from Portable works for me:

Is your OS Windows 7 32-bit?
I'm using this one: https://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox-portable-legacy-115

I have some other information & I will try to use it.
I just need to let it soak in.

[davexnet]

The old version you're using does not work.
Look for a fork to include latest functionality for Win 7

[G.T.X.R]

NONE WORKED.
My conclusion is yt-dlp can not download an age restricted with Firefox Portable or Opera Portable.

I have tested different versions of yt-dlp on Windows 7/64 and Windows 10/64, but only the latest version (yt-dlp 2025.05.22) can handle age-restricted YouTube videos via the cookie export-import method.

It works fine on legacy portable Firefox ESR 115 (Windows 10/64) with yt-dlp 2025.05.22 :

yt-dlp --cookies "cookies.txt" --cookies-from-browser firefox:"C:\FF115\FirefoxPortableLegacy115\Data\profile" %URL% -F

I think there is no way to make this work on Windows 7, because of 'Signature extraction failed' (outdated version of yt-dlp).

[cholla]

Thanks for the work & confirmations davexnet & G.T.X.R .

I've read some on the web & the ability of Windows 7 to use later versions of yt-dlp is related to python.
Windows 7 does not have python natively installed.
I have not attempted to install python on my Windows 7.
There are methods for doing this but I have not tried any of them.
So I do not know how well they work.

Some of the softwares I have use their own versions of python that are in their own Program Files folder.

I'm looking into one of the unofficial forks of yt-dlp.
I do not know if it is the latest version.

I rarely need to download an age restricted video from YouTube.
I found this one on Tubi & yt-dlp downloaded it with no problem.
So I have the video.

[cholla]

I tried the unofficial fork from: Here
Select "Show all 21 assets" at bottom of list. For 2025.05.28.062637 .
Name: yt-dlp_x86_win7.exe
It is version 2025.5.28.62637.
It has a different error message:

ERROR: [youtube] JmKS9WCTuZg: This video is DRM protected

I used G.T.X.R's code modified for my specific OS.

C:\Users\user\Desktop\Vedit\yt-dlp>yt-dlp1 --cookies "cookies.txt" --cookies-from-browser firefox:"C:\FirefoxPortable\Data\profile" -F "https://youtu.be/JmKS9WCTuZg?t=1606"

This is the whole text from Command:
This is with the -vU flag added as suggested in the link.

C:\Users\users\Desktop\Vedit\yt-dlp>yt-dlp1 -vU --cookies "cookies.txt" -F --load-pages "https://youtu.be/JmKS9WCTuZg?t=1606" --no-plugin-dirs --extractor-arg youtubelayer-client=tv
[debug] Command-line config: ['-vU', '--cookies', 'cookies.txt', '-F', '--load-pages', 'https://youtu.be/JmKS9WCTuZg?t=1606', '--no-plugin-dirs', '--extractor-arg', 'youtubelayer-client=tv']
[debug] Encodings: locale cp1252, fs utf-8, pref cp1252, out utf-8 (No VT), error utf-8 (No VT), screen utf-8 (No VT)
[debug] yt-dlp version nicolaasjan/yt-dlp@2025.05.28.062637 (win7_x86_exe*)
[debug] Python 3.13.3 (CPython AMD64 32bit) - Windows-7-6.1.7601-SP1 (OpenSSL 3.0.16 11 Feb 2025)
[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg N-119166-g1e5c65f539-WIN7 (fdk,setts), ffprobe N-119166-g1e5c65f539-WIN7
[debug] Optional libraries: Cryptodome-3.23.0, brotli-1.1.0, certifi-2025.04.26, mutagen-1.47.0, requests-2.32.3, sqlite3-3.49.1, urllib3-2.4.0, websockets-15.0.1
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[debug] Request Handlers: urllib, requests, websockets
[debug] Plugin directories: none (disabled)
[debug] Loaded 1860 extractors
[debug] Fetching release info: https://api.github.com/repos/nicolaasjan/yt-dlp/releases/latest
Latest version: nicolaasjan/yt-dlp@2025.05.28.062637
yt-dlp is up to date (nicolaasjan/yt-dlp@2025.05.28.062637)
[debug] [youtube] Found YouTube account cookies
[debug] [youtube] [pot] PO Token Providers: none
[debug] [youtube] [pot] PO Token Cache Providers: memory
[debug] [youtube] [pot] PO Token Cache Spec Providers: webpo
[youtube] Extracting URL: https://youtu.be/JmKS9WCTuZg?t=1606
[youtube] Loading request from JmKS9WCTuZg_https_-_www.youtube.com_watchv=JmKS9WCTuZg_bpctr=99999999 99_has_verified=1.dump
WARNING: [youtube] Unable to load request from disk: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'JmKS9WCTuZg_https_-_www.youtube.com_watchv=JmKS9WCTuZg_bpctr=99999999 99_has_verified=1.dump'
[youtube] JmKS9WCTuZg: Downloading webpage
[youtube] Loading request from JmKS9WCTuZg_https_-_www.youtube.com_tv.dump
WARNING: [youtube] Unable to load request from disk: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'JmKS9WCTuZg_https_-_www.youtube.com_tv.dump'
[youtube] JmKS9WCTuZg: Downloading tv client config
[debug] Loading youtube-sts.f203bbc8-main from cache
[youtube] Loading request from JmKS9WCTuZg_418ba7224804a4559cb7ae0ac62720b4_https _-_www.youtube.com_youtubei_v1_playerprettyPrint=fal se.dump
WARNING: [youtube] Unable to load request from disk: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'JmKS9WCTuZg_418ba7224804a4559cb7ae0ac62720b4_http s_-_www.youtube.com_youtubei_v1_playerprettyPrint=fal se.dump'
[youtube] JmKS9WCTuZg: Downloading tv player API JSON
WARNING: [youtube] JmKS9WCTuZg: Some tv client https formats have been skipped as they are DRM protected. Your account may have an experiment that applies DRM to all videos on the tv client. See https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/12563 for more details.
[debug] Loading youtube-nsig.f203bbc8-main from cache
[debug] [youtube] Decrypted nsig bGh-_QA_V--FVZXF => UsPu9bcWkZqn7w
[youtube] JmKS9WCTuZg: Downloading MPD manifest
WARNING: [youtube] Failed to download MPD manifest: HTTP Error 404: Not Found
ERROR: [youtube] JmKS9WCTuZg: This video is DRM protected
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "yt_dlp\YoutubeDL.py", line 1662, in wrapper
File "yt_dlp\YoutubeDL.py", line 1818, in __extract_info
File "yt_dlp\YoutubeDL.py", line 1877, in process_ie_result
File "yt_dlp\YoutubeDL.py", line 2884, in process_video_result
File "yt_dlp\YoutubeDL.py", line 1151, in raise_no_formats
yt_dlp.utils.ExtractorError: [youtube] JmKS9WCTuZg: This video is DRM protected

The problem is now DRM.
Any suggestions for getting around DRM?

[Obo]

Did you look at the linked issue from the error message? Have you tried any of the suggestions in there?

[cholla]

Did you look at the linked issue from the error message? Have you tried any of the suggestions in there?

I read the link information.
There was a workaround involving a PO Token.

I'm not sure how to install the extractor.
Or if it would work without python also installed.
Also it looked like the poster of the workaround was using linux .

All "over my head".

[Obo]

There's also another suggestion to avoid the TV player and use web_safari and web_embedded clients instead:

--extractor-args "youtube:player-client=default,-tv,web_safari,web_embedded"

That's at least worth a try and hopefully doesn't need the PO token procedure.

[cholla]

There's also another suggestion to avoid the TV player and use web_safari and web_embedded clients instead:

--extractor-args "youtube:player-client=default,-tv,web_safari,web_embedded"

That's at least worth a try and hopefully doesn't need the PO token procedure.

There is some different information but still ends with DRM protection error.

C:\Users\NORAD\Desktop\Vedit\yt-dlp>yt-dlp1 -vU -f bv*+ba* --no-plugin-dirs --extractor-args "youtubelayer-client=default,-tv,web_safari,web_embedded --cookies "cookies.txt" --load-pages "https://youtu.be/JmKS9WCTuZg?t=1606"
[debug] Command-line config: ['-vU', '-f', 'bv*+ba*', '--no-plugin-dirs', '--extractor-args', 'youtubelayer-client=default,-tv,web_safari,web_embedded --cookies cookies.txt --load-pages https://youtu.be/JmKS9WCTuZg?t=1606']
[debug] Encodings: locale cp1252, fs utf-8, pref cp1252, out utf-8 (No VT), error utf-8 (No VT), screen utf-8 (No VT)
[debug] yt-dlp version nicolaasjan/yt-dlp@2025.05.28.062637 (win7_x86_exe*)
[debug] Python 3.13.3 (CPython AMD64 32bit) - Windows-7-6.1.7601-SP1 (OpenSSL 3.0.16 11 Feb 2025)
[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg N-119166-g1e5c65f539-WIN7 (fdk,setts), ffprobe N-119166-g1e5c65f539-WIN7
[debug] Optional libraries: Cryptodome-3.23.0, brotli-1.1.0, certifi-2025.04.26, mutagen-1.47.0, requests-2.32.3, sqlite3-3.49.1, urllib3-2.4.0, websockets-15.0.1
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[debug] Request Handlers: urllib, requests, websockets
[debug] Plugin directories: none (disabled)
[debug] Loaded 1860 extractors
[debug] Fetching release info: https://api.github.com/repos/nicolaasjan/yt-dlp/releases/latest
Latest version: nicolaasjan/yt-dlp@2025.05.28.062637
yt-dlp is up to date (nicolaasjan/yt-dlp@2025.05.28.062637)

C:\Users\NORAD\Desktop\Vedit\yt-dlp>yt-dlp1 -vU -f bv*+ba* --cookies "cookies.txt" --load-pages "https://youtu.be/JmKS9WCTuZg?t=1606" --no-plugin-dirs --extractor-args "youtubelayer-client=default,-tv,web_safari,web_embedded
[debug] Command-line config: ['-vU', '-f', 'bv*+ba*', '--cookies', 'cookies.txt', '--load-pages', 'https://youtu.be/JmKS9WCTuZg?t=1606', '--no-plugin-dirs', '--extractor-args', 'youtubelayer-client=default,-tv,web_safari,web_embedded']
[debug] Encodings: locale cp1252, fs utf-8, pref cp1252, out utf-8 (No VT), error utf-8 (No VT), screen utf-8 (No VT)
[debug] yt-dlp version nicolaasjan/yt-dlp@2025.05.28.062637 (win7_x86_exe*)
[debug] Python 3.13.3 (CPython AMD64 32bit) - Windows-7-6.1.7601-SP1 (OpenSSL 3.0.16 11 Feb 2025)
[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg N-119166-g1e5c65f539-WIN7 (fdk,setts), ffprobe N-119166-g1e5c65f539-WIN7
[debug] Optional libraries: Cryptodome-3.23.0, brotli-1.1.0, certifi-2025.04.26, mutagen-1.47.0, requests-2.32.3, sqlite3-3.49.1, urllib3-2.4.0, websockets-15.0.1
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[debug] Request Handlers: urllib, requests, websockets
[debug] Plugin directories: none (disabled)
[debug] Loaded 1860 extractors
[debug] Fetching release info: https://api.github.com/repos/nicolaasjan/yt-dlp/releases/latest
Latest version: nicolaasjan/yt-dlp@2025.05.28.062637
yt-dlp is up to date (nicolaasjan/yt-dlp@2025.05.28.062637)
[debug] [youtube] Found YouTube account cookies
[debug] [youtube] [pot] PO Token Providers: none
[debug] [youtube] [pot] PO Token Cache Providers: memory
[debug] [youtube] [pot] PO Token Cache Spec Providers: webpo
[youtube] Extracting URL: https://youtu.be/JmKS9WCTuZg?t=1606
[youtube] Loading request from JmKS9WCTuZg_https_-_www.youtube.com_watchv=JmKS9WCTuZg_bpctr=99999999 99_has_verified=1.dump
WARNING: [youtube] Unable to load request from disk: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'JmKS9WCTuZg_https_-_www.youtube.com_watchv=JmKS9WCTuZg_bpctr=99999999 99_has_verified=1.dump'
[youtube] JmKS9WCTuZg: Downloading webpage
[youtube] Loading request from JmKS9WCTuZg_5791cf984d3f436493ce793e56ec102e_https _-_www.youtube.com_youtubei_v1_playerprettyPrint=fal se.dump
WARNING: [youtube] Unable to load request from disk: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'JmKS9WCTuZg_5791cf984d3f436493ce793e56ec102e_http s_-_www.youtube.com_youtubei_v1_playerprettyPrint=fal se.dump'
[youtube] JmKS9WCTuZg: Downloading web safari player API JSON
[youtube] Loading request from JmKS9WCTuZg_https_-_www.youtube.com_embed_JmKS9WCTuZghtml5=1.dump
WARNING: [youtube] Unable to load request from disk: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'JmKS9WCTuZg_https_-_www.youtube.com_embed_JmKS9WCTuZghtml5=1.dump'
[youtube] JmKS9WCTuZg: Downloading web embedded client config
[debug] Loading youtube-sts.f203bbc8-main from cache
[youtube] Loading request from JmKS9WCTuZg_fdc40c42c0f0632731d23c02d41d53d1_https _-_www.youtube.com_youtubei_v1_playerprettyPrint=fal se.dump
WARNING: [youtube] Unable to load request from disk: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'JmKS9WCTuZg_fdc40c42c0f0632731d23c02d41d53d1_http s_-_www.youtube.com_youtubei_v1_playerprettyPrint=fal se.dump'
[youtube] JmKS9WCTuZg: Downloading web embedded player API JSON
[youtube] JmKS9WCTuZg: This video is age-restricted and YouTube is requiring account age-verification; some formats may be missing
[youtube] Loading request from JmKS9WCTuZg_8858025cefada8b2c1a75915e3e7cda9_https _-_www.youtube.com_youtubei_v1_playerprettyPrint=fal se.dump
WARNING: [youtube] Unable to load request from disk: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'JmKS9WCTuZg_8858025cefada8b2c1a75915e3e7cda9_http s_-_www.youtube.com_youtubei_v1_playerprettyPrint=fal se.dump'
[youtube] JmKS9WCTuZg: Downloading tv embedded player API JSON
WARNING: [youtube] JmKS9WCTuZg: Some web client https formats have been skipped as they are DRM protected.
WARNING: [youtube] JmKS9WCTuZg: Some web client https formats have been skipped as they are missing a url. YouTube is forcing SABR streaming for this client. See https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/12482 for more details
WARNING: [youtube] JmKS9WCTuZg: Some web_safari client https formats have been skipped as they are DRM protected.
WARNING: [youtube] JmKS9WCTuZg: Some web_safari client https formats have been skipped as they are missing a url. YouTube may have enabled the SABR-only or Server-Side Ad Placement experiment for your account. See https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/12482 for more details
WARNING: [youtube] JmKS9WCTuZg: Some tv_embedded client https formats have been skipped as they are DRM protected.
[debug] Loading youtube-nsig.f203bbc8-main from cache
[debug] [youtube] Decrypted nsig R2XG5VHNH7o6Zj0g => STzfSOh2BT1Xmw
[youtube] JmKS9WCTuZg: Downloading MPD manifest
WARNING: [youtube] Failed to download MPD manifest: HTTP Error 404: Not Found
[youtube] JmKS9WCTuZg: Downloading m3u8 information
[youtube] JmKS9WCTuZg: Downloading MPD manifest
WARNING: [youtube] Failed to download MPD manifest: HTTP Error 404: Not Found
[youtube] JmKS9WCTuZg: Downloading MPD manifest
WARNING: [youtube] Failed to download MPD manifest: HTTP Error 404: Not Found
ERROR: [youtube] JmKS9WCTuZg: This video is DRM protected
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "yt_dlp\YoutubeDL.py", line 1662, in wrapper
File "yt_dlp\YoutubeDL.py", line 1818, in __extract_info
File "yt_dlp\YoutubeDL.py", line 1877, in process_ie_result
File "yt_dlp\YoutubeDL.py", line 2884, in process_video_result
File "yt_dlp\YoutubeDL.py", line 1151, in raise_no_formats
yt_dlp.utils.ExtractorError: [youtube] JmKS9WCTuZg: This video is DRM protected

[cholla]

If anyone knows would installing python allow the DRM protection to be removed ?
With the download allowed.
Or even download with the DRM still there.
I have not tried one but I have seen programs that are supposed to remove DRM.

[G.T.X.R]

I tried the unofficial fork from: Here

Great idea (I forgot about it). With this fork I can now use yt-dlp_win7.exe with cookies on Windows 7/64 too.

ERROR: [youtube] JmKS9WCTuZg: This video is DRM protected
The problem is now DRM.
Any suggestions for getting around DRM?

You can use Widevine L3 Decrypter vers 2.0 ( https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/414140-%5BRelease%5D-Widevine-L3-Guesser-Extension...23#post2755861 ) from sesamap159 = Windows 7 or WidevineProxy2 ( https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/416316-%5BRelease%5D-WidevineProxy2-Extension-Bypa...ng#post2754872 ) from larley = Windows 10+.

[youtube] JmKS9WCTuZg: Downloading MPD manifest
WARNING: [youtube] Failed to download MPD manifest: HTTP Error 404: Not Found

This is not free video, so extensions not shows mpd link, it's hidden.

[ridibunda]

How to import cookies to yt-dlp from Opera browser?

[Obo]

It's not nice to hijack a thread. You can always open your own thread with a new question. But to answer your question:

yt-dlp --cookies-from-browser opera ...

should do it. Or export the cookies to a file and use --cookies FILE. The project homepage and yt-dlp --help are a great source of information.

[Baldrick]

Please stay on topic. If you don't like a reply then click on the report-link.

[cholla]

Great idea (I forgot about it). With this fork I can now use yt-dlp_win7.exe with cookies on Windows 7/64 too.

davexnet suggested I look for a fork.
I did & that is what I found.

You can use Widevine L3 Decrypter vers 2.0 ( https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/414140-%5BRelease%5D-Widevine-L3-Guesser-Extension...23#post2755861 ) from sesamap159 = Windows 7

I will take a look at Widevine. I've seen it posted about but I have not tried it.

This is not free video, so extensions not shows mpd link, it's hidden.

It is free to watch.Or nothing about paying came up for what I watched of it.
I guess you mean free to download.

Like I posted Tubi had the same movie & it downloaded with no problem.

I'm working on this in case I have another YouTube movie or video that does the same as this one.
Next time I might not find it on another web site.

[cholla]

I checked out the Widevine link.
I downloaded the .rar file.
Following the "Readme" It installed a Temporary Add on in Firefox.
When I used it I got a popup with a red background in German & French.
I copied & translated it.
Basically is said no Widevine detected on this website.
In Googling about this I found there is what seems to be the same Widevine L3 Decrypter as a permanent add on.
So I restarted Firefox to remove the temporary & installed the permanent version.
It has a GUI like the pictures in the topic.

[davexnet]

Are you sure Firefox is using DRM on this video?
You could always temporarily disable DRM in Firefox and see what Youtube says.

[cholla]

@ davexnet,
I googled & watched a YouTube for disabling DRM in Firefox.
That was easy it was checked to use DRM .
I unchecked it.
There were more instructions in Google to permanently disable the DRM in Firefox.
I did that also.Now the place to check play DRM is not in the Firefox settings.
Now the video will not play at all even logged in.

I still get the:

yt_dlp.utils.ExtractorError: [youtube] JmKS9WCTuZg: This video is DRM protected

So I changed the settings back.

[davexnet]

@ davexnet,
I googled & watched a YouTube for disabling DRM in Firefox.
That was easy it was checked to use DRM .
I unchecked it.
There were more instructions in Google to permanently disable the DRM in Firefox.
I did that also.Now the place to check play DRM is not in the Firefox settings.
Now the video will not play at all even logged in.

I still get the:

yt_dlp.utils.ExtractorError: [youtube] JmKS9WCTuZg: This video is DRM protected

So I changed the settings back.

Yes. I only meant it as a test to see if the video used DRM or not. If you disable DRM in Firefox,
then Firefox cannot play videos protected by DRM at all.