remotion-dev/remotion · error · Error

#EXT-X-ALLOW-CACHE directive must have a value

Error message

#EXT-X-ALLOW-CACHE directive must have a value

What it means

Thrown by parseM3uDirective() at parse-directive.ts:120 when a line matches #EXT-X-ALLOW-CACHE but has no value. This directive was deprecated in HLS protocol version 7 (RFC 8216 appendix D) but the parser still handles it for backward compatibility. The value must be YES or NO.

Source

Thrown at packages/media-parser/src/containers/m3u/parse-directive.ts:120

	if (directive === '#EXT-X-STREAM-INF') {
		if (!value) {
			throw new Error('EXT-X-STREAM-INF directive must have a value');
		}

		const res = parseStreamInf(value);
		return res;
	}

	if (directive === '#EXT-X-I-FRAME-STREAM-INF') {
		return {
			type: 'm3u-i-frame-stream-info',
		};
	}

	if (directive === '#EXT-X-ALLOW-CACHE') {
		if (!value) {
			throw new Error('#EXT-X-ALLOW-CACHE directive must have a value');
		}

		return {
			type: 'm3u-allow-cache',
			allowsCache: value === 'YES',
		};
	}

	if (directive === '#EXT-X-MAP') {
		if (!value) {
			throw new Error('#EXT-X-MAP directive must have a value');
		}

		const p = parseM3uKeyValue(value);
		if (!p.URI) {
			throw new Error('EXT-X-MAP directive must have a URI');
		}

View on GitHub (pinned to 78fe4bb3fd)

Solutions

  1. Remove the deprecated #EXT-X-ALLOW-CACHE directive entirely (it was removed in protocol version 7)
  2. If keeping it for legacy compat, provide a value: #EXT-X-ALLOW-CACHE:YES
  3. Regenerate with a modern packager that omits this directive

Example fix

// before
#EXT-X-ALLOW-CACHE

// after (option 1: remove the line entirely)
// after (option 2: provide a value)
#EXT-X-ALLOW-CACHE:YES
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// Pre-fetch and strip the deprecated EXT-X-ALLOW-CACHE directive
const text = await (await fetch(url)).text();
const cleaned = text
  .split('\n')
  .filter((line) => !line.trim().startsWith('#EXT-X-ALLOW-CACHE'))
  .join('\n');
// pass cleaned text as a Blob to parseMedia

Try / catch

try {
  await parseMedia({src: url});
} catch (e) {
  if (e instanceof Error && e.message.includes('EXT-X-ALLOW-CACHE')) {
    // strip the deprecated directive from the playlist
  }
  throw e;
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: A legacy playlist line '#EXT-X-ALLOW-CACHE' with no colon, or '#EXT-X-ALLOW-CACHE:' with an empty value.

Common situations: Old playlists generated by legacy encoders that still emit this deprecated directive; hand-edited legacy files; packagers targeting very old HLS clients.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of remotion-dev/remotion@78fe4bb3fd (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/676b5534675fa9b7. Report an issue: GitHub.