tonhowtf/omniget · error

No video formats found for this link.

Error message

No video formats found for this link.

What it means

Raised when yt-dlp reports 'is not a valid url' or 'no video formats': either the input is malformed as a URL, or the page parsed fine but yielded no playable formats (removed/private/DRM video). The wrapper maps both to a 'no formats' message.

Solutions

  1. Confirm the URL is well-formed and points to an actual video page
  2. Check the video is public and not region/age-restricted in a browser
  3. Update yt-dlp, as extractor fixes often restore format extraction
  4. Try `yt-dlp -F <url>` to list formats and confirm availability

Example fix

// before
if !url.starts_with("http") { /* unvalidated input passed down */ }
// after
if lower.contains("is not a valid url") || lower.contains("no video formats") {
    return anyhow!("No video formats found for this link.");
}
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// require a well-formed http(s) URL before extraction
let parsed = url::Url::parse(input)?;
if parsed.scheme() != "http" && parsed.scheme() != "https" {
    return Err(anyhow!("Not a valid media URL"));
}

Try / catch

match result {
    Err(e) if e.to_string().contains("No video formats") => {
        eprintln!("Video may be private, removed, or region-locked");
    }
    other => other?,
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Passing a non-URL string or a URL with no scheme to the extractor; or a video exists but exposes zero downloadable formats (private/deleted/age/DRM-restricted).

Common situations: Users pasting search-result page URLs, region-locked videos that hide formats, removed livestream VODs, or DRM-protected content yt-dlp cannot parse.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Invalid URL" errors: why new URL(), URI.parse, and reqwest::Url reject your string — missing scheme, whitespace, and bad path format — this error's family across 39 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of tonhowtf/omniget@8600b91f42 (2026-09-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3ab287ad1f8cc041. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src-tauri/omniget-core/src/core/ytdlp.rs:4492

        return anyhow!("Video blocked due to copyright.");
    }
    if lower.contains("geo") && lower.contains("block") {
        return anyhow!("Video restricted in your region.");
    }
    if lower.contains("timed out") || lower.contains("timeout") {
        return anyhow!("Connection timed out. Check your internet and try again.");
    }
    if lower.contains("ffmpeg") && (lower.contains("not found") || lower.contains("no such file")) {
        return anyhow!("FFmpeg not found. Install FFmpeg to download this format.");
    }
    if lower.contains("unsupported url") || lower.contains("no suitable infojson") {
        return anyhow!("Unsupported URL. Check that the link is correct.");
    }
    if lower.contains("unable to download") && lower.contains("webpage") {
        return anyhow!("Failed to access the page. Check the link and your connection.");
    }
    if lower.contains("is not a valid url") || lower.contains("no video formats") {
        return anyhow!("No video formats found for this link.");
    }

    let last_error_line = stderr
        .lines()
        .rev()
        .find(|l| {
            let t = l.trim().to_lowercase();
            t.starts_with("error:") || t.starts_with("error ")
        })
        .unwrap_or("")
        .trim();

    let msg = if !last_error_line.is_empty() {
        last_error_line
            .strip_prefix("ERROR: ")
            .or_else(|| last_error_line.strip_prefix("ERROR:"))
            .or_else(|| last_error_line.strip_prefix("error: "))
            .unwrap_or(last_error_line)

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