tonhowtf/omniget · error

yt-dlp not found — install it in Settings

Error message

yt-dlp not found — install it in Settings

What it means

get_media_info_via_ytdlp requires the external yt-dlp binary and looks it up via crate::core::ytdlp::find_ytdlp_cached(). When the lookup returns None — yt-dlp is not installed, not on PATH, or not configured in app settings — this error is raised directing the user to install it in Settings.

Solutions

  1. Install yt-dlp from the app's Settings screen (the bundled installer).
  2. Or install yt-dlp system-wide (pip install -U yt-dlp or brew install yt-dlp) so it is on PATH.
  3. Set the explicit ytdlp_path option to a known yt-dlp binary location.
  4. Verify with `yt-dlp --version` that the binary is executable, then retry.

Example fix

// before: hard failure when yt-dlp missing
let info = tiktok.get_media_info(url).await?;
// after: pre-check and guide the user
if crate::core::ytdlp::find_ytdlp_cached().await.is_none() {
    eprintln!("yt-dlp not found — install it in Settings");
    return Err(anyhow!("yt-dlp not found — install it in Settings"));
}
let info = tiktok.get_media_info(url).await?;
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// check before invoking any yt-dlp path
if which("yt-dlp").is_err() {
    return Err(anyhow!("yt-dlp not found — install it in Settings"));
}

Type guard

fn has_ytdlp() -> bool { std::process::Command::new("yt-dlp").arg("--version").output().map(|o| o.status.success()).unwrap_or(false) }

Try / catch

match tiktok.get_media_info(url).await {
    Err(e) if e.to_string().contains("yt-dlp not found") => Err(InstallYtdlpUserAction),
    other => other,
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: get_media_info falls back to get_media_info_via_ytdlp (e.g. after the direct scrape failed) and find_ytdlp_cached() resolves to None; also invoked directly when ytdlp_path is not supplied and no cached binary is found.

Common situations: Fresh install where yt-dlp was never downloaded; yt-dlp removed from PATH after a system update; bundled binary failed to download in Settings; running in a container/image without yt-dlp; YouTube/TikTok blocking forcing reliance on the fallback.

Understand the failure class

Background: "not installed", "pip install", "required for": how missing-dependency errors surface across open-source libraries — this error's family across 34 libraries.

Related errors


AI-assisted analysis of tonhowtf/omniget@8600b91f42 (2026-09-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/58538aa6de6583ac. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src-tauri/omniget-core/src/platforms/tiktok.rs:320

        ];
        let json = crate::core::ytdlp::get_video_info(&ytdlp_path, url, &extra_flags).await?;
        let mut info =
            crate::platforms::generic_ytdlp::GenericYtdlpDownloader::parse_video_info(&json)?;
        for q in &mut info.available_qualities {
            q.url = url.to_string();
            q.format = "ytdlp".to_string();
        }
        Ok(info)
    }

    async fn get_media_info_via_ytdlp(
        &self,
        url: &str,
        post_id: &str,
    ) -> anyhow::Result<MediaInfo> {
        let ytdlp_path = crate::core::ytdlp::find_ytdlp_cached()
            .await
            .ok_or_else(|| anyhow!("yt-dlp not found — install it in Settings"))?;

        let extra_flags = vec![
            "--referer".to_string(),
            "https://www.tiktok.com/".to_string(),
        ];

        let json = crate::core::ytdlp::get_video_info(&ytdlp_path, url, &extra_flags).await?;

        let title = json
            .get("title")
            .and_then(|v| v.as_str())
            .map(|s| format!("tiktok_{}", sanitize_filename::sanitize(s)))
            .unwrap_or_else(|| format!("tiktok_{}", post_id));

        let author = json
            .get("uploader")
            .or_else(|| json.get("creator"))
            .and_then(|v| v.as_str())

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