ytdl-org/youtube-dl · error · ExtractorError

Could not find XML element %s

Error message

Could not find XML element %s

What it means

Error "Could not find XML element %s" thrown in ytdl-org/youtube-dl.

Source

Thrown at youtube_dl/utils.py:1945

def xpath_element(node, xpath, name=None, fatal=False, default=NO_DEFAULT):
    def _find_xpath(xpath):
        return node.find(compat_xpath(xpath))

    if isinstance(xpath, compat_basestring):
        n = _find_xpath(xpath)
    else:
        for xp in xpath:
            n = _find_xpath(xp)
            if n is not None:
                break

    if n is None:
        if default is not NO_DEFAULT:
            return default
        elif fatal:
            name = xpath if name is None else name
            raise ExtractorError('Could not find XML element %s' % name)
        else:
            return None
    return n


def xpath_text(node, xpath, name=None, fatal=False, default=NO_DEFAULT):
    n = xpath_element(node, xpath, name, fatal=fatal, default=default)
    if n is None or n == default:
        return n
    if n.text is None:
        if default is not NO_DEFAULT:
            return default
        elif fatal:
            name = xpath if name is None else name
            raise ExtractorError('Could not find XML element\'s text %s' % name)
        else:
            return None
    return n.text

View on GitHub (pinned to 956b8c5855)

Solutions

1. Check that the XML document contains the expected element; update youtube-dl if the format changed.

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at youtube_dl/utils.py:1945 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of ytdl-org/youtube-dl@956b8c5855 (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/df4d8f39328c09dc. Report an issue: GitHub.