ytdl-org/youtube-dl · error · ExtractorError

Letv cloud said: %s

Error message

Letv cloud said: %s

What it means

Raised by the Letv Cloud extractor when the gpc.php playJson response has no 'data' payload but does carry a 'message' field. The message text from Letv Cloud is included. It is expected=True and usually reports expired/invalid uu/vu parameters or removed videos.

Source

Thrown at youtube_dl/extractor/leeco.py:325

                'bver': 'firefox44.0',
                'format': 'json',
                'uu': uu,
                'vu': vu,
                'ran': compat_str(timestamp),
            }
            self.sign_data(data)
            return self._download_json(
                'http://api.letvcloud.com/gpc.php?' + compat_urllib_parse_urlencode(data),
                media_id, 'Downloading playJson data for type %s' % cf)

        play_json = get_play_json(cf, time.time())
        # The server time may be different from local time
        if play_json.get('code') == 10071:
            play_json = get_play_json(cf, play_json['timestamp'])

        if not play_json.get('data'):
            if play_json.get('message'):
                raise ExtractorError('Letv cloud said: %s' % play_json['message'], expected=True)
            elif play_json.get('code'):
                raise ExtractorError('Letv cloud returned error %d' % play_json['code'], expected=True)
            else:
                raise ExtractorError('Letv cloud returned an unknown error')

        def b64decode(s):
            return compat_b64decode(s).decode('utf-8')

        formats = []
        for media in play_json['data']['video_info']['media'].values():
            play_url = media['play_url']
            url = b64decode(play_url['main_url'])
            decoded_url = b64decode(url_basename(url))
            formats.append({
                'url': url,
                'ext': determine_ext(decoded_url),
                'format_id': str_or_none(play_url.get('vtype')),
                'format_note': str_or_none(play_url.get('definition')),

View on GitHub (pinned to 956b8c5855)

Solutions

  1. Read the embedded Letv message — 'expired' style messages mean the embed link itself is dead and you must find a new source
  2. Confirm uu and vu parameters were copied completely from the embed code
  3. Try the parent page in a browser to see if its player still works at all
  4. If the content survives on another platform, switch to that platform's URL
Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

from urllib.parse import urlparse, parse_qs

def letv_cloud_params_complete(url):
    q = parse_qs(urlparse(url).query)
    return bool(q.get('uu', [''])[0]) and bool(q.get('vu', [''])[0])

Try / catch

try:
    ydl.extract_info(url)
except ExtractorError as e:
    if 'Letv cloud said:' in str(e):
        handle_expired_or_invalid(str(e).split('said:', 1)[1])  # usually permanent
    else:
        raise

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Embedding-style Letv Cloud URLs (with uu= and vu= params) whose signed gpc.php request returns a JSON without data but with message — expired link signatures, deleted cloud videos, or an invalid uu/vu combination (note the code retries once with the server timestamp when code==10071 before giving up).

Common situations: Old embed codes from third-party sites whose Letv Cloud assets expired; vu ids that were deleted; clock skew initially producing code 10071 and the retry still failing; sites migrating off Letv Cloud leaving dead embeds.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of ytdl-org/youtube-dl@956b8c5855 (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3f29aee57ff44bf1. Report an issue: GitHub.