ytdl-org/youtube-dl · error · ExtractorError

No episodes found

Error message

No episodes found

What it means

Raised by YoukuShowIE._extract_entries when the playlist/show HTML returned by the show API does not contain the expected drama-list markup. The code looks for an element with class 'p-drama-grid' or 'p-drama-half-row' via get_element_by_class; if neither is present in playlist_data, it concludes there are no episodes and raises. This means the show page either truly has no listed episodes or Youku changed its playlist HTML structure.

Source

Thrown at youtube_dl/extractor/youku.py:264

        'url': 'http://list.youku.com/show/id_zefbfbd61237fefbfbdef.html',
        'only_matching': True,
    }, {
        #  Wrong number of reload_id.
        'url': 'http://list.youku.com/show/id_z20eb4acaf5c211e3b2ad.html',
        'only_matching': True,
    }]

    def _extract_entries(self, playlist_data_url, show_id, note, query):
        query['callback'] = 'cb'
        playlist_data = self._download_json(
            playlist_data_url, show_id, query=query, note=note,
            transform_source=lambda s: js_to_json(strip_jsonp(s))).get('html')
        if playlist_data is None:
            return [None, None]
        drama_list = (get_element_by_class('p-drama-grid', playlist_data)
                      or get_element_by_class('p-drama-half-row', playlist_data))
        if drama_list is None:
            raise ExtractorError('No episodes found')
        video_urls = re.findall(r'<a[^>]+href="([^"]+)"', drama_list)
        return playlist_data, [
            self.url_result(self._proto_relative_url(video_url, 'http:'), YoukuIE.ie_key())
            for video_url in video_urls]

    def _real_extract(self, url):
        show_id = self._match_id(url)
        webpage = self._download_webpage(url, show_id)

        entries = []
        page_config = self._parse_json(self._search_regex(
            r'var\s+PageConfig\s*=\s*({.+});', webpage, 'page config'),
            show_id, transform_source=js_to_json)
        first_page, initial_entries = self._extract_entries(
            'http://list.youku.com/show/module', show_id,
            note='Downloading initial playlist data page',
            query={
                'id': page_config['showid'],

View on GitHub (pinned to 956b8c5855)

Solutions

  1. Open the show URL in a browser and confirm episodes are actually listed for your region; if none, the error is correct.
  2. Dump the playlist_data HTML (print or log it before the check) and inspect what container class the episodes now use.
  3. Add the new class name to the get_element_by_class fallback chain in _extract_entries, e.g. get_element_by_class('p-drama-<new-class>', playlist_data).
  4. Verify the JSONP transform still yields valid JSON — if .get('html') returns an error page, fix the query params (callback='cb') or endpoint first.

Example fix

// before
drama_list = (get_element_by_class('p-drama-grid', playlist_data)
              or get_element_by_class('p-drama-half-row', playlist_data))

// after
drama_list = (get_element_by_class('p-drama-grid', playlist_data)
              or get_element_by_class('p-drama-half-row', playlist_data)
              or get_element_by_class('p-drama-new-grid', playlist_data))  // class observed in current HTML
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

def has_episode_grid(playlist_html: str) -> bool:
    return ('p-drama-grid' in playlist_html
            or 'p-drama-half-row' in playlist_html)

Try / catch

try:
    entries = ydl.extract_info(show_url)
except ExtractorError as e:
    if 'No episodes found' in str(e):
        # verify manually: page may genuinely be empty or markup changed
        log_and_flag_for_review(show_url)
    else:
        raise

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Extracting a Youku show URL (show.youku.com) where the returned html field lacks both 'p-drama-grid' and 'p-drama-half-row' containers — empty/removed shows, region-served fallback pages, or a template change by Youku.

Common situations: Shows taken down or not yet published in the requested region; Youku shipping a new CSS class scheme for episode grids; the JSONP payload (parsed via js_to_json(strip_jsonp(...))) containing an error/placeholder page instead of the drama grid.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of ytdl-org/youtube-dl@956b8c5855 (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/81b49c799fdb98e7. Report an issue: GitHub.