What causes "QQ Music said: error %d in fetching playlist info" in ytdl-org/youtube-dl?

Open the playlist URL (https://y.qq.com/n/yqq/playlist/ .html) in a browser to confirm it still exists.

ytdl-org/youtube-dl · error · ExtractorError

QQ Music said: error %d in fetching playlist info

Error message

QQ Music said: error %d in fetching playlist info

What it means

QQPlaylistIE._real_extract raises ExtractorError('QQ Music said: error %d in fetching playlist info' % code, expected=True) when the playlist API (fcg_ucc_getcdinfo_by_ids_cp.fcg, parsed via strip_jsonp) returns an empty cdlist array AND the response contains a non-zero/falsy-safe 'code' field. The numeric code is QQ Music's own server error code for the failed dissid lookup.

Source

Thrown at youtube_dl/extractor/qqmusic.py:357

        'info_dict': {
            'id': '1374105607',
            'title': '易入人心的华语民谣',
            'description': '民谣的歌曲易于传唱、、歌词朗朗伤口、旋律简单温馨。属于那种才入耳孔。却上心头的感觉。没有太多的复杂情绪。简单而直接地表达乐者的情绪，就是这样的简单才易入人心。',
        },
        'playlist_count': 20,
    }]

    def _real_extract(self, url):
        list_id = self._match_id(url)

        list_json = self._download_json(
            'http://i.y.qq.com/qzone-music/fcg-bin/fcg_ucc_getcdinfo_byids_cp.fcg',
            list_id, 'Download list page',
            query={'type': 1, 'json': 1, 'utf8': 1, 'onlysong': 0, 'disstid': list_id},
            transform_source=strip_jsonp)
        if not len(list_json.get('cdlist', [])):
            if list_json.get('code'):
                raise ExtractorError(
                    'QQ Music said: error %d in fetching playlist info' % list_json['code'],
                    expected=True)
            raise ExtractorError('Unable to get playlist info')

        cdlist = list_json['cdlist'][0]
        entries = [self.url_result(
            'https://y.qq.com/n/yqq/song/' + song['songmid'] + '.html', 'QQMusic', song['songmid'])
            for song in cdlist['songlist']]

        list_name = cdlist.get('dissname')
        list_description = clean_html(unescapeHTML(cdlist.get('desc')))
        return self.playlist_result(entries, list_id, list_name, list_description)

View on GitHub (pinned to 956b8c5855)

Solutions

Open the playlist URL (https://y.qq.com/n/yqq/playlist/<id>.html) in a browser to confirm it still exists.
If the code indicates region restriction, access via a CN egress point.
Re-copy the playlist URL from QQ Music to rule out ID transcription errors.
Skip the dead playlist in batch jobs and proceed.

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Try / catch

try:
    info = ydl.extract_info(url)
except ExtractorError as e:
    if 'error' in str(e) and 'fetching playlist info' in str(e):
        mark_dead(url)  # server rejected the disstid

Prevention

Validate playlist ids by opening the y.qq.com page before batch jobs.
Record the numeric QQ error code in logs to classify deletions vs region blocks.
Do not retry — the server-side verdict for that disstid is stable.

When it happens

Trigger: Requesting a y.qq.com playlist URL whose disstid does not exist, was deleted, or is region-blocked; the JSONP endpoint returns {'code': <n>, 'cdlist': []}. Only raised when code is truthy — otherwise the generic 'Unable to get playlist info' path fires.

Common situations: Copied playlist IDs from old shares after the playlist was removed; playlists restricted to mainland-China IPs; ID typo in hand-built URLs.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of ytdl-org/youtube-dl@956b8c5855 (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1e9a7b0e3c95d9e0. Report an issue: GitHub.