ytdl-org/youtube-dl · error · ExtractorError

%s said: %s

Error message

%s said: %s

What it means

Generic API-failure error raised by ViuBaseIE._call_api when a request to https://www.viu.com/api/<path> succeeds at the HTTP level but the JSON response's response.status field is not 'success'. The message interpolates the IE name and the server-provided response.message, so the exact text varies. Expected=True keeps it a user-visible extraction error.

Source

Thrown at youtube_dl/extractor/viu.py:45

                'platform': 'desktop',
                'userid': 'guest',
                'useridtype': 'guest',
                'ver': '1.0'
            }, headers=self.geo_verification_headers())
        self._auth_token = viu_auth_res.info()['X-VIU-AUTH']

    def _call_api(self, path, *args, **kwargs):
        headers = self.geo_verification_headers()
        headers.update({
            'X-VIU-AUTH': self._auth_token
        })
        headers.update(kwargs.get('headers', {}))
        kwargs['headers'] = headers
        response = self._download_json(
            'https://www.viu.com/api/' + path, *args,
            **compat_kwargs(kwargs))['response']
        if response.get('status') != 'success':
            raise ExtractorError('%s said: %s' % (
                self.IE_NAME, response['message']), expected=True)
        return response


class ViuIE(ViuBaseIE):
    _VALID_URL = r'(?:viu:|https?://[^/]+\.viu\.com/[a-z]{2}/media/)(?P<id>\d+)'
    _TESTS = [{
        'url': 'https://www.viu.com/en/media/1116705532?containerId=playlist-22168059',
        'info_dict': {
            'id': '1116705532',
            'ext': 'mp4',
            'title': 'Citizen Khan - Ep 1',
            'description': 'md5:d7ea1604f49e5ba79c212c551ce2110e',
        },
        'params': {
            'skip_download': 'm3u8 download',
        },
        'skip': 'Geo-restricted to India',

View on GitHub (pinned to 956b8c5855)

Solutions

  1. Read the interpolated server message — it is the actual API explanation (e.g. token invalid, geo-blocked)
  2. Refresh any authentication cookies/tokens used to build X-VIU-AUTH before extraction
  3. Route the request through a region where the content is available (the API is geo-sensitive via geo_verification_headers)
Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Try / catch

from youtube_dl.utils import ExtractorError
try:
    info = ydl.extract_info(viu_url)
except ExtractorError as e:
    msg = str(e)
    if 'geo' in msg.lower():
        log('region-locked, skipping')
    elif 'token' in msg.lower():
        refresh_viu_token(); retry = True
    else:
        raise

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Any _download_json call to viu.com/api/* (e.g. playlist or media endpoints) whose parsed ['response']['status'] != 'success'; typical causes are invalid/expired X-VIU-AUTH tokens, bad parameters, or region-locked content.

Common situations: Expired or missing VIU auth token; requesting content not licensed for the requesting country; upstream API schema changes after a site redesign.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of ytdl-org/youtube-dl@956b8c5855 (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/becc7704f2bbf9e5. Report an issue: GitHub.