ytdl-org/youtube-dl · error · ExtractorError

Unable to download video %s

Error message

Unable to download video %s

What it means

The ivi.ru extractor's generic per-video failure: the light API answered with an error object whose origin was not the geo or not-exist cases and no dependency/bundling issue applied, so the default 'Unable to download video %s' (optionally suffixed with the server's message) is raised as an expected ExtractorError.

Source

Thrown at youtube_dl/extractor/ivi.py:153

                message = error.get('message') or error.get('user_message')
                extractor_msg = 'Unable to download video %s'
                if origin == 'NotAllowedForLocation':
                    self.raise_geo_restricted(message, self._GEO_COUNTRIES)
                elif origin == 'NoRedisValidData':
                    extractor_msg = 'Video %s does not exist'
                elif site == 353:
                    continue
                elif bundled:
                    raise ExtractorError(
                        'This feature does not work from bundled exe. Run youtube-dl from sources.',
                        expected=True)
                elif not pycryptodomex_found:
                    raise ExtractorError(
                        'pycryptodomex not found. Please install it.',
                        expected=True)
                elif message:
                    extractor_msg += ': ' + message
                raise ExtractorError(extractor_msg % video_id, expected=True)
            else:
                break

        result = video_json['result']
        title = result['title']

        quality = qualities(self._KNOWN_FORMATS)

        formats = []
        for f in result.get('files', []):
            f_url = f.get('url')
            content_format = f.get('content_format')
            if not f_url or '-MDRM-' in content_format or '-FPS-' in content_format:
                continue
            formats.append({
                'url': f_url,
                'format_id': content_format,
                'quality': quality(content_format),

View on GitHub (pinned to 956b8c5855)

Solutions

  1. Read the appended server message (if any) - it identifies the actual rejection reason.
  2. Confirm the video plays for free in a browser from your region.
  3. Update youtube-dl/yt-dlp for current ivi API error semantics.
Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Try / catch

try:
    ydl.extract_info(ivi_url)
except ExtractorError as e:
    if str(e).startswith('Unable to download video'):
        # check for paid-content/geo hints in the tail of the message, else retry once
        handle_ivi_rejection(str(e))

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: POST to ivi's _LIGHT_URL (contentdelegation) returning {'error': {...}} with an unknown origin - e.g. 'CROSS_DEVICE_LIMIT', paid-content errors, or malformed/expired content IDs that still resolve to a generic error.

Common situations: Paid ivi.ru content without a subscription, content removed between listing and playback, or server-side API changes altering the error envelope.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of ytdl-org/youtube-dl@956b8c5855 (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1b6d9d559c914f96. Report an issue: GitHub.