What causes "unable to download video webpage: %s" in ytdl-org/youtube-dl?

Open the playlist URL in a browser to check whether it still exists / is public.

ytdl-org/youtube-dl · error · ExtractorError

unable to download video webpage: %s

Error message

unable to download video webpage: %s

What it means

SoundcloudSetIE resolves a playlist/sets URL through the Soundcloud API; if the resolved info dict contains an 'errors' list, each entry's 'error_message' is joined and raised as 'unable to download video webpage: <msgs>'. This surfaces Soundcloud's own playlist-level failures (most commonly 'Not Found' / 404 for deleted or private sets).

Source

Thrown at youtube_dl/extractor/soundcloud.py:554

    }, {
        'url': 'https://soundcloud.com/the-concept-band/sets/the-royal-concept-ep/token',
        'only_matching': True,
    }]

    def _real_extract(self, url):
        mobj = re.match(self._VALID_URL, url)

        full_title = '%s/sets/%s' % mobj.group('uploader', 'slug_title')
        token = mobj.group('token')
        if token:
            full_title += '/' + token

        info = self._download_json(self._resolv_url(
            self._BASE_URL + full_title), full_title)

        if 'errors' in info:
            msgs = (compat_str(err['error_message']) for err in info['errors'])
            raise ExtractorError('unable to download video webpage: %s' % ','.join(msgs))

        return self._extract_set(info, token)


class SoundcloudPagedPlaylistBaseIE(SoundcloudIE):
    def _extract_playlist(self, base_url, playlist_id, playlist_title):
        # Per the SoundCloud documentation, the maximum limit for a linked partitioning query is 200.
        # https://developers.soundcloud.com/blog/offset-pagination-deprecated
        COMMON_QUERY = {
            'limit': 200,
            'linked_partitioning': '1',
        }

        query = COMMON_QUERY.copy()
        query['offset'] = 0

        next_href = base_url

View on GitHub (pinned to 956b8c5855)

Solutions

Open the playlist URL in a browser to check whether it still exists / is public.
If private, obtain the full share link including the secret token path segment and use that exact URL.
If the uploader renamed, find their current handle and rebuild the URL.
Update yt-dlp - resolver contract changes also surface through this error.

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

info = resolve(full_title)
if 'errors' in info:
    msgs = [e.get('error_message') for e in info['errors']]
    if any('404' in str(m) or 'Not Found' in str(m) for m in msgs):
        drop(url)

Type guard

def has_resolver_errors(info: dict) -> bool:
    return 'errors' in info and bool(info['errors'])

Try / catch

try:
    extract(url)
except ExtractorError as e:
    if 'unable to download video webpage' in str(e):
        check_playlist_visibility(url)
    else:
        raise

Prevention

Use full share URLs including the secret token for private sets.
Refresh uploader handles when accounts are renamed.
Treat resolver 404s as permanent; do not retry.

When it happens

Trigger: Resolving <uploader>/sets/<slug>[/<token>] where the API returns an errors array instead of playlist data: deleted playlist, private playlist accessed without its secret token, renamed uploader making the path stale.

Common situations: Deleted or made-private playlists (owner deleted the set or flipped visibility); a copied URL missing the secret token suffix; uploader renamed their account so the uploader segment of the URL no longer resolves; region/network blocks making the resolver return an error payload.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of ytdl-org/youtube-dl@956b8c5855 (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ae3ccf7cb903fe54. Report an issue: GitHub.