ytdl-org/youtube-dl · error · ExtractorError

Unable to extract client id

Error message

Unable to extract client id

What it means

SoundcloudIE._update_client_id scrapes soundcloud.com, walks all <script src> URLs in reverse order, and searches each script for a 32-char client_id literal. If no script yields one, it raises 'Unable to extract client id' (unexpected severity in practice - a broken extractor, not a content error). Without a valid client_id every Soundcloud API request would 403, so this fails fast instead.

Source

Thrown at youtube_dl/extractor/soundcloud.py:289

        'original': 0,
    }

    def _store_client_id(self, client_id):
        self._downloader.cache.store('soundcloud', 'client_id', client_id)

    def _update_client_id(self):
        webpage = self._download_webpage('https://soundcloud.com/', None)
        for src in reversed(re.findall(r'<script[^>]+src="([^"]+)"', webpage)):
            script = self._download_webpage(src, None, fatal=False)
            if script:
                client_id = self._search_regex(
                    r'client_id\s*:\s*"([0-9a-zA-Z]{32})"',
                    script, 'client id', default=None)
                if client_id:
                    self._CLIENT_ID = client_id
                    self._store_client_id(client_id)
                    return
        raise ExtractorError('Unable to extract client id')

    def _download_json(self, *args, **kwargs):
        non_fatal = kwargs.get('fatal') is False
        if non_fatal:
            del kwargs['fatal']
        query = kwargs.get('query', {}).copy()
        for _ in range(2):
            query['client_id'] = self._CLIENT_ID
            kwargs['query'] = query
            try:
                return super(SoundcloudIE, self)._download_json(*args, **compat_kwargs(kwargs))
            except ExtractorError as e:
                if isinstance(e.cause, compat_HTTPError) and e.cause.code == 401:
                    self._store_client_id(None)
                    self._update_client_id()
                    continue
                elif non_fatal:
                    self._downloader.report_warning(error_to_compat_str(e))

View on GitHub (pinned to 956b8c5855)

Solutions

  1. Update to yt-dlp / latest youtube-dl - this is a site-change breakage fixed upstream typically within days.
  2. Clear the Soundcloud cache entry (or run --no-cache-dir) so a stale client id is not reused.
  3. Open https://soundcloud.com in a browser and confirm it loads normally; if the site is down or blocking your IP, wait or change network.
  4. As a stopgap, extract the current client_id from your browser's network tab and cache it via the extractor's stored-id mechanism.

Example fix

// before
client_id = self._search_regex(
    r'client_id\s*:\s*"([0-9a-zA-Z]{32})"',
    script, 'client id', default=None)

// after (tolerate single quotes and varied lengths)
client_id = self._search_regex(
    r'client_id["\']?\s*[:=]\s*["\']([0-9a-zA-Z]{20,40})["\']',
    script, 'client id', default=None)
Defensive patterns

Strategy: retry

Validate before calling

webpage = requests.get('https://soundcloud.com/').text
if not re.search(r'<script[^>]+src=', webpage):
    warn('Soundcloud unreachable or layout changed - extraction will fail')

Type guard

def page_has_script_sources(webpage: str) -> bool:
    return bool(re.search(r'<script[^>]+src="([^"]+)"', webpage))

Try / catch

try:
    extract(url)
except ExtractorError as e:
    if 'Unable to extract client id' == str(e):
        update_ytdlp_or_cache_browser_client_id()
    else:
        raise

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Soundcloud changes its JS bundle layout: the client_id either moves to a file not referenced by a plain <script src> tag, the regex 'client_id\s*:\s*"([0-9a-zA-Z]{32})"' no longer matches (different quoting/length), or the homepage HTML fails to load. The loop over reversed script tags finding nothing triggers the raise.

Common situations: Soundcloud frontend deploy invalidating the stored/derived client id; an expired cached client_id in the user's cache forcing a re-scan during a Soundcloud outage; network middleboxes mangling the homepage HTML; running an old youtube-dl against a changed Soundcloud build.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of ytdl-org/youtube-dl@956b8c5855 (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e9e0188aa8487239. Report an issue: GitHub.