What causes "Unable to log in" in ytdl-org/youtube-dl?

Log in manually at platzi.com to rule out account issues (unverified email, captcha, password change)

ytdl-org/youtube-dl · error · ExtractorError

Unable to log in

Error message

Unable to log in

What it means

The fallback Platzi login failure: raised when the post-login page was fetched and parsed successfully but none of the error/password/nonFields fields in the login JSON is set — i.e. the response indicates failure without a specific message. Unlike the sibling errors it is NOT marked expected, so the downloader treats it as an unexpected login failure worth reporting as a bug.

Source

Thrown at youtube_dl/extractor/platzi.py:65

        # login succeeded
        if 'platzi.com/login' not in urlh.geturl():
            return

        login_error = self._webpage_read_content(
            urlh, self._LOGIN_URL, None, 'Downloading login error page')

        login = self._parse_json(
            self._search_regex(
                r'login\s*=\s*({.+?})(?:\s*;|\s*</script)', login_error, 'login'),
            None)

        for kind in ('error', 'password', 'nonFields'):
            error = str_or_none(login.get('%sError' % kind))
            if error:
                raise ExtractorError(
                    'Unable to login: %s' % error, expected=True)
        raise ExtractorError('Unable to log in')


class PlatziIE(PlatziBaseIE):
    _VALID_URL = r'''(?x)
                    https?://
                        (?:
                            platzi\.com/clases|           # es version
                            courses\.platzi\.com/classes  # en version
                        )/[^/]+/(?P<id>\d+)-[^/?\#&]+
                    '''

    _TESTS = [{
        'url': 'https://platzi.com/clases/1311-next-js/12074-creando-nuestra-primera-pagina/',
        'md5': '8f56448241005b561c10f11a595b37e3',
        'info_dict': {
            'id': '12074',
            'ext': 'mp4',
            'title': 'Creando nuestra primera página',

View on GitHub (pinned to 956b8c5855)

Solutions

Log in manually at platzi.com to rule out account issues (unverified email, captcha, password change)
Export browser cookies and pass --cookies instead of credential login
Update yt-dlp (extractor maintained there) and if current, report the site login change upstream

Example fix

# before
youtube_dl --username me@example.com --password '...' PLATZI_URL
# after
# export cookies from a logged-in browser session, then:
youtube_dl --cookies cookies.txt PLATZI_URL

Defensive patterns

Strategy: fallback

Try / catch

try:
    ydl.extract_info(url, username=..., password=...)
except ExtractorError as e:
    if 'Unable to log in' in str(e):  # not expected → likely site change
        # fall back to browser-session cookies
        ydl2 = YoutubeDL({'cookiefile': 'cookies.txt')
        info = ydl2.extract_info(url)

Prevention

Prefer --cookies (browser session) over scripted credential login for Platzi
Watch for this non-expected error as an early signal of a login-flow change
Keep yt-dlp updated; Platzi maintenance happens there

When it happens

Trigger: Platzi login POST succeeds at HTTP level but the returned page's login JSON has no error fields — typically an undocumented state: maintenance page, captcha/2FA interstitial, or an A/B login flow the extractor does not recognize.

Common situations: Platzi ships a new login flow (e.g. React redirect without the scraped JSON); rate limiting or Cloudflare challenge on the login endpoint; account state like unverified email that shows a non-standard page.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of ytdl-org/youtube-dl@956b8c5855 (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d8b61c80a71c488c. Report an issue: GitHub.