ytdl-org/youtube-dl · error · ExtractorError

You've asked youtube-dl to download the URL "%s". That doesn

Error message

You've asked youtube-dl to download the URL "%s". That doesn't make any sense. Simply remove the parameter in your command or configuration.

What it means

Error "You've asked youtube-dl to download the URL "%s". That doesn't make any sense. Simply remove the parameter in your command or configuration." thrown in ytdl-org/youtube-dl.

Source

Thrown at youtube_dl/extractor/commonmistakes.py:31

    '''

    _TESTS = [{
        'url': 'url',
        'only_matching': True,
    }, {
        'url': 'URL',
        'only_matching': True,
    }]

    def _real_extract(self, url):
        msg = (
            'You\'ve asked youtube-dl to download the URL "%s". '
            'That doesn\'t make any sense. '
            'Simply remove the parameter in your command or configuration.'
        ) % url
        if not self._downloader.params.get('verbose'):
            msg += ' Add -v to the command line to see what arguments and configuration youtube-dl got.'
        raise ExtractorError(msg, expected=True)


class UnicodeBOMIE(InfoExtractor):
    IE_DESC = False
    _VALID_URL = r'(?P<bom>\ufeff)(?P<id>.*)$'

    # Disable test for python 3.2 since BOM is broken in re in this version
    # (see https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/9751)
    _TESTS = [] if (3, 0) < sys.version_info <= (3, 3) else [{
        'url': '\ufeffhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc',
        'only_matching': True,
    }]

    def _real_extract(self, url):
        real_url = self._match_id(url)
        self.report_warning(
            'Your URL starts with a Byte Order Mark (BOM). '
            'Removing the BOM and looking for "%s" ...' % real_url)

View on GitHub (pinned to 956b8c5855)

Solutions

1. Remove the quoted URL parameter from your command or configuration.

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at youtube_dl/extractor/commonmistakes.py:31 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of ytdl-org/youtube-dl@956b8c5855 (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/66dfc5d755dd602b. Report an issue: GitHub.