Video DownloadHelper (licensed on Mac FireFox) no longer working

[Christina Nelson]

Hello,

I have been using licensed VDH for years, and have the companion app installed. However, recently it seems to no longer work. Definitely does not work on YouTube anymore. It also does not seems to work in general. The last time I see that I have successful downloads is back in February 2023. 

It seems to start, and you can see the little blue number '1' after I select the size download I want but then the blue '1' disappears, and there is no download.

Mac version licensed on my FireFox browser. 

VDH 8.0.0.0.

Video DownloadHelper

Version 8.0.0.0

Browser locale: en-US

Production build

Built on Fri Jul 07 2023 15:02:51 GMT+0200 (Central European Summer Time)

Build options: browser=firefox

Platform: 

Platform Mac x86-64

Browser Mozilla Firefox 116.0.3

Companion app installed:

Found companion app: VdhCoApp 1.6.3

Companion app binary: /Applications/net.downloadhelper.coapp.app/Contents/MacOS/bin/net.downloadhelper.coapp-mac-64

License verified: (with my main email address that I won’t provide here). 

Can you help?

Thank you!

[Christina Nelson]

Some additional info. A red '1' appears and here is some of the error message:

'Failed aggregating'  (listed name of video I was trying to download). 

Failed aggregating "Spiritual Advice From a Tibetan Medical Perspective | Illuminated Herbalism Summit"ffmpeg version n4.1.5-vdhcoapp Copyright (c) 2000-2020 the FFmpeg developers built with Apple LLVM version 8.0.0 (clang-800.0.42.1) configuration: --arch=x86_64 --enable-runtime-cpudetect --enable-gpl --extra-version=vdhcoapp --enable-shared --enable-pthreads --prefix=/Users/mig/localgit/vdhcoapp/converter/src-build/mac/64/converter-build --enable-version3 --extra-cflags=-I/Users/mig/localgit/vdhcoapp/converter/src-build/mac/64/deps/include --extra-ldflags='-L/Users/mig/localgit/vdhcoapp/converter/src-build/mac/64/deps/lib -L/Users/mig/localgit/vdhcoapp/converter/src-build/mac/64/zlib' --pkg-config=pkg-config --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libopus --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libx264 --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libxvid --enable-libopencore_amrnb --enable-libopencore_amrwb --enable-encoder=libvpx-vp9 --enable-libwebp --enable-zlib --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libx265 --enable-libtheora --enable-libaom --disable-doc libavutil 56. 22.100 / 56. 22.100 libavcodec 58. 35.100 / 58. 35.100 libavformat 58. 20.100 / 58. 20.100 libavdevice 58. 5.100 / 58. 5.100 libavfilter 7. 40.101 / 7. 40.101 libswscale 5. 3.100 / 5. 3.100 libswresample 3. 3.100 / 3. 3.100 libpostproc 55. 3.100 / 55. 3.100 Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from '/var/folders/fy/v3hrtqts7qd_0d_4j21kwgpr0000gn/T/vdh-16741CJ3JayxCba3X.tmp': Metadata: major_brand : dash minor_version : 0 compatible_brands: dashmp42iso6 creation_time : 2023-07-26T18:36:26.000000Z Duration: 00:47:25.18, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 190 kb/s Stream #0:0(und): Audio: aac (LC) (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 189 kb/s (default) Metadata: creation_time : 2023-07-26T18:36:26.000000Z handler_name : Vimeo Isopod Audio Handler [mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 @ 0x7fc72a008800] moov atom not found /var/folders/fy/v3hrtqts7qd_0d_4j21kwgpr0000gn/T/vdh-16741ULG06ZFFN10f.tmp: Invalid data found when processing input 

This same message came up on YouTube video download attempts. 

[Wild Willy]

You have not been paying attention. This forum contains many recent threads dealing with
this exact issue. You need to get the latest beta of VDH. It contains fixes expressly
made to deal with all the nonsense that has been going on at YouTube recently. To get
started, click this:

https://groups.google.com/g/video-downloadhelper-q-and-a/c/BzPLK2YyL-s

Be sure you carefully read the first 2 paragraphs there. Once you have read that, you
can check out the references within that web page that I am about to give you. But don't
just find the relevant link & click it. READ the context around the link. I recommend
you bookmark that link & read the entire page, if not now, if not in one sitting, bit by
bit over time.

Unsuspecting users have been caught out by a rather stupid design choice made by Google.
The way thread pages are displayed here is controlled by a symbol that appears in the
upper right part of every discussion page of Google Groups, the page I cite above being
but one among the thousands of examples. Actually, some shorter pages don't have it.
But almost all pages do. The symbol looks like an upside down V above a V. Or it looks
like a V above an upside down V. Hover your mouse over that to make a tooltip appear.
Then click the symbol. Then keep hovering there to see how the tooltip changes. Click
the symbol a few times to get an idea of what it does. You want that symbol to look like
a V above an upside down V. If it's the other way, click the symbol. Once it looks like
a V above an upside down V, then you'll be able to read the thread. Why that thing even
exists is beyond me. I point all this out because every so often, somebody doesn't know
about this & it makes my advice here seem baffling. It's not baffling. Google Groups is
baffling. This is how to make it all make sense.

You find a reference on that web page by searching the text of that page using various
search keys. The search keys I am suggesting are these:

stealth quote
short tutorial
using gmail to post here
various pieces

Next, look for "stealth quote" within the text of that web page. That will give you
another link to click. Click that, read what you find, & follow the advice, not just for
your posts in this thread, not just for your posts in this forum, but for your posts
anywhere on Google Groups.

Next, look for "short tutorial" within the text of that web page. That explains why your
response here will use the Reply all button. It also explains why you will NOT use the
Reply to author button.

Next, look for "using gmail to post here" within the text of that web page. That will
give you a couple of links to read, at least one of which is sure to apply to you. Even
if you don't use GMail, even if you use another E-mail tool to post here, even if you
don't post here via E-mail, what it says there about how to construct posts to the group
applies to you no matter how you post here. If you ignore the advice in that reference,
you will appear to be rude. You don't want to be rude, do you?

Next, look for "various pieces" within the text of that web page. That will give you
another link to click. That will show you where to find the latest VDH beta for Firefox.
This beta is going to be equivalent to the public release that is currently hung up in
the Mozilla approval process. That is why it is not yet available on the official
Mozilla add-ons repository. But you shouldn't wait. Just get the beta now & it should
solve your problems.

[Wild Willy]

That error about failure to aggregate was the second of 2 errors you got. Look at the
first one. It says VDH was unable to get information from the web site about the video.
That is the main error. It tells you that no download occurred. That should make you
wonder why VDH even attempted to aggregate anything. No download occurred. There was
nothing to aggregate. VDH should never have attempted an aggregation. So you should
have realized that the second error was a red herring & reported the first error.

[Christina Nelson]

Hi Wild Willy,

Thanks for taking the time to reply in such detail! I will review the information you’ve provided. I won’t pretend that I understand how VDH works, and never having had any issues with it before, there has never been any impetus to visit this Group (or LOL learn more :) 

Regards,

Christina