Downloadhelper crashes (now on chrome, latest version)

[Tt TT2H]

So after I was told Chromium-browsers are not supported, I switched to Google Chrome. I am on the latest version (104.0.5112.79 - arm64). The extension crashes regularly - I put some videos I want to download (decent-sized - 1-2 gb each) and leave the computer be... after a few mins, I get a notification that the extension crashed. What can be done?

[Wild Willy]

If you post some URLs of specific videos, I can try them on Firefox. If I have problems
with them, that would point to something about the videos giving VDH problems. If I have
no problems with them, that would point to some problem specifically in the Chrome
version of VDH.

[Tt TT2H]

sites are behind a paywall. I just tried with a few accessible sites and stuff worked :(

What can I do to test further? Can I install the firefox extension test-wise to see whether it worked?

[Wild Willy]

Yeah, try it with Firefox. Couldn't hurt. You don't need to buy a license to use VDH.
All a license does is skip the step that adds the watermark. So whatever you download
will have the watermark. But it might be worth trying. If it fails in Firefox, you
could try downloading with ffmpeg. Instructions are here:

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

Do a string search on "cannot download" within that thread & you'll find a link to the
instructions.

You should also verify whether the items are protected by DRM. We just had a discussion
in which that was an issue.

https://groups.google.com/g/video-downloadhelper-q-and-a/c/keGg0hjlVr0

There's pictures in there of how to figure out if the content is protected by DRM.

If you're totally stumped, post screenshots of what you see step by step. Walk us
through your process. That's the best we can do since your content is behind a paywall.
Do the equivalent of letting us look over your shoulder while you try to download this
content.

[Tt TT2H]

It is not DRMed (I checked your instructions in the other thread). It did download in firefox... I will try a few other ones to confirm.

[Tt TT2H]

Definitively works in Firefox. All Chrome based browsers crash. Tried Brave, Brave Nightly Build, and Chrome itself.

[Wild Willy]

I suggest again that you post a series of screenshots showing what you are doing. It
might help Michel diagnose the problem.

[mjs]

Officially only Firefox, Chrome and Edge are supported but previously I've used the chrome extension in Opera , Yandex browser and chromium

browser. This was on Windows 7 and it worked then so I don't see why it wouldn't work on Brave. I might have seen the odd crash happen in

the chrome version. I'm using it now on ungoogled chromium on Windows 10 for testing purposes .

Why not try a download from odysee.com in the chrome version, if it works there then it's the sites you mentioned behind the paywall that are the issue. And also you should consider doing one download at a time. The other piece of info that is missing is what type of video are they

streaming eg HLS , Dash ?

[Tt TT2H]

Screenshots won't help... I simply download a video and all of a sudden there's a message that the extension "videodownloadhelper" crashed - with no further details. Everything worked fine up until that day when I posted the original issue. I am on a Mac (MacOS 12.3.1, all browsers are on the corresponding latest versions. It's HLS videos mostly. Firefox works absolutely fine. I wonder whether it's possible to return the no longer functioning license and exchange with one for FF?

[Wild Willy]

There have been other reports of this mysterious crash with Chrome. You could try
searching this forum for them. I don't recall seeing a proper resolution of the problem.
I don't know that proper problem diagnosis & resolution ever occurred. But I may not be
remembering right. You might discover an answer by searching.

As for the license, I believe Jérôme will allow a refund if your purchase was within the
past 3 months. I suppose he should consider this your request for a refund. You could
always go ahead & buy a Firefox license now & just wait for the refund to be taken care
of in due time, if you did buy it recently enough. I get the distinct impression from
subtle hints Michel has dropped that he considers Firefox to be the preferred browser.
Plus, he releases VDH betas only for Firefox. I've been using Firefox since it was
Netscape & maybe even a bit before. I installed Chrome once a few years ago & discovered
it was using half my bandwidth, which was a 28.8K dial-up modem at the time, so that was
considerably painful. It was doing that even though I had no browser windows open. I
considered that to be the kind of activity you'd expect from a virus. I suppose there's
settings that could have been tweaked to fix that, but Firefox with default settings
never acted like that. I couldn't uninstall Chrome fast enough & I've never considered
trying it again. Besides, VDH for Chrome doesn't download from YouTube. I suppose
Google has their own Chrome extension for downloading from YouTube, since they're all
part of the same incestuous family. I don't know that for a fact since I've never
investigated it. I just know that Google imposes the restriction on any third party item
in the Google store that it can't download from YouTube. So in a sense, VDH for Firefox
is the real extension while VDH for Chrome is the dumbed-down version.

[Tt TT2H]

I won't start a browser war here :) I purchased well over 3 months ago - as I said, everything worked fine until recently. What do I need to do to get the license transferred?

[Wild Willy]

Nothing. First off, licenses don't transfer. Second, since you bought your license more
than 3 months ago, you're stuck with it. You can't get a refund. So now you have to
decide if you want to buy the additional license for VDH for Firefox. Sad but true.
It's up to you now.