I have had Video DownloadHelp installed for months with no problem. Today, it's suddenly stating that I can't download without a "converter", and it

[Mark Morley]

I have had Video DownloadHelp installed for months with no problem.  Today, it's suddenly stating that I can't download without a "converter", and it no longer lists available videos to download when I'm searching in YouTube.  What's happened, and what can I do to correct this?  Thanks...

[Jim Voos]

Used to see .mp4 options in youtube until today.  Now, no longer, just ADP

[Lat Latterson]

Yup, just started happening to me today too, using 5.5.0a17, firefox 45.0.1

On youtube, I either get no options, or I will get the option to download the 360p version OR the ADP option that requires a converter that I don't want to get involved with. I no longer get options for like 480p or 720p and most videos give me no options at all.

[mig]

Please share a sample URL at youtube you are having problem with.

[NO Downy]

I have the exact same problem. It's so annoying.

[Lat Latterson]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLkP3LGPIW0

I have no download options on this video (and others) at all.

[Boxton]

I am also having the same problem. Here's a link  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0CFSryOWdg

Thanks!

[mig]

I tried both links and they work normally for me. I presume it's going to take some time (hours, days) for those youtube changes to be deployed everywhere. So far i cannot make a blind diagnostic.
Thanks for raising the issue.

[Jacob _]

Here's another example. It's really every video I've tried but here's the most recent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imHUmZeAaqQ

Thanks.

[Lat Latterson]

I don't understand, are you saying Youtube have made some changes & we have to wait for them to roll out before we can download videos or you can fix the problem?

[Jacob _]

He has to be able to experience the problem in order to attempt to resolve it, so yes.

[mig]

This is correct. By experience (YT has been playing this little game many times over the past 10 years), it does not take long for their changes to be deployed widely.

[jctoad]

I've been having the same problem for hours on every video. I do have the unregistered converter installed and it used to work for adp and would dl them with the watermark, but now if you try to use it, the file is only like 5 megs so it's too small to be the real file. If you try to play it, vlc says "VLC can't recognize the input's format:

The format of 'file:///I:xxxxx.mp4' cannot be detected. Have a look at the log for details."

Problem is that vlc didn't save any log files and despite configuring where it should save them, it still won't do it. So thanks for nothing vlc.

[Scott Evans]

People, YouTube makes itself a moving target when it comes to how they serve up videos.  They don't really want people to download the videos for offline viewing (as they don't get advertising revenue for videos that aren't shown via a YouTube player).  So, they will on occasion change the way they serve up the videos to try to prevent offline viewing, causing video downloading programs (like DownloadHelper) to stop working.  It is NOT a problem with DownloadHelper if you used to be able to download videos, and now you can't.  If anything, blame YouTube for changing their methods on occasion.  I applaud mig's continuing efforts to keep up with YouTube's frequent changes, as it's a never ending battle to keep up with a moving target.  I suggest that people just chill out for a few days, and wait for mig to do his magic once again.  If you appreciate his work, I'm sure a donation to him would be appreciated.

Scott

[TB]

I've been using VDH for years, always stuck with it through hard times cuz it always worked out the kinks and remained the best.  This is one of those times, I've having the same problem. ADP only, no mp4 or other options. Usually just one ADP option to boot, not several like usual.

[TB]

Here's what I got from latest download attempt from YT. Same issue, btw, no mp4 only ADP

avconv version v11.2, Copyright (c) 2000-2014 the Libav developers

  built on Mar  2 2015 12:48:12 with gcc 4.8.3 (Gentoo 4.8.3 p1.1, pie-0.5.9)

[matroska,webm @ 000000000224b8c0] Unknown entry 0x56BB

Input #0, matroska,webm, from 'C:\Users\Seejay\AppData\Local\Temp\media-9.tmp':

  Duration: 00:47:26.44, start: 0.000000, bitrate: N/A

    Stream #0.0(eng): Audio: opus, 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp (default)

Input #1, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'C:\Users\Seejay\AppData\Local\Temp\media-10.mp4':

  Metadata:

    major_brand     : dash

    minor_version   : 0

    compatible_brands: iso6avc1mp41

    creation_time   : 2016-03-23 02:53:38

  Duration: 00:47:26.43, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 15 kb/s

    Stream #1.0(und): Video: h264 (Main), yuv420p, 640x360 [PAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 11 kb/s, 30 fps, 90k tbn, 60 tbc (default)

    Metadata:

      creation_time   : 2016-03-23 02:53:38

Input #2, image2, from 'C:\Users\Seejay\AppData\Local\Temp\wma.gif':

  Duration: 00:00:00.04, start: 0.000000, bitrate: N/A

    Stream #2.0: Video: gif, pal8, 31x31, 25 tbn

[libx264 @ 0000000002268c80] using SAR=1/1

[libx264 @ 0000000002268c80] MB rate (82800000) > level limit (2073600)

[libx264 @ 0000000002268c80] using cpu capabilities: MMX2 SSE2Fast SSSE3 SSE4.2 AVX AVX2 FMA3 LZCNT BMI2

[libx264 @ 0000000002268c80] profile High, level 5.2

[libx264 @ 0000000002268c80] 264 - core 142 - H.264/MPEG-4 AVC codec - Copyleft 2003-2014 - http://www.videolan.org/x264.html - options: cabac=1 ref=3 deblock=1:0:0 analyse=0x3:0x113 me=hex subme=7 psy=1 psy_rd=1.00:0.00 mixed_ref=1 me_range=16 chroma_me=1 trellis=1 8x8dct=1 cqm=0 deadzone=21,11 fast_pskip=1 chroma_qp_offset=-2 threads=6 lookahead_threads=1 sliced_threads=0 nr=0 decimate=1 interlaced=0 bluray_compat=0 constrained_intra=0 bframes=3 b_pyramid=2 b_adapt=1 b_bias=0 direct=1 weightb=1 open_gop=0 weightp=2 keyint=250 keyint_min=25 scenecut=40 intra_refresh=0 rc_lookahead=40 rc=crf mbtree=1 crf=23.0 qcomp=0.60 qpmin=0 qpmax=69 qpstep=4 ip_ratio=1.40 aq=1:1.00

[mp4 @ 0000000002268300] track 1: could not find tag, codec not currently supported in container

Output #0, mp4, to 'C:\Users\Seejay\dwhelper\V\Guerrilla Update 03.22.16 - YouTube.mp4':

  Metadata:

    encoder         : Lavf56.1.0

    Stream #0.0: Video: libx264, yuv420p, 640x360 [PAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], q=-1--1, 30 fps, 90k tbn, 90k tbc (default)

    Metadata:

      encoder         : Lavc56.1.0 libx264

    Stream #0.1(eng): Audio: libopus, 48000 Hz, stereo (default)

Stream mapping:

  Stream #1:0 (h264) -> overlay:main

  Stream #2:0 (gif) -> overlay:overlay

  overlay -> Stream #0:0 (libx264)

  Stream #0:0 -> #0:1 (copy)

Could not write header for output file #0 (incorrect codec parameters ?): Erro

[David Dvojack]

I started experiencing this same issue (ADP only, or no options at all) as soon as I updated Firefox to 45.0.1.  The problem is directly related to this change, as no other changes were made to my system.

[Russell Goldman]

Possible update on this issue: VDH only seems to lose video files for me if I am logged into my YouTube profile. If I go and look up the same video files without being logged in, it picks them up just fine.

[Boxton]

Yes! I just tried the same thing. If I'm logged into my YT account I only get the ADP option but if I log out and look at the exact same video I get all the other options and can download.

[jctoad]

As I said earlier, Firefox 45 only shows ADP for me. On my other computer with FF 44.0.2 it does show mp4 available, but when you try to dl the file size is 0.  VDH says "Downloaded file for "xxxxxxxxxxx" is empty. Media might be protected." and it says that for all files I try to dl. I don't have a converter installed on this computer so I can't see what would happen if I tried to dl one. Both computers are win 8.1.  So it appears that there is still something else going on besides the FF update that is causing the problem.  I'm sure youtube is playing cat and mouse with us.

I just tried it logged out in FF 45 and now mine also shows mp4 and they dled just fine.  I did not try logging out on FF 44. I think we're getting close the solving this :)

[Lat Latterson]

I can confirm that this worked for me when I tested it just now. I logged out of my google accounts, went to the videos on youtube and I had a full set of download options for each video as normal. Once I logged back in, I lost all options, except on a few videos where I had the ADP option only.

[rafaelgonzalez65]

I concur. Did exactly as described above, and acquired a full set of video type options. Did a download and logged back in, with the subsequent loss of all options.

[Scott Strz]

Logging out of google account fixed it for me too!

[Hanatake Yurii]

Same for me, only works as wanted logged out

[Nate Whilk]

I also use NoScript, and it updated today. On the update page there was this: "Version 2.9.0.10 fixes some Google/Youtube/MSN annoying issues caused by new security measures."

So it's exactly what SAE wrote earlier: YouTube has changed something, and that caused the problem.

[DeeC Padalecki]

Yup, logging out somehow "fixes" the problem for me too. Very strange.

[mig]

A development version 5.5.0a19 has been released in the beta channel: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/video-downloadhelper-5/D3fUpPoxXMw . It should address that YouTube issue and you should be able to get download offers even if you are logged into YouTube. Please, report how it goes for you.

[plicketyplunk]

WooHoo! Now we are cooking with gas. Just downloaded the link and all is right with the world. Thanks so much for all work that went into fixing this issue. I am very grateful. Shot you a little something to help the cause!

[jctoad]

Brilliant! Nice job. I wish we could get governments to fix things that quickly.

I don't know if this was happening before or not, but now I am seeing that all the vevo videos are "protected".
"Downloaded file for "HOT THIS WEEK: Mar. 4, 2016" is empty. Media might be protected. " https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi6xro_zo7w
"Downloaded file for "Paloma Faith - The Crazy Ones (Miss You Already Soundtrack)" is empty. Media might be protected. " https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWhJmi5oxXg
Don't know if this is part of the change that youtube did or if it was happening before we noticed the latest problem.
If it can be done to vevo, than it would seem they could do it to all of youtube.

[Jordan Argyle]

Thank you, mig. This was a surprisingly fast response, and I'm grateful. I have created a workflow and entertainment flow, and I feel rather crippled when I can't download. I had another strange issue that maybe somebody could shed some light on. When I downloaded using the converter, it downloaded a media.tmp file, and then a media.mp4 file. I assume one is the actual encoded file, while the other is the raw (not MP4) data. I can even go look at the temp directory and see that media.mp4 is increasing in size. When the download finishes, there is a pause, and then media.mp4 is moved to where I asked it to be saved and the name is changed. The only problem is, the moved .mp4 is only 1KB in size.

I tired to play media.mp4 after download completion (I had to copy it somewhere quickly before it was automatically moved to do so), but when I did the video played mostly fine, just a little stretched and twice as long as it should have been.

This happened with multiple videos. I thought maybe it had something to do with my firewall (zonealarm), but that didn't seem to make a difference when I turned it off. Can somebody shed some light on what was going on? It's just a technical thing that is bothering me.

[mig]

Jordan: downloading 2 files is the normal way to go when capturing an ADP variant. One file is the audio, the other one the video, the converter is then used to aggregate both streams into a single file. Please make sure you don't open or move those temporary files during the process as it may affect the operation.

jctoad: it is very common that VEVO videos are protected. Generally the only capturable variant is the one playing in the page.

plicketyplunk: thanks !

[2amuse]

And another Me too!  Firefox seems to crash a lot lately too.  Related??

[Eve]

Hello
Thank you very much Mig !
Now, with version 5.5.0a19, all is correct
using Firefox 44.0.2 and Firefox 45.0.1 too.
I enjoy it.
Happy Easter !

[jctoad]

@2amuse I haven't really noticed crashing but I have noticed that now it sometimes takes a long time to start playing a youtube video.

[jctoad]

It seems like youtube has stepped up it's game and I think this is related to the problem that was just solved.  It seems like every video that has been identified as having copyrighted music in it is no longer downloadable.  I am checking some videos that I have downloaded in the past and now they are "protected" One example is a video that I dled on 2-16-16 and now it is protected.

[Pete Robins]

And me!