I've been downloading YouTube videos for the past few years. Not randomly, from specific channels I select. Today I passed 12100 videos.

It's getting harder. YouTube keeps making yt-dlp work worse. (And I started when it was youtube-dl!) I limit my downloader script to no more than 2 videos at a time, every 3 hours, hopefully in order not to trip any rate limits. All good so far.

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totetsu 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

When I try to capture a few friends videos of events I had run from instagram stories with yt-dlp, I get nice friendly warning that to avoid my account being restricted or deleted i should stop using tools.

	▲	input_sh 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		I use a browser extension that simply gives me the download button in the interface and haven't experienced any such warnings: https://github.com/TheKonka/instagram-download-browser-exten... Thought you might find it helpful.

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PUSH_AX 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Isn’t an official downloading functionality part of their premium offering? If you’re a power user perhaps it’s worth just paying.

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LeoPanthera 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

I am a premium subscriber, but "downloaded" videos are trapped inside the app. You can't actually get them out.

	▲	fluoridation 4 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Wow, what garbage. Good thing to know. It was the single thing that appealed to me about that service.
	▲	PUSH_AX 4 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I see I had no idea.

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Barbing 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

On mobile (iOS), it requires maintaining a subscription… and, once a month at least, internet connection.

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hsbauauvhabzb 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Have you considered sharing them somehow? I always thought yt-dlp would end up p2p

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LeoPanthera 4 days ago | parent [-]

Since many of the channels are monetized, my personal policy is only to upload videos to the Internet Archive if the original goes offline. Otherwise, it's better if people support the original channel by watching them on YouTube.

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hsbauauvhabzb 3 days ago | parent [-]

Sure, but by that logic you’re saying piracy* in general is bad, but when you pirate* the video it’s okay. And if I pirate* the video the same way it’s okay. But if we cross share it’s bad, while the only real difference is via this route , google is paying for more bandwidth and yt-dlp becomes less effective because it’s redundantly executed at scale.

*pirate, for lack of a better term. I couldn’t give a fuck what people call it.

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LeoPanthera 3 days ago | parent [-]

I dispute that I'm pirating them. I'm still watching them on YouTube, I'm just also archiving a copy. They're still getting my view money.

	▲	hsbauauvhabzb 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		Are you watching them in a browser on YouTube.com or are you downloading the stream and watching locally?