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YouTube Access

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umutxyp edited this page Oct 17, 2026 · 1 revision

YouTube Access

YouTube blocks many VPS and data center IP addresses. When that happens, songs fail with "Sign in to confirm you're not a bot", "HTTP Error 403" or "Audio stream failed". This page shows every fix the bot supports.

How you notice it

  • In Discord, users see "YouTube blocked this request (bot detection)".
  • In the console, the bot prints a hint for you, at most once every 10 minutes: 
    YouTube is blocking this server ("Sign in to confirm you're not a bot"). Export YouTube cookies to cookies.txt and set COOKIES_FILE=./cookies.txt in .env (or YOUTUBE_PO_TOKEN / PROXY_URL). See README.md, section "YouTube: Sign in to confirm you're not a bot".
  • With the SoundCloud fallback on (the default), songs keep playing from SoundCloud and users see "YouTube did not work for this song, so it is playing from SoundCloud." After 3 refused YouTube streams in a row, the bot uses SoundCloud directly for 10 minutes.

Use one of the fixes below. Cookies are the most common one.

Fix 1: a cookies file (recommended)

Use a YouTube account for this; a secondary account is recommended.

  1. In Chrome or Edge install the extension "Get cookies.txt LOCALLY" (Firefox: "cookies.txt").
  2. Open youtube.com, log in, and play any video.
  3. Click the extension and export the cookies. Save the file as cookies.txt in the bot folder.
  4. Add this line to .env and restart the bot: 
    COOKIES_FILE=./cookies.txt

The startup check confirms the file:

  [ OK ] YouTube cookies  /full/path/to/the/bot/cookies.txt

If the path is wrong it stops with COOKIES_FILE "./cookies.txt" does not exist and shows where it looked.

Warning: cookies.txt logs in as your YouTube account. Treat it like a password. It is already listed in .gitignore, so git will not commit it, but never share or upload it.

Fix 2: cookies straight from a browser

If the bot runs on the same computer where you use YouTube in a browser, you do not need to export anything:

COOKIES_FROM_BROWSER=chrome

Supported values: brave, chrome, chromium, edge, firefox, opera, safari, vivaldi, whale. To use another browser profile, add it after a colon, as yt-dlp expects: COOKIES_FROM_BROWSER=chrome:Profile 1. If both are set, COOKIES_FILE is used.

Fix 3: a PO token (advanced)

YOUTUBE_PO_TOKEN=your_po_token

The bot passes it to yt-dlp as a YouTube extractor argument. For anything else yt-dlp offers, YTDLP_EXTRACTOR_ARGS adds your own --extractor-args value, for example:

YTDLP_EXTRACTOR_ARGS=youtube:player_client=web_safari

Fix 4: a proxy

A residential proxy gives the bot an IP address that YouTube does not block:

PROXY_URL=http://user:password@host:port
  • http://, https://, socks4://, socks5:// and socks5h:// work.
  • Several proxies can be listed with commas: PROXY_URL=http://proxy-a:8080,http://proxy-b:8080
  • YouTube locks each stream to the IP that requested it, so every Discord server always uses the same proxy from the list.
  • The proxy is used for YouTube and for every audio download (SoundCloud and direct links too), because all downloads go through yt-dlp.

Other YouTube messages

Users see Meaning Fix
Age-restricted video YouTube wants a logged-in account Use Fix 1 or Fix 2. The song also only plays when the panel's channel is marked age-restricted (NSFW).
Geo-blocked content The video is not available where the bot is hosted Try another link, or use a proxy (Fix 4).
Too many requests (rate limited) YouTube or another platform is limiting this server Wait a few minutes. If it keeps happening, use cookies or a proxy.
Video unavailable Private, deleted or not available in this area Try a different song or link.

Keep yt-dlp up to date

YouTube changes often, and yt-dlp follows. Every time the bot starts, it checks for a new yt-dlp if the last check is more than a day old, and installs it before the shards begin. This fixes most YouTube errors that are not about blocking.

Tip: The check runs only at startup. If your bot runs for weeks without a restart, restart it now and then so yt-dlp stays current. If you set YTDLP_PATH to your own yt-dlp, keeping it updated is your job.

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Beatra Music Bot (umutxyp/MusicBot) · MIT License · by Umut Bayraktar · Codeshare

Beatra Music Bot

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