YouTube seems to have started blocking by IP

[adrian-afl]

Checklist

• I'm reporting that yt-dlp is broken on a supported site
• I've verified that I have updated yt-dlp to nightly or master (update instructions)
• I've checked that all provided URLs are playable in a browser with the same IP and same login details
• I've checked that all URLs and arguments with special characters are properly quoted or escaped
• I've searched known issues, the FAQ, and the bugtracker for similar issues including closed ones. DO NOT post duplicates
• I've read the policy against AI/LLM contributions and understand I may be blocked from the repository if it is violated
• I've read about sharing account credentials and I'm willing to share it if required

Region

Poland

Provide a description that is worded well enough to be understood

Since today yt-dlp cannot download videos from YouTube, but it seems if I change the IP, for example with mobile hotspot, it goes fine. The videos play fine in the browser. I tried all channels, stable, master and nightly, also on Windows (no js runtime, surprising, as node is in path) and on MacOS (with deno).

Weird, I'm letting you know, maybe there is an issue.

Provide verbose output that clearly demonstrates the problem

• Run your yt-dlp command with -vU flag added (yt-dlp -vU <your command line>)
• If using API, add 'verbose': True to YoutubeDL params instead
• Copy the WHOLE output (starting with [debug] Command-line config) and insert it below

Complete Verbose Output

[debug] Command-line config: ['-v', '--ffmpeg-location', 'ffmpeg/bin/ffmpeg.exe', '-f', 'bestvideo[height<=1080]+bestaudio', 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39SwIl3wQDw']
[debug] Encodings: locale cp1250, fs utf-8, pref cp1250, out cp1250 (No ANSI), error cp1250 (No ANSI), screen cp1250 (No ANSI)
[debug] yt-dlp version master@2026.05.16.203101 from yt-dlp/yt-dlp-master-builds [32f1671a9] (win_exe)
[debug] Python 3.10.11 (CPython AMD64 64bit) - Windows-10-10.0.19045-SP0 (OpenSSL 1.1.1t  7 Feb 2023)
[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg 2023-05-04-git-4006c71d19-full_build-www.gyan.dev (setts), ffprobe 2023-05-04-git-4006c71d19-full_build-www.gyan.dev
[debug] Optional libraries: Cryptodome-3.23.0, brotli-1.2.0, certifi-2026.04.22, curl_cffi-0.15.0, mutagen-1.47.0, requests-2.33.1, sqlite3-3.40.1, urllib3-2.6.3, websockets-16.0, yt_dlp_ejs-0.8.0
[debug] JS runtimes: none
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[debug] Request Handlers: urllib, requests, websockets, curl_cffi
[debug] Plugin directories: none
[debug] Loaded 1864 extractors
[debug] [youtube] [pot] PO Token Providers: none
[debug] [youtube] [pot] PO Token Cache Providers: memory
[debug] [youtube] [pot] PO Token Cache Spec Providers: webpo
[debug] [youtube] [jsc] JS Challenge Providers: bun (unavailable), deno (unavailable), node (unavailable), quickjs (unavailable)
[youtube] Extracting URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39SwIl3wQDw
[youtube] 39SwIl3wQDw: Downloading webpage
WARNING: [youtube] No supported JavaScript runtime could be found. Only deno is enabled by default; to use another runtime add  --js-runtimes RUNTIME[:PATH]  to your command/config. YouTube extraction without a JS runtime has been deprecated, and some formats may be missing. See  https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/EJS  for details on installing one
[debug] [youtube] Forcing "main" player JS variant for player 2d01abf7
        original url = /s/player/2d01abf7/player_es6.vflset/en_US/base.js
[youtube] 39SwIl3wQDw: Downloading android vr player API JSON
[debug] Sort order given by extractor: quality, res, fps, hdr:12, source, vcodec, channels, acodec, lang, proto
[debug] Formats sorted by: hasvid, ie_pref, quality, res, fps, hdr:12(7), source, vcodec, channels, acodec, lang, proto, size, br, asr, vext, aext, hasaud, id
[info] 39SwIl3wQDw: Downloading 1 format(s): 399+251
[debug] Invoking http downloader on "https://rr1---sn-x2pm-3ufk.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?expire=1779047154&ei=ksYJaorHEaLg6dsPv-yR4Ac&ip=HERE IS MY IP&id=o-APLrYcSN7CAc1vmJoXRsoKlfT7NhDbWDfg366IICDfZF&itag=399&source=youtube&requiressl=yes&xpc=EgVo2aDSNQ%3D%3D&cps=555&met=1779025554%2C&mh=Zr&mm=31%2C29&mn=sn-x2pm-3ufk%2Csn-ajf5f5-5a&ms=au%2Crdu&mv=m&mvi=1&pl=21&rms=au%2Cau&initcwndbps=755000&bui=AbKmrwrU9J8JHDBS1T6pp8iHHtnDWLCi-O8yMF8g1rqXvLeMK64_Ri0ZXaZm4avsAZiKGzJ75Qr4rj7-&spc=96Xrv4ubIYde0i_93JiF62X1pnHbTj6gNx5cxeXBrAR3&vprv=1&svpuc=1&mime=video%2Fmp4&rqh=1&gir=yes&clen=127137105&dur=1337.536&lmt=1778975707595505&mt=1779025048&fvip=1&keepalive=yes&fexp=51565115%2C51565682&c=ANDROID_VR&txp=443G534&sparams=expire%2Cei%2Cip%2Cid%2Citag%2Csource%2Crequiressl%2Cxpc%2Cbui%2Cspc%2Cvprv%2Csvpuc%2Cmime%2Crqh%2Cgir%2Cclen%2Cdur%2Clmt&sig=AHEqNM4wRgIhAKUbGBcNbVZulAUXTwH8T_bsBYEYsYaxIERIR0RWCFJAAiEAy0NHkrOO9dTlxAXtTuWGP-4gPgVdho_MOHNXkqiTRTQ%3D&lsparams=cps%2Cmet%2Cmh%2Cmm%2Cmn%2Cms%2Cmv%2Cmvi%2Cpl%2Crms%2Cinitcwndbps&lsig=APaTxxMwRgIhANuDvKJtAa3mQQwQbNAe9LcjUEuno26I8WRR90h8RHb1AiEA3c0p-KYnpVFQUSwJwziBkN-IQLzBbX-y4AeS9bOLwP0%3D"
[download] Resuming download at byte 501854
[download] Got error: HTTPSConnectionPool(host='rr1---sn-x2pm-3ufk.googlevideo.com', port=443): Read timed out. (read timeout=20.0). Retrying (1/10)...
[download] Got error: HTTP Error 503: Service Unavailable. Retrying (2/10)...
[download] Got error: HTTP Error 503: Service Unavailable. Retrying (3/10)...
[download] Got error: HTTP Error 503: Service Unavailable. Retrying (4/10)...
[download] Got error: HTTP Error 503: Service Unavailable. Retrying (5/10)...
[download] Got error: HTTP Error 503: Service Unavailable. Retrying (6/10)...
[download] Got error: HTTP Error 503: Service Unavailable. Retrying (7/10)...
[download] Got error: HTTP Error 503: Service Unavailable. Retrying (8/10)...
[download] Got error: HTTP Error 503: Service Unavailable. Retrying (9/10)...
[download] Got error: HTTP Error 503: Service Unavailable. Retrying (10/10)...
[download] Got error: HTTP Error 503: Service Unavailable. Giving up after 10 retries
  File "__main__.py", line 17, in <module>
  File "yt_dlp\__init__.py", line 1079, in main
  File "yt_dlp\__init__.py", line 1070, in _real_main
  File "yt_dlp\YoutubeDL.py", line 3670, in download
  File "yt_dlp\YoutubeDL.py", line 3643, in wrapper
  File "yt_dlp\YoutubeDL.py", line 1687, in extract_info
  File "yt_dlp\YoutubeDL.py", line 1698, in wrapper
  File "yt_dlp\YoutubeDL.py", line 1854, in __extract_info
  File "yt_dlp\YoutubeDL.py", line 1913, in process_ie_result
  File "yt_dlp\YoutubeDL.py", line 3096, in process_video_result
  File "yt_dlp\YoutubeDL.py", line 189, in wrapper
  File "yt_dlp\YoutubeDL.py", line 3526, in process_info
  File "yt_dlp\YoutubeDL.py", line 3285, in dl
  File "yt_dlp\downloader\common.py", line 480, in download
  File "yt_dlp\downloader\http.py", line 360, in real_download
  File "yt_dlp\utils\_utils.py", line 5274, in __iter__
  File "yt_dlp\downloader\common.py", line 413, in report_retry
  File "yt_dlp\utils\_utils.py", line 5281, in report_retry
  File "yt_dlp\downloader\common.py", line 416, in <lambda>
  File "yt_dlp\YoutubeDL.py", line 1154, in report_error
  File "yt_dlp\YoutubeDL.py", line 1082, in trouble


[debug] Invoking http downloader on "https://rr1---sn-x2pm-3ufk.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?expire=1779047154&ei=ksYJaorHEaLg6dsPv-yR4Ac&ip=HERE IS MY IP&id=o-APLrYcSN7CAc1vmJoXRsoKlfT7NhDbWDfg366IICDfZF&itag=251&source=youtube&requiressl=yes&xpc=EgVo2aDSNQ%3D%3D&cps=555&met=1779025554%2C&mh=Zr&mm=31%2C29&mn=sn-x2pm-3ufk%2Csn-ajf5f5-5a&ms=au%2Crdu&mv=m&mvi=1&pl=21&rms=au%2Cau&initcwndbps=755000&bui=AbKmrwrU9J8JHDBS1T6pp8iHHtnDWLCi-O8yMF8g1rqXvLeMK64_Ri0ZXaZm4avsAZiKGzJ75Qr4rj7-&spc=96Xrv4ubIYde0i_93JiF62X1pnHbTj6gNx5cxeXBrAR3&vprv=1&svpuc=1&mime=audio%2Fwebm&rqh=1&gir=yes&clen=17838663&dur=1337.581&lmt=1778968119291150&mt=1779025048&fvip=1&keepalive=yes&fexp=51565115%2C51565682&c=ANDROID_VR&txp=3308224&sparams=expire%2Cei%2Cip%2Cid%2Citag%2Csource%2Crequiressl%2Cxpc%2Cbui%2Cspc%2Cvprv%2Csvpuc%2Cmime%2Crqh%2Cgir%2Cclen%2Cdur%2Clmt&sig=AHEqNM4wRgIhAKlCSzgszfPm-RdKXnqIgnxidEOA3Uo8THWz6pWCnjJbAiEApw-aVFzNN3Jo6tYqIP9gSYqq3yLO6DimWnHMdFPtMXQ%3D&lsparams=cps%2Cmet%2Cmh%2Cmm%2Cmn%2Cms%2Cmv%2Cmvi%2Cpl%2Crms%2Cinitcwndbps&lsig=APaTxxMwRgIhANuDvKJtAa3mQQwQbNAe9LcjUEuno26I8WRR90h8RHb1AiEA3c0p-KYnpVFQUSwJwziBkN-IQLzBbX-y4AeS9bOLwP0%3D"
[download] Resuming download at byte 194560
[download] Got error: HTTPSConnectionPool(host='rr1---sn-x2pm-3ufk.googlevideo.com', port=443): Read timed out. (read timeout=20.0). Retrying (1/10)...
[download] Got error: HTTP Error 503: Service Unavailable. Retrying (2/10)...
[download] Got error: HTTP Error 503: Service Unavailable. Retrying (3/10)...
[download] Got error: HTTP Error 503: Service Unavailable. Retrying (4/10)...
[download] Got error: HTTP Error 503: Service Unavailable. Retrying (5/10)...
[download] Got error: HTTP Error 503: Service Unavailable. Retrying (6/10)...
[download] Got error: HTTP Error 503: Service Unavailable. Retrying (7/10)...
[download] Got error: HTTP Error 503: Service Unavailable. Retrying (8/10)...
[download] Got error: HTTP Error 503: Service Unavailable. Retrying (9/10)...
[download] Got error: HTTP Error 503: Service Unavailable. Retrying (10/10)...
[download] Got error: HTTP Error 503: Service Unavailable. Giving up after 10 retries
  File "__main__.py", line 17, in <module>
  File "yt_dlp\__init__.py", line 1079, in main
  File "yt_dlp\__init__.py", line 1070, in _real_main
  File "yt_dlp\YoutubeDL.py", line 3670, in download
  File "yt_dlp\YoutubeDL.py", line 3643, in wrapper
  File "yt_dlp\YoutubeDL.py", line 1687, in extract_info
  File "yt_dlp\YoutubeDL.py", line 1698, in wrapper
  File "yt_dlp\YoutubeDL.py", line 1854, in __extract_info
  File "yt_dlp\YoutubeDL.py", line 1913, in process_ie_result
  File "yt_dlp\YoutubeDL.py", line 3096, in process_video_result
  File "yt_dlp\YoutubeDL.py", line 189, in wrapper
  File "yt_dlp\YoutubeDL.py", line 3526, in process_info
  File "yt_dlp\YoutubeDL.py", line 3285, in dl
  File "yt_dlp\downloader\common.py", line 480, in download
  File "yt_dlp\downloader\http.py", line 360, in real_download
  File "yt_dlp\utils\_utils.py", line 5274, in __iter__
  File "yt_dlp\downloader\common.py", line 413, in report_retry
  File "yt_dlp\utils\_utils.py", line 5281, in report_retry
  File "yt_dlp\downloader\common.py", line 416, in <lambda>
  File "yt_dlp\YoutubeDL.py", line 1154, in report_error
  File "yt_dlp\YoutubeDL.py", line 1082, in trouble

[ruben1PvP]

YouTube seems to have started blocking by IP

No, it hasn't started blocking by IP, it has been doing that for years at this point.

That being said, usually when you hit an IP block you either have a "Video is unavailable" error or a "Sign in to confirm you are not a bot" error, not a 503.

[adrian-afl]

oh no, so it's over for my usage of yt-dlp then except if i would want to give them my cookies and session?

[ruben1PvP]

oh no, so it's over for my usage of yt-dlp then except if i would want to give them my cookies and session?

If it's really a IP block, you could change your actual IP if you don't want to use the cookies of an account. However, did you really try to see if you can watch those videos in your browser without being logged in (in an incognito window)?

[adrian-afl]

Yes videos work in incognito. For changing my IP, it's completely static, which is handy for many situations but not this one.

[ruben1PvP]

Yes videos work in incognito.

This is not then an IP block. Are you sure you don't have any firewall, any antivirus or any other software blocking yt-dlp? Can you check if you have that 503 error with cookies?

[bashonly]

Heed the warning:

WARNING: [youtube] No supported JavaScript runtime could be found. Only deno is enabled by default; to use another runtime add --js-runtimes RUNTIME[:PATH] to your command/config. YouTube extraction without a JS runtime has been deprecated, and some formats may be missing. See https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/EJS for details on installing one

[donnaken15]

weirdly, forcefully turning this off will get rid of this bot error for me (after having deno run by default always)

found this by first testing yt-dlp in a VM (thought I was literally HW banned on host, FOR DAYS)

is this something to do with that nsig BS where I have to delete that?