Error: ContentTooShortError

[AndreiArba]

Command:
youtube-dl -o video.mp4 -v http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxMHWP7I8os

Output:

[debug] System config: []
[debug] User config: []
[debug] Command-line args: ['-o', 'video.mp4', '-v', 'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qF1yaH6u5hA']
[debug] youtube-dl version 2013.08.21
[debug] Python version 2.7.3 - Linux-3.2.0-24-virtual-i686-with-Ubuntu-12.04-precise
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[youtube] Setting language
[youtube] qF1yaH6u5hA: Downloading video webpage
[youtube] qF1yaH6u5hA: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] qF1yaH6u5hA: Extracting video information
[download] Destination: video.mp4

[download]   0.0% of 6.28MiB at 16.16KiB/s ETA 06:37
[download]   0.0% of 6.28MiB at 48.32KiB/s ETA 02:13
[download]   0.1% of 6.28MiB at 112.37KiB/s ETA 00:57
[download]   0.2% of 6.28MiB at 234.99KiB/s ETA 00:27
[download]   0.5% of 6.28MiB at 254.98KiB/s ETA 00:25
[download]   1.0% of 6.28MiB at 346.20KiB/s ETA 00:18
[download]   2.0% of 6.28MiB at 523.65KiB/s ETA 00:12
[download]   4.0% of 6.28MiB at 838.89KiB/s ETA 00:07
[download]   7.9% of 6.28MiB at  1.17MiB/s ETA 00:04
[download]  15.9% of 6.28MiB at  1.82MiB/s ETA 00:02
[download]  31.8% of 6.28MiB at  2.91MiB/s ETA 00:01
[download]  63.7% of 6.28MiB at  4.67MiB/s ETA 00:00
[download]  63.7% of 6.28MiB at  4.67MiB/s ETA 00:00
ERROR: content too short (expected 6583261 bytes and served 4195219)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 548, in process_info
    success = self.fd._do_download(filename, info_dict)
  File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/FileDownloader.py", line 547, in _do_download
    raise ContentTooShortError(byte_counter, int(data_len))
ContentTooShortError

[goodevilgenius]

Likewise: youtube-dl -v --cookies=/tmp/cookies-1377198722.txt -f 18 --restrict-filenames --write-info-json -o '/home/drj/MyFiles/Videos/WebShows/YouTube/%(uploader)s/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JK4X5aLT518

[debug] System config: []
[debug] User config: []
[debug] Command-line args: ['-v', '--cookies=/tmp/cookies-1377198722.txt', '-f', '18', '--restrict-filenames', '--write-info-json', '-o', '/home/drj/MyFiles/Videos/WebShows/YouTube/%(uploader)s/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s', 'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JK4X5aLT518']
[debug] youtube-dl version 2013.08.17
[debug] Python version 2.7.3 - Linux-3.5.0-37-generic-x86_64-with-Ubuntu-12.10-quantal
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[youtube] Setting language
[youtube] JK4X5aLT518: Downloading video webpage
[youtube] JK4X5aLT518: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] JK4X5aLT518: Extracting video information
[info] Video description metadata as JSON to: /home/drj/MyFiles/Videos/WebShows/YouTube/ExplosmEntertainment/Cyanide_Happiness_-_Dogs-JK4X5aLT518.mp4.info.json
[download] Destination: /home/drj/MyFiles/Videos/WebShows/YouTube/ExplosmEntertainment/Cyanide_Happiness_-_Dogs-JK4X5aLT518.mp4
[download]   0.1% of 2.53MiB at     ---b/s ETA --:--
ERROR: content too short (expected 2648708 bytes and served 1439)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 548, in process_info
    success = self.fd._do_download(filename, info_dict)
  File "/usr/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/FileDownloader.py", line 543, in _do_download
    raise ContentTooShortError(byte_counter, int(data_len))
ContentTooShortError

And on a subsequent run:

[debug] System config: []
[debug] User config: []
[debug] Command-line args: ['-v', '--cookies=/tmp/cookies-1377198722.txt', '-f', '18', '--restrict-filenames', '--write-info-json', '-o', '/home/drj/MyFiles/Videos/WebShows/YouTube/%(uploader)s/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s', 'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JK4X5aLT518']
[debug] youtube-dl version 2013.08.17
[debug] Python version 2.7.3 - Linux-3.5.0-37-generic-x86_64-with-Ubuntu-12.10-quantal
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[youtube] Setting language
[youtube] JK4X5aLT518: Downloading video webpage
[youtube] JK4X5aLT518: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] JK4X5aLT518: Extracting video information
[info] Video description metadata as JSON to: /home/drj/MyFiles/Videos/WebShows/YouTube/ExplosmEntertainment/Cyanide_Happiness_-_Dogs-JK4X5aLT518.mp4.info.json
[download] Resuming download at byte 1439


ERROR: Did not get any data blocks
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/runpy.py", line 162, in _run_module_as_main
    "__main__", fname, loader, pkg_name)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/runpy.py", line 72, in _run_code
    exec code in run_globals
  File "/usr/bin/youtube-dl/__main__.py", line 18, in <module>
    youtube_dl.main()
  File "/usr/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/__init__.py", line 639, in main
    _real_main(argv)
  File "/usr/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/__init__.py", line 623, in _real_main
    retcode = ydl.download(all_urls)
  File "/usr/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 573, in download
    videos = self.extract_info(url)
  File "/usr/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 327, in extract_info
    return self.process_ie_result(ie_result, download=download)
  File "/usr/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 410, in process_ie_result
    for r in ie_result['entries']
  File "/usr/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 357, in process_ie_result
    self.process_info(ie_result)
  File "/usr/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 548, in process_info
    success = self.fd._do_download(filename, info_dict)
  File "/usr/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/FileDownloader.py", line 538, in _do_download
    self.report_error(u'Did not get any data blocks')
  File "/usr/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/FileDownloader.py", line 140, in report_error
    self.ydl.report_error(*args, **kargs)
  File "/usr/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 203, in report_error
    self.trouble(error_message, tb)
  File "/usr/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 170, in trouble
    tb_data = traceback.format_list(traceback.extract_stack())

[deiucanta]

As I see in the Network tab from the Web Inspector, YouTube is using multiple requests to download a video. Each request has a range of bytes. Maybe YouTube is forcibly closing the connection if you don't download the video in small chunks as their player does.

[ocisly]

This seems to be a known intermittent server-side problem with YouTube which they usually resolve after a period of time, as discussed here.

@phihag flagging to close