Downloading YouTube History fails on parsing JSON

[ealgase]

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• Searched the bugtracker for similar issues including closed ones
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• Bug report (encountered problems with youtube-dl)
• Site support request (request for adding support for a new site)
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If the purpose of this issue is a bug report, site support request or you are not completely sure provide the full verbose output as follows:

Add the -v flag to your command line you run youtube-dl with (youtube-dl -v <your command line>), copy the whole output and insert it here. It should look similar to one below (replace it with your log inserted between triple ```):

[debug] System config: []
[debug] User config: []
[debug] Custom config: []
[debug] Command-line args: ['-v', ':ythistory', '--username', 'PRIVATE', '--password=PRIVATE', '-f', 'worstvideo+worstaudio']
[debug] Encodings: locale cp1252, fs mbcs, out cp437, pref cp1252
[debug] youtube-dl version 2018.10.05
[debug] Python version 3.4.4 (CPython) - Windows-10-10.0.17134
[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg N-91712-g26dc763245, ffprobe N-91712-g26dc763245
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[youtube:history] Downloading login page
[youtube:history] Looking up account info
[youtube:history] Logging in
[youtube:history] Checking cookie
[youtube:history] Youtube History: Downloading webpage
[download] Downloading playlist: Youtube History
[youtube:history] Youtube History: Downloading page #1
[youtube:history] Youtube History: Downloading page #2
[youtube:history] Youtube History: Downloading page #3
[youtube:history] Youtube History: Downloading page #4
[youtube:history] Youtube History: Downloading page #5
[youtube:history] Youtube History: Downloading page #6
[youtube:history] Youtube History: Downloading page #7
[youtube:history] Youtube History: Downloading page #8
[youtube:history] Youtube History: Downloading page #9
[youtube:history] Youtube History: Downloading page #10
[youtube:history] Youtube History: Downloading page #11
ERROR: Youtube History: Failed to parse JSON  (caused by ValueError('Invalid \\escape: line 1 column 587495 (char 587494)',)); please report this issue on https://yt-dl.org/bug . Make sure you are using the latest version; type  youtube-dl -U  to update. Be sure to call youtube-dl with the --verbose flag and include its complete output.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\dst\AppData\Roaming\Build archive\youtube-dl\rg3\tmp5xdqinp2\build\youtube_dl\extractor\common.py", line 871, in _parse_json
  File "C:\Python\Python34\lib\json\__init__.py", line 318, in loads
  File "C:\Python\Python34\lib\json\decoder.py", line 343, in decode
  File "C:\Python\Python34\lib\json\decoder.py", line 359, in raw_decode
ValueError: Invalid \escape: line 1 column 587495 (char 587494)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\dst\AppData\Roaming\Build archive\youtube-dl\rg3\tmp5xdqinp2\build\youtube_dl\extractor\common.py", line 871, in _parse_json
  File "C:\Python\Python34\lib\json\__init__.py", line 318, in loads
  File "C:\Python\Python34\lib\json\decoder.py", line 343, in decode
  File "C:\Python\Python34\lib\json\decoder.py", line 359, in raw_decode
ValueError: Invalid \escape: line 1 column 587495 (char 587494)

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\dst\AppData\Roaming\Build archive\youtube-dl\rg3\tmp5xdqinp2\build\youtube_dl\YoutubeDL.py", line 803, in extract_info
  File "C:\Users\dst\AppData\Roaming\Build archive\youtube-dl\rg3\tmp5xdqinp2\build\youtube_dl\YoutubeDL.py", line 963, in process_ie_result
  File "C:\Users\dst\AppData\Roaming\Build archive\youtube-dl\rg3\tmp5xdqinp2\build\youtube_dl\extractor\youtube.py", line 2796, in _entries
  File "C:\Users\dst\AppData\Roaming\Build archive\youtube-dl\rg3\tmp5xdqinp2\build\youtube_dl\extractor\common.py", line 864, in _download_json
  File "C:\Users\dst\AppData\Roaming\Build archive\youtube-dl\rg3\tmp5xdqinp2\build\youtube_dl\extractor\common.py", line 848, in _download_json_handle
  File "C:\Users\dst\AppData\Roaming\Build archive\youtube-dl\rg3\tmp5xdqinp2\build\youtube_dl\extractor\common.py", line 875, in _parse_json
youtube_dl.utils.ExtractorError: Youtube History: Failed to parse JSON  (caused by ValueError('Invalid \\escape: line 1 column 587495 (char 587494)',)); please report this issue on https://yt-dl.org/bug . Make sure you are using the latest version; type  youtube-dl -U  to update. Be sure to call youtube-dl with the --verbose flag and include its complete output.
<end of log>

Description of your issue, suggested solution and other information

I am trying to download all of the videos I have watched on YouTube. I've provided the correct username and password. However, the program fails after downloading page 11 of the history list.

My suggested solution is to check if the JSON format that the page is provided in has changed, as this is probably a rarely used feature, and YouTube's redesign may have messed things up.

[ispedals]

I was not able to reproduce the issue (using Python 3.7, --simulate and a personal account). The error suggests that YouTube is returning invalid JSON, Given that I was not able to reproduce it and the error does not occur until the 11 page for you, the error is probably due to some character in a video title or channel name that is not properly being encoded by YouTube (based on this answer).

If you can, try running the command again, but with the --write-pages flag and see what character is present at position 587,494-587,495 in the file that fails.

[ealgase]

The surrounding area is
class=\"yt-uix-sessionlink
with the l being the character that causes the failure.

Note: I've watched more videos since making this issue, so I went to the new location the error was at.