Youtube doesnt allow download of .3gp Files anymore, only .mp4 (therefore making downloading of <=240p Videos very inconvenient)

[GregoriusT]

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Make sure you are using the latest version: run youtube-dl --version and ensure your version is 2019.02.18. If it's not, read this FAQ entry and update. Issues with outdated version will be rejected.

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youtube-dl "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUpkp-6fXuG9dqfoJ99XTmw/videos" -v --playlist-end 1 --list-formats
[debug] System config: []
[debug] User config: [u'--match-filter', u'!is_live', u'--retries', u'infinite', u'--restrict-filenames', u'-i', u'-o', u'/data/Downloads/%(title)s.%(ext)s', u'-f', u'best[height<=360]', u'--console-title', u'--http-chunk-size', u'10M', u'--hls-prefer-native']
[debug] Custom config: []                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
[debug] Command-line args: [u'https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUpkp-6fXuG9dqfoJ99XTmw/videos', u'-v', u'--playlist-end', u'1', u'--list-formats']                                                                                          
[debug] Encodings: locale UTF-8, fs UTF-8, out UTF-8, pref UTF-8                                                                                                                                                                            
[debug] youtube-dl version 2019.02.18                                                                                                                                                                                                       
[debug] Python version 2.7.15rc1 (CPython) - Linux-4.15.0-45-generic-x86_64-with-Ubuntu-18.04-bionic                                                                                                                                        
[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg 3.4.4, ffprobe 3.4.4, phantomjs 2.1.1, rtmpdump 2.4                                                                                                                                                            
[debug] Proxy map: {}                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
[youtube:channel] UCUpkp-6fXuG9dqfoJ99XTmw: Downloading channel page                                                                                                                                                                        
[youtube:playlist] UUUpkp-6fXuG9dqfoJ99XTmw: Downloading webpage                                                                                                                                                                            
[download] Downloading playlist: Uploads from Puffin Forest                                                                                                                                                                                 
[youtube:playlist] playlist Uploads from Puffin Forest: Downloading 1 videos                                                                                                                                                                
[download] Downloading video 1 of 1                                                                                                                                                                                                         
[youtube] E3O7AbbE-us: Downloading webpage                                                                                                                                                                                                  
[youtube] E3O7AbbE-us: Downloading video info webpage                                                                                                                                                                                       
[info] Available formats for E3O7AbbE-us:                                                                                                                                                                                                   
format code  extension  resolution note                                                                                                                                                                                                     
140          m4a        audio only DASH audio  133k , m4a_dash container, mp4a.40.2@128k, 59.88MiB                                                                                                                                          
160          mp4        256x144    144p   62k , avc1.4d400c, 25fps, video only, 13.53MiB                                                                                                                                                    
133          mp4        426x240    240p  135k , avc1.4d4015, 25fps, video only, 24.89MiB                                                                                                                                                    
134          mp4        640x360    360p  227k , avc1.4d401e, 25fps, video only, 35.92MiB                                                                                                                                                    
135          mp4        854x480    480p  383k , avc1.4d401e, 25fps, video only, 63.39MiB                                                                                                                                                    
136          mp4        1280x720   720p  552k , avc1.4d401f, 25fps, video only, 102.11MiB                                                                                                                                                   
137          mp4        1920x1080  1080p  972k , avc1.640028, 25fps, video only, 168.03MiB                                                                                                                                                  
18           mp4        640x360    medium  265k , avc1.42001E, mp4a.40.2@ 96k (44100Hz), 122.57MiB                                                                                                                                          
22           mp4        1280x720   hd720  349k , avc1.64001F, mp4a.40.2@192k (44100Hz) (best)                                                                                                                                               
[download] Finished downloading playlist: Uploads from Puffin Forest 

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Simple, 3gp Files are somehow no longer available on Youtube, I tried checking random older Videos that I already downloaded as 3gp too, and those give the same lack of <=240p Video Format (that isn't Video only), meaning Youtube changed something and now I have this Issue.

When I watched the Videos regularly in the Browser they still had 144p and 240p available, so I guess Youtube does some weird thing of playing two Files at the same time, one Audio Only and one Video Only, but this is pure speculation, and could also just be a minor formatting thing causing youtube-dl to not find the format in question as available.

This issue appeared like a few hours ago, so it cannot be a duplicate, I thought it would fix itself or was just Youtube taking ages to compile the 3gp Formats (which happens all the time because they tend to do it on demand, so trying to download a minute later usually makes 3gp available, but now not anymore)

To make the Issue short "best[height<=240]" no longer works on Youtube, since a few hours. That's all.

[dstftw]

This is expected behavior. There are no best format with height<=240.

[GregoriusT]

Wait what? That is not correct, it has always been available for years until now, I would have at least looked if it somehow just doesn't find the 3gp Formats on Youtube anymore instead of instant invalidating the Issue. Sure Youtube can be blamed for no longer making them available if that is the case, but its something to at least look at, if Youtube just changed the List in a way that doesn't parse right.

@dstftw
You seem to have misunderstood the Issue, the Issue was not just "format not available"
it was "Youtube did a thing and now there is no longer the .3gp and .webm Formats available on Youtubes end for ALL VIDEOS for whatever reason, and that should be investigated to make sure it's not just youtube-dl failing to parse some File"

If Youtube really got rid of it, then I am perfectly fine with it, but dont just instant invalidate the Issue due to a misunderstanding. ;)

[dstftw]

Youtube does not provide 3gp any longer. That's it. All questions should be addressed to them.

[GregoriusT]

Thank you for the clarifying answer, have a nice day. ^^

Time to download the format that is twice the size and stutters sometimes in VLC Media Player when I scroll a few seconds back and forth I guess.