Frequent "ERROR: Did not get any data blocks" downloading as MP4 from YT

[aaronsgiles]

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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: ['-i', '-f', 'mp4/(bestvideo+bestaudio)', '--verbose', 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxvQPzrg2Wg']
[debug] Encodings: locale cp1252, fs mbcs, out cp437, pref cp1252
[debug] youtube-dl version 2019.03.09
[debug] Python version 3.4.4 (CPython) - Windows-10-10.0.17134
[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg N-76041-g0418541, ffprobe N-76041-g0418541, rtmpdump 2.4
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[youtube] NxvQPzrg2Wg: Downloading webpage
[youtube] NxvQPzrg2Wg: Downloading video info webpage
[debug] Invoking downloader on 'https://r4---sn-nx5s7n7z.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?source=youtube&lmt=1547544508396832&expire=1552204233&c=WEB&ratebypass=yes&ei=aW2EXNa_BJKTkwa135fQCw&fvip=4&dur=528.346&ipbits=0&initcwndbps=2005000&key=yt6&mv=m&sparams=dur%2Cei%2Cid%2Cinitcwndbps%2Cip%2Cipbits%2Citag%2Clmt%2Cmime%2Cmm%2Cmn%2Cms%2Cmv%2Cpl%2Cratebypass%2Crequiressl%2Csource%2Cexpire&mt=1552182586&ms=au%2Conr&mime=video%2Fmp4&requiressl=yes&ip=2601%3A600%3A817f%3Ae19a%3Aa97d%3A841b%3Abe92%3A146&txp=5532432&signature=100AF9048FFFDC584F5655F3AB9B5EBD027D6620.0DB44A52999858E8E633E9D05BA3D43505D4E6A0&mn=sn-nx5s7n7z%2Csn-n4v7knll&itag=22&mm=31%2C26&pl=33&id=o-ACDxX3BZPf9BM-lm0S-23urg4HqrNzkuCTmCAWLpE4dp'
[download] Destination: Why Meat is the Best Worst Thing in the World 🍔-NxvQPzrg2Wg.mp4
[download]   0.5% of 41.16MiB at  2.01MiB/s ETA 00:20         [download] Got server HTTP error: Downloaded 233524 bytes, expected 43159327 bytes. Retrying (attempt 1 of 10)...


ERROR: Did not get any data blocks
  File "__main__.py", line 19, in <module>
  File "C:\Users\dst\AppData\Roaming\Build archive\youtube-dl\rg3\tmpy110f8qy\build\youtube_dl\__init__.py", line 472, in main
  File "C:\Users\dst\AppData\Roaming\Build archive\youtube-dl\rg3\tmpy110f8qy\build\youtube_dl\__init__.py", line 462, in _real_main
  File "C:\Users\dst\AppData\Roaming\Build archive\youtube-dl\rg3\tmpy110f8qy\build\youtube_dl\YoutubeDL.py", line 2006, in download
  File "C:\Users\dst\AppData\Roaming\Build archive\youtube-dl\rg3\tmpy110f8qy\build\youtube_dl\YoutubeDL.py", line 805, in extract_info
  File "C:\Users\dst\AppData\Roaming\Build archive\youtube-dl\rg3\tmpy110f8qy\build\youtube_dl\YoutubeDL.py", line 859, in process_ie_result
  File "C:\Users\dst\AppData\Roaming\Build archive\youtube-dl\rg3\tmpy110f8qy\build\youtube_dl\YoutubeDL.py", line 1640, in process_video_result
  File "C:\Users\dst\AppData\Roaming\Build archive\youtube-dl\rg3\tmpy110f8qy\build\youtube_dl\YoutubeDL.py", line 1913, in process_info
  File "C:\Users\dst\AppData\Roaming\Build archive\youtube-dl\rg3\tmpy110f8qy\build\youtube_dl\YoutubeDL.py", line 1852, in dl
  File "C:\Users\dst\AppData\Roaming\Build archive\youtube-dl\rg3\tmpy110f8qy\build\youtube_dl\downloader\common.py", line 364, in download
  File "C:\Users\dst\AppData\Roaming\Build archive\youtube-dl\rg3\tmpy110f8qy\build\youtube_dl\downloader\http.py", line 342, in real_download
  File "C:\Users\dst\AppData\Roaming\Build archive\youtube-dl\rg3\tmpy110f8qy\build\youtube_dl\downloader\http.py", line 312, in download
  File "C:\Users\dst\AppData\Roaming\Build archive\youtube-dl\rg3\tmpy110f8qy\build\youtube_dl\downloader\common.py", line 165, in report_error
  File "C:\Users\dst\AppData\Roaming\Build archive\youtube-dl\rg3\tmpy110f8qy\build\youtube_dl\YoutubeDL.py", line 622, in report_error
  File "C:\Users\dst\AppData\Roaming\Build archive\youtube-dl\rg3\tmpy110f8qy\build\youtube_dl\YoutubeDL.py", line 584, in trouble

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Description of your issue, suggested solution and other information

Recently I've been getting errors like this more and more frequently when attempting to download certain mp4 format videos from YouTube. The particular videos that cause it are fairly random. It works if I don't specify mp4 in the format parameter, but the format (22) is listed as available for this video, so it should work (and does for the majority of videos).

[appleton-tom]

I tried "-f mp4+140 -k"
This should download video "MP4" and audio "140" and then merge them, keeping the originals.
It tried to download format "22" and failed as shown above.
Format 22 is listed but fails if you specify it
22 mp4 1280x720 hd720 653k , avc1.64001F, mp4a.40.2@192k (44100Hz) (best)

Trying "-f (bestvideo+bestaudio) -k" downloaded video format "299" and audio format "251", merging them to "MKV".
Trying to merge the kept files manually using "ffmpeg" says that audio format "251" contains "OPUS" which cannot be contained in "MP4".
Video foirmat "299" is
299 mp4 1920x1080 1080p60 5274k , avc1.64002a, 60fps, video only, 86.47MiB
Audio format "251" is
251 webm audio only DASH audio 152k , opus @160k, 8.81MiB

Trying "-f (bestvideo+140) -k" downloaded video format "299" and audio format "140", merging them to "MP4".
Audio format "140" is
140 m4a audio only DASH audio 128k , m4a_dash container, mp4a.40.2@128k, 8.00MiB
Trying to merge the kept files manually using "ffmpeg" created an identical "MP4" file, [same MD5]

Conclusion, the problem must be at YOUTUBE's end.
Use format numbers instead of "best" defaults.

...

[dstftw]

Server side youtube issue for format 22.

[ilyoungkim]

-f 18 or bestvideo[ext=mp4]
Not occur "ERROR: Did not get any data blocks" error.

[medbenchohra]

Requesting the webm format works. Turns out the problem is in fetching the mp4 format.

-f "webm[height=720]" instead of -f "best[height<=720]"

Explanation : https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/17148#issuecomment-450661141