Youtube - Signature Extraction Failed / Cannot Identify Player

[BlohoJo]

Checklist

• I'm reporting a broken site support
• I've verified that I'm running youtube-dl version 2020.03.01
• I've checked that all provided URLs are alive and playable in a browser
• I've checked that all URLs and arguments with special characters are properly quoted or escaped
• I've searched the bugtracker for similar issues including closed ones

Verbose log

E:\USER\temp_ytdl>youtube-dl.exe -v -f "bestvideo[ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/be
st[ext=mp4]/best" "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGa2-qMBY38"
[debug] System config: []
[debug] User config: []
[debug] Custom config: []
[debug] Command-line args: ['-v', '-f', 'bestvideo[ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/b
est[ext=mp4]/best', 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGa2-qMBY38']
[debug] Encodings: locale cp1252, fs mbcs, out cp437, pref cp1252
[debug] youtube-dl version 2020.03.01
[debug] Python version 3.4.4 (CPython) - Windows-2008ServerR2-6.1.7601-SP1
[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg N-93824-g479a5f644f, ffprobe N-89595-g40d4b13228, r
tmpdump 2.4-20151223-gfa8646d-OpenSSL_1.0.2n-x86_64-static
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[youtube] qGa2-qMBY38: Downloading webpage
[youtube] qGa2-qMBY38: Downloading embed webpage
[youtube] qGa2-qMBY38: Refetching age-gated info webpage
WARNING: unable to extract html5 player; 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 comp
lete output.
[youtube] {18} signature length 110, html5 player None
ERROR: Signature extraction failed: Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\dst\AppData\Roaming\Build archive\youtube-dl\ytdl-org\tmpavop71
lg\build\youtube_dl\extractor\youtube.py", line 1385, in _decrypt_signature
  File "C:\Users\dst\AppData\Roaming\Build archive\youtube-dl\ytdl-org\tmpavop71
lg\build\youtube_dl\extractor\youtube.py", line 1262, in _extract_signature_func
tion
youtube_dl.utils.ExtractorError: Cannot identify player 'https://www.youtube.com
/s/player/5168268b/player_ias.vflset/en_US/base.js'; please report this issue on
 https://yt-dl.org/bug . Make sure you are using the latest version; type  youtu
be-dl -U  to update. Be sure to call youtube-dl with the --verbose flag and incl
ude its complete output.
 (caused by ExtractorError("Cannot identify player 'https://www.youtube.com/s/pl
ayer/5168268b/player_ias.vflset/en_US/base.js'; please report this issue on http
s://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 i
ts complete output.",)); please report this issue on https://yt-dl.org/bug . Mak
e 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\ytdl-org\tmpavop71
lg\build\youtube_dl\extractor\youtube.py", line 1385, in _decrypt_signature
  File "C:\Users\dst\AppData\Roaming\Build archive\youtube-dl\ytdl-org\tmpavop71
lg\build\youtube_dl\extractor\youtube.py", line 1262, in _extract_signature_func
tion
youtube_dl.utils.ExtractorError: Cannot identify player 'https://www.youtube.com
/s/player/5168268b/player_ias.vflset/en_US/base.js'; please report this issue on
 https://yt-dl.org/bug . Make sure you are using the latest version; type  youtu
be-dl -U  to update. Be sure to call youtube-dl with the --verbose flag and incl
ude its complete output.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\dst\AppData\Roaming\Build archive\youtube-dl\ytdl-org\tmpavop71
lg\build\youtube_dl\extractor\youtube.py", line 1385, in _decrypt_signature
  File "C:\Users\dst\AppData\Roaming\Build archive\youtube-dl\ytdl-org\tmpavop71
lg\build\youtube_dl\extractor\youtube.py", line 1262, in _extract_signature_func
tion
youtube_dl.utils.ExtractorError: Cannot identify player 'https://www.youtube.com
/s/player/5168268b/player_ias.vflset/en_US/base.js'; please report this issue on
 https://yt-dl.org/bug . Make sure you are using the latest version; type  youtu
be-dl -U  to update. Be sure to call youtube-dl with the --verbose flag and incl
ude its complete output.

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\dst\AppData\Roaming\Build archive\youtube-dl\ytdl-org\tmpavop71
lg\build\youtube_dl\YoutubeDL.py", line 797, in extract_info
  File "C:\Users\dst\AppData\Roaming\Build archive\youtube-dl\ytdl-org\tmpavop71
lg\build\youtube_dl\extractor\common.py", line 530, in extract
  File "C:\Users\dst\AppData\Roaming\Build archive\youtube-dl\ytdl-org\tmpavop71
lg\build\youtube_dl\extractor\youtube.py", line 2048, in _real_extract
  File "C:\Users\dst\AppData\Roaming\Build archive\youtube-dl\ytdl-org\tmpavop71
lg\build\youtube_dl\extractor\youtube.py", line 1395, in _decrypt_signature
youtube_dl.utils.ExtractorError: Signature extraction failed: Traceback (most re
cent call last):
  File "C:\Users\dst\AppData\Roaming\Build archive\youtube-dl\ytdl-org\tmpavop71
lg\build\youtube_dl\extractor\youtube.py", line 1385, in _decrypt_signature
  File "C:\Users\dst\AppData\Roaming\Build archive\youtube-dl\ytdl-org\tmpavop71
lg\build\youtube_dl\extractor\youtube.py", line 1262, in _extract_signature_func
tion
youtube_dl.utils.ExtractorError: Cannot identify player 'https://www.youtube.com
/s/player/5168268b/player_ias.vflset/en_US/base.js'; please report this issue on
 https://yt-dl.org/bug . Make sure you are using the latest version; type  youtu
be-dl -U  to update. Be sure to call youtube-dl with the --verbose flag and incl
ude its complete output.
 (caused by ExtractorError("Cannot identify player 'https://www.youtube.com/s/pl
ayer/5168268b/player_ias.vflset/en_US/base.js'; please report this issue on http
s://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 i
ts complete output.",)); please report this issue on https://yt-dl.org/bug . Mak
e 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.

Description

Plays fine in browser

[BlohoJo]

Problem can be worked around by logging in to YouTube in a browser and exporting cookies.txt, then using --cookies cookies.txt flag, i.e. youtube-dl.exe --all-subs --sub-format srt --cookies cookies.txt -f "bestvideo[ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/best[ext=mp4]/best" "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGa2-qMBY38"

[BlohoJo]

OK, please explain what I missed. This is not working on two different computers and ISPs. Same error. This command has always worked in the past.

Why is this invalid?

[remitamine]

Problem can be worked around by logging in to YouTube in a browser and exporting cookies.txt, then using --cookies cookies.txt

it's not a workaround, it's the proper way to download videos that require logging in.

[BlohoJo]

Thanks very much for the follow up.

In the past youtube-dl could download age-gated videos without logging in. So it appears that this is no longer the case.