JSONDecodeError('Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)')

[finlaysawyer]

Checklist

• I'm reporting a broken site support issue
• I've verified that I'm running youtube-dl version 2020.09.20
• 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 bug reports including closed ones
• I've read bugs section in FAQ

Verbose log

[debug] Encodings: locale cp1252, fs utf-8, out UTF-8, pref cp1252
[debug] youtube-dl version 2020.09.20
[debug] Git HEAD: 793ad69
[debug] Python version 3.7.9 (CPython) - Windows-10-10.0.19041-SP0
[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg git-2020-08-06-2c35797, ffprobe git-2020-08-06-2c35797
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[youtube:search] query "ladbroke grove": Downloading page 1
ERROR: query "ladbroke grove": Failed to parse JSON  (caused by JSONDecodeError('Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)')); please report this issue on https://yt-dl.org/bug . Make sure you are using the latest version; see  https://yt-dl.org/update  on how to update. Be sure to call youtube-dl with the --verbose flag and include its complete output.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "D:\dev\DiscordBot\venv\lib\site-packages\youtube_dl\extractor\common.py", line 904, in _parse_json
    return json.loads(json_string)
  File "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\PythonSoftwareFoundation.Python.3.7_3.7.2544.0_x64__qbz5n2kfra8p0\lib\json\__init__.py", line 348, in loads
    return _default_decoder.decode(s)
  File "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\PythonSoftwareFoundation.Python.3.7_3.7.2544.0_x64__qbz5n2kfra8p0\lib\json\decoder.py", line 337, in decode
    obj, end = self.raw_decode(s, idx=_w(s, 0).end())
  File "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\PythonSoftwareFoundation.Python.3.7_3.7.2544.0_x64__qbz5n2kfra8p0\lib\json\decoder.py", line 355, in raw_decode
    raise JSONDecodeError("Expecting value", s, err.value) from None
json.decoder.JSONDecodeError: Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "D:\dev\DiscordBot\venv\lib\site-packages\youtube_dl\extractor\common.py", line 904, in _parse_json
    return json.loads(json_string)
  File "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\PythonSoftwareFoundation.Python.3.7_3.7.2544.0_x64__qbz5n2kfra8p0\lib\json\__init__.py", line 348, in loads
    return _default_decoder.decode(s)
  File "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\PythonSoftwareFoundation.Python.3.7_3.7.2544.0_x64__qbz5n2kfra8p0\lib\json\decoder.py", line 337, in decode
    obj, end = self.raw_decode(s, idx=_w(s, 0).end())
  File "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\PythonSoftwareFoundation.Python.3.7_3.7.2544.0_x64__qbz5n2kfra8p0\lib\json\decoder.py", line 355, in raw_decode
    raise JSONDecodeError("Expecting value", s, err.value) from None
json.decoder.JSONDecodeError: Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)
During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "D:\dev\DiscordBot\venv\lib\site-packages\youtube_dl\YoutubeDL.py", line 797, in extract_info
    ie_result = ie.extract(url)
  File "D:\dev\DiscordBot\venv\lib\site-packages\youtube_dl\extractor\common.py", line 532, in extract
    ie_result = self._real_extract(url)
  File "D:\dev\DiscordBot\venv\lib\site-packages\youtube_dl\extractor\common.py", line 3004, in _real_extract
    return self._get_n_results(query, 1)
  File "D:\dev\DiscordBot\venv\lib\site-packages\youtube_dl\extractor\youtube.py", line 3204, in _get_n_results
    query={'spf': 'navigate'})
  File "D:\dev\DiscordBot\venv\lib\site-packages\youtube_dl\extractor\common.py", line 897, in _download_json
    expected_status=expected_status)
  File "D:\dev\DiscordBot\venv\lib\site-packages\youtube_dl\extractor\common.py", line 881, in _download_json_handle
    fatal=fatal), urlh
  File "D:\dev\DiscordBot\venv\lib\site-packages\youtube_dl\extractor\common.py", line 908, in _parse_json
    raise ExtractorError(errmsg, cause=ve)
youtube_dl.utils.ExtractorError: query "ladbroke grove": Failed to parse JSON  (caused by JSONDecodeError('Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)')); please report this issue on https://yt-dl.org/bug . Make sure you are using the latest version; see  https://yt-dl.org/update  on how to update. Be sure to call youtube-dl with the --verbose flag and include its complete output.

Description

Hello, I am using the method ydl.extract_info(f"ytsearch:ladbroke grove", download=False) and I am receiving this error for essentially every possible search term. There were a few other issues but I could not find anything related to YouTube requests or a solution.

[tameTNT]

I have had this same issue all day. Repeatedly attempting the same operation however seems to work for some reason - it appears to be some sort of luck game as to whether the error occurs. Is YouTube serving different content perhaps depending on time of request? Sometimes it downloads up to 4 videos or so back to back without any error before then erroring after every attempt for next 6 attempts for example.

[elliotnash]

I'm also getting the same error, restarting my program seems to get it working but every couple startups its completely broken

[isp96]

Same here, been getting these seemingly randomly over the past week+

[tameTNT]

Something must have changed overnight since I am not getting this error at all anymore using the exact same program as yesterday. 🤔 Can anyone else confirm?

[elliotnash]

still getting this, youtube seems to be randomly deciding if it wants to give out a properly formatted json file or not

[nwroot]

This issue is still happening, it can also be reproduced with youtube-dl 'ytsearch:<anything>' -F, it fails with the same JSONDecodeError exception on latest version.

[neotherack]

same here