Youtube download links expire

[bassrock]

Is there a way to get a youtube download link that does not expire or is this a security feature by youtube?

[phihag]

As far as I know, that's a limitation imposed by youtube, due to technical reasons (prefetching the video to a location close to the user), convenience (limiting the size of their database), legal reasons, and/or security.

I'm closing this issue now, but I'd be very much interested in your use case: Why, if not for debugging, do you need the URL in the first place? Feel free to comment and/or reopen this issue/open another one.

[bassrock]

I am saving the url off for batch downloading of certain videos at a later date. Mostly at times a day or two later.

[Plaque-fcc]

Then youtube-dl later is the very your choice, when you actually need
those videos.

[fjgui]

Maybe the best way is when you need the url and avoid the url expire, you pull new url everytime likes :youtube-dl -gf 18 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dc66rRymXuQ

[Booligoosh]

Hey everyone. Do we know how long it takes for these links to expire? Is it always the same amount of time or does it vary?

Thanks :)