Error 404 when trying to download subtitles from youtube videos

[fturco]

I'm trying to download subtitles from several YouTube videos, but I get the following error message:

$ ./youtube-dl --skip-download --write-sub --sub-lang en cpkRvc-sOKk
[youtube] cpkRvc-sOKk: Downloading webpage
[youtube] cpkRvc-sOKk: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] cpkRvc-sOKk: Extracting video information
[youtube] cpkRvc-sOKk: Downloading DASH manifest
[youtube] cpkRvc-sOKk: Downloading DASH manifest
WARNING: Unable to download subtitle for "en": HTTP Error 404: Not Found

I'm using youtube-dl version 2016.02.01.

[hanguokai]

I encounter the same error. Two days ago, it's no this error. Maybe youtube made some changes for subtitles.

[Klaus1189]

If I go to http://de.savefrom.net/ and paste https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpkRvc-sOKk in it, I can still download the srt files when I click on dropdown list (green).
Are you really sure there is no srt anymore?

[Klaus1189]

Forgot to mention, that I already use the 2016.02.04 from today with new subtitle handling.

[jaimeMF]

The old method for getting the srt subtitles doesn't work, perhaps they just convert it from some of the other formats. With youtube-dl you can use --convert-subs srt.

If someone finds a way to directly get the srt subtitles from YouTube, feel free to share it.

[Klaus1189]

--convert-subs srt doesn't work for me. Can anybody please post a sample of how to use it?

[dstftw]

https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl#bugs

[Klaus1189]

I tried youtube-dl --all-subs --skip-download --convert-subs srt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUktj3SB6zY but I only get the vtt subtitles

[dstftw]

Read the URL I've posted.

[Klaus1189]

OK, I use the latest version, I provided my syntax and --convert-subs srt doesn't work for me, I don't think it is a bug, I think I use it wrong, so I asked for help, so what I am doing wrong. Please help

[dstftw]

Please include the full output of youtube-dl when run with -v, i.e. add -v flag to your command line, copy the whole output and post it in the issue body wrapped in ``` for better formatting. It should look similar to this:

$ youtube-dl -v http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKcj
[debug] System config: []
[debug] User config: []
[debug] Command-line args: [u'-v', u'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKcj']
[debug] Encodings: locale cp1251, fs mbcs, out cp866, pref cp1251
[debug] youtube-dl version 2015.12.06
[debug] Git HEAD: 135392e
[debug] Python version 2.6.6 - Windows-2003Server-5.2.3790-SP2
[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg N-75573-g1d0487f, ffprobe N-75573-g1d0487f, rtmpdump 2.4
[debug] Proxy map: {}
...

[Klaus1189]

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.10586]
(c) 2015 Microsoft Corporation. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

C:\...\youtube-dl>youtube-dl -v --all-subs --skip-download --convert-subs srt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUktj3SB6zY
[debug] System config: []
[debug] User config: [u'-i', u'--proxy', u'']
[debug] Command-line args: [u'-v', u'--all-subs', u'--skip-download', u'--convert-subs', u'srt', u'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUktj3SB6zY']
[debug] Encodings: locale cp1252, fs mbcs, out cp850, pref cp1252
[debug] youtube-dl version 2016.02.10
[debug] Python version 2.7.10 - Windows-8-6.2.9200
[debug] exe versions: none
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[youtube] SUktj3SB6zY: Downloading webpage
[youtube] SUktj3SB6zY: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] SUktj3SB6zY: Extracting video information
[youtube] SUktj3SB6zY: Downloading MPD manifest
[info] Writing video subtitles to: Simon's Cat Logic - Love-SUktj3SB6zY.en-GB.vtt
[info] Writing video subtitles to: Simon's Cat Logic - Love-SUktj3SB6zY.ru.vtt
[info] Writing video subtitles to: Simon's Cat Logic - Love-SUktj3SB6zY.fr.vtt
[info] Writing video subtitles to: Simon's Cat Logic - Love-SUktj3SB6zY.pt-PT.vtt
[info] Writing video subtitles to: Simon's Cat Logic - Love-SUktj3SB6zY.it.vtt
[info] Writing video subtitles to: Simon's Cat Logic - Love-SUktj3SB6zY.de-DE.vtt
[info] Writing video subtitles to: Simon's Cat Logic - Love-SUktj3SB6zY.pl.vtt

[dstftw]

Remove --skip-download options. Postprocessors only run after download happens. This is known issue however I can't find the issue number.