"extractor error" on facebook video

[johnstumbles]

Attempting to download public video from facebook with youtube-dl on kubuntu (12.04 I think)
I have just done sudo youtube-dl -U and still get the error:

~/Videos/YouTube$ youtube-dl --verbose https://www.facebook.com/bildirchin/videos/970598942987713/
[debug] System config: []
[debug] User config: [u'--output', u'%(title)s [%(extractor)s %(id)s].%(ext)s']
[debug] Command-line args: [u'--verbose', u'https://www.facebook.com/bildirchin/videos/970598942987713/']
[debug] Encodings: locale UTF-8, fs UTF-8, out UTF-8, pref UTF-8
[debug] youtube-dl version 2016.02.13
[debug] Python version 2.7.6 - Linux-3.13.0-77-generic-x86_64-with-Ubuntu-14.04-trusty
[debug] exe versions: avconv 11.3-6, avprobe 11.3-6, rtmpdump 2.4
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[facebook] 970598942987713: Downloading webpage
ERROR: An extractor error has occurred. (caused by KeyError(u'instances',)); 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 complete output.
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py", line 315, in extract
return self._real_extract(url)
File "/usr/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/extractor/facebook.py", line 189, in _real_extract
for item in server_js_data['instances']:
KeyError: u'instances'
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 666, in extract_info
ie_result = ie.extract(url)
File "/usr/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py", line 321, in extract
raise ExtractorError('An extractor error has occurred.', cause=e)
ExtractorError: An extractor error has occurred. (caused by KeyError(u'instances',)); 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 complete output.

[yan12125]

I got the following message even with an account:

The link you followed may have expired, or the page may only be visible to an audience you're not in.

Could you check again this is a public video?

Nevertheless, correct error messages will be displayed in the next version.

[johnstumbles]

I've just checked and the video is still up and it is shown as being public

[yan12125]

Which browser are you using?

[johnstumbles]

Chromium (not Chrome) on Kubuntu
Version 48.0.2564.82 Ubuntu 14.04 (64-bit)

[yan12125]

I still can't access the video. Could you modify line 189 of /usr/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/extractor/facebook.py from

            for item in server_js_data['instances']:

to

            for item in server_js_data.get('instances', []):

And try again?

[johnstumbles]

/usr/bin/youtube-dl/ is a file
The only facebook.py I found under /usr is
/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/youtube_dl/extractor/facebook.py
But that file only has 137 lines in it, none of which has the string 'instances' in it
root@nova:/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/youtube_dl/extractor# ls -al facebook.py
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5699 Jan 27 2014 facebook.py

youtube-dl -U

youtube-dl is up-to-date (2016.02.13)

[yan12125]

Sorry I misunderstood something. Could you download http://chyen.twbbs.org/downloads/youtube-dl and try the following command:

./youtube-dl --verbose https://www.facebook.com/bildirchin/videos/970598942987713/

[johnstumbles]

Hmmm ....
john@nova:/dl/progs/youtube-dl/20160217$ youtube-dl/youtube-dl --verbose https://www.facebook.com/bildirchin/videos/970598942987713/
bash: youtube-dl/youtube-dl: Not a directory
john@nova:/dl/progs/youtube-dl/20160217$ ./youtube-dl --verbose https://www.facebook.com/bildirchin/videos/970598942987713/
[debug] System config: []
[debug] User config: [u'--output', u'%(title)s [%(extractor)s %(id)s].%(ext)s']
[debug] Command-line args: [u'--verbose', u'https://www.facebook.com/bildirchin/videos/970598942987713/']
[debug] Encodings: locale UTF-8, fs UTF-8, out UTF-8, pref UTF-8
[debug] youtube-dl version 2016.02.13
[debug] Python version 2.7.6 - Linux-3.13.0-77-generic-x86_64-with-Ubuntu-14.04-trusty
[debug] exe versions: avconv 11.3-6, avprobe 11.3-6, rtmpdump 2.4
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[facebook] 970598942987713: Downloading webpage
ERROR: The video is not available, Facebook said: "The link you followed may have expired, or the Page may only be visible to an audience that you aren't in."
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "./youtube-dl/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 666, in extract_info
ie_result = ie.extract(url)
File "./youtube-dl/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py", line 315, in extract
return self._real_extract(url)
File "./youtube-dl/youtube_dl/extractor/facebook.py", line 199, in _real_extract
expected=True)
ExtractorError: The video is not available, Facebook said: "The link you followed may have expired, or the Page may only be visible to an audience that you aren't in."

I tried it with http://www.downvids.net/ and it said

1st WAY
(not be downloaded due to privacy settings)
Is the video of a friend of yours?. Can you see the video? Follow these instructions to allow the download of the video
Please try 2nd WAY

When I copied the page source into their "2nd WAY" text box it successfully grabbed the video.

There is something a little odd about the video's privacy setting: it is shown as "public" but hovering the mouse over "public" pops up "custom". I have a screenshot but can't see how to attach it ...
... so it's here http://yaph.org.uk/youtube-dl/youtube-dl--fb-video.jpg

Hmm, yes: can't view the video in an incognito window so it looks as if you have to be logged in to facebook to access it.
"Sorry, this content isn't available at the moment
The link you followed may have expired, or the Page may only be visible to an audience that you aren't in."

So it looks as if a way to access it might be what downvids does and have the user pass youtube-dl the page source: is that a facility that already exists within youtube-dl, or could be easily implemented?

[yan12125]

There must be something different in your browser and outside it. What happens if you go to https://www.facebook.com/me in the browser? If you have already logged into Facebook, this link leads to your personal wall, or it asks for login.

[johnstumbles]

Yes it does seem to be a logged-in issue - I've added to my comment above

[yan12125]

Then the following command should work:

./youtube-dl --username USERNAME https://www.facebook.com/bildirchin/videos/970598942987713/

If not, feel free to leave comments and I or others will reopen this issue.

[johnstumbles]

Yes that works, thanks.

Will you fix it so it produces a useful error message to clue the user up to what's wrong (e.g. show facebook's error message) and maybe what they need to do (i.e. use --username)?

And thanks for your work on an excellent program!