YouTube Downloading Errors

[azure440]

Your question

I had been able to download videos from YouTube for months now with no problems, until this morning, when it stopped working. I'm located in New York City, using Video DownloadHelper Beta version 9.5.0.0 with Firefox 141.0.3 (aarch64) on a Mac Studio. I've tried quitting and restarting both the app and my computer several times, all to no avail. I'm wondering if anyone else is experiencing the same issue.

Addon & CoApp version and details

Video DownloadHelper Beta version 9.5.0.0

[GrampaWildWilly]

I do not work for VDH. I am just another user. Also, please read #2214.

Version 9.5.0.0 is for the latest VDH for Firefox beta. Historically, the beta is newer than the general availability version available from the Mozilla add-ons repository. This is not true at the moment. It will probably be true once again at some future date. But today, it is not true. Everybody should be running the general availability version of VDH, which is 9.5.0.2. Try that & see if it helps. You don't need to do anything special. Just install the general availability version & it will replace the beta seamlessly. Also, you should read this to make sure you don't fall into any stupid traps: #1641.

[azure440]

Thank you for your reply and your help. With regard to replacing the beta version that I have currently installed, you mentioned that once I install the general availability version, it will replace the beta seamlessly. However, when I attempted to install the general availability version, the only option available was to remove the version that I have currently installed (to wit, the beta…please see the attached screenshot). Obviously, I could click "remove" and then install the general availability version, but since you seem to be very knowledgeable about this process, I was just wondering if you think there might be any risk in my doing it via this two-step means.

[GrampaWildWilly]

Of course doing a Remove is a bad idea. That's what I explain in that other discussion #1641. You need to go read that.

[azure440]

I did read #1641, but apparently only skimmed it, mistakenly assuming that being able to use an .xpi file could only be done on Windows — and in point of fact, I'm on Mac OS. But after a second read, I figured it out, and then installed it, thereby updating to Version 9.5.0.2. And now once again, I seem to be able to download from YouTube. So, thank you again for your invaluable assistance.

[GrampaWildWilly]

You're quite welcome. You did mention you're running a Mac but it seems there's an epidemic of bad reading habits going around. To help your fellow Mac users -- I know nothing about Mac, being a Windows user myself -- do post details here of what exactly you did to figure it out, to use your words.

[azure440]

I simply meant that I wasn't sure how to install the .xpi file once it was downloaded, but Google's AI-generated response to my inquiry provided these succinct instructions: Navigate to the Extensions menu (puzzle icon) > gear icon > "Install Add-on from File...", then locate and select your .xpi file to install it, and finally click "Install" in the notification that appears.

The end result of the foregoing procedure was a solution that worked perfectly...until this morning that is, when once again, it's become impossible to use VDH to download anything from YouTube (sigh). In this ongoing game of Whack-a-mole with YT, new moles seem to be popping up faster and faster.

[GrampaWildWilly]

Ah. OK. There's a couple of extra steps compared to Windows. On Windows, as long as Firefox is your default browser, you can just double click on the xpi file, same as you would do with an executable or a .bat file. This launches a new Firefox window in which there's a short dialog that runs you through installing the VDH browser extension. It's a process that looks like what you get for any browser extension. If that doesn't work, you can go into a Firefox window & do Ctrl+o, which is the equivalent of the menu navigation File -> Open File. That opens a file selection dialog. Navigate to the xpi file you just downloaded & select it. That launches the same process for installing the browser extension. This is not unique to VDH. Any browser extension can be installed like this.

As for moles, I'm not sure this is a new one. The problem is that YouTube decides -- not VDH, not Firefox, YouTube -- YouTube decides to block your IP address if you download too much. How much is too much? I don't know. I've searched the web looking for a straight answer to that & all I get is weasel words. There's some combination of the number of downloads & the byte count of the downloads within a certain period of time that causes your IP address to get blocked. But I have yet to find anything that quotes hard numbers. I don't know what their algorithm is. It must use actual numbers at some point. But I can't find anywhere those numbers are laid out. Maybe you can search & you'll have better luck than I did.

So once you're blocked, how long does the block last? Again, my web searches turn up only weasel words, no hard numbers.

So it's not a new mole. You got blocked. The block will lift eventually. Then you'll be able to download some more, until YouTube blocks you again on another whim. It all looks random because we don't know what their algorithm is, what numbers they're using.

There is a growing body of evidence in this forum that deleting YouTube cookies can unblock you. But you shouldn't use the Firefox procedure for deleting cookies. That doesn't just delete cookies but also disk cache entries. There's no reason to delete disk cache entries. You can accomplish the equivalent of deleting cache without the large overhead involved in deleting cache entries by reloading any page with Ctrl+F5 instead of just F5. For the cookies, you'll need yet another Firefox extension that just manipulates cookies without touching cache. There's a number of those out there. They should be easy to find. So you should run your cookie extension, then find & delete all YouTube cookies. This is supposed to unblock your IP address. It makes sense that YouTube would not keep records on their servers of who is being blocked. That would take up a ridiculous amount of space, given the number of people who use YouTube. They keep cookies on your system to do the job. Deleting the cookies apparently has worked for some people. The more people who report that it works for them, the better.