Why my YouTube video downloader only downloads some videos and for other videos it shows keyerror like URL and cipher?

Question

I am trying to make a YouTube video downloader using Python pytube3 but it doesn't download all the videos. Some videos download very easily but some videos won't download and instead of download it shows error:

Exception in Tkinter callback
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\tarun\PycharmProjects\YTDownloader\venv\lib\site-packages\pytube\extract.py", line 297, in apply_descrambler
    for format_item in formats
  File "C:\Users\tarun\PycharmProjects\YTDownloader\venv\lib\site-packages\pytube\extract.py", line 297, in <listcomp>
    for format_item in formats
KeyError: 'url'

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\tarun\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python37-32\lib\tkinter\__init__.py", line 1705, in __call__
    return self.func(*args)
  File "C:/Users/tarun/PycharmProjects/YTDownloader/YTD.py", line 15, in video_download
    my_video = YouTube(input_user)
  File "C:\Users\tarun\PycharmProjects\YTDownloader\venv\lib\site-packages\pytube\__main__.py", line 92, in __init__
    self.descramble()
  File "C:\Users\tarun\PycharmProjects\YTDownloader\venv\lib\site-packages\pytube\__main__.py", line 132, in descramble
    apply_descrambler(self.player_config_args, fmt)
  File "C:\Users\tarun\PycharmProjects\YTDownloader\venv\lib\site-packages\pytube\extract.py", line 301, in apply_descrambler
    parse_qs(formats[i]["cipher"]) for i, data in enumerate(formats)
  File "C:\Users\tarun\PycharmProjects\YTDownloader\venv\lib\site-packages\pytube\extract.py", line 301, in <listcomp>
    parse_qs(formats[i]["cipher"]) for i, data in enumerate(formats)
KeyError: 'cipher'

Welcome to stackoverflow. Can you provide the code that is triggering the download? — Nico Müller, May 30 '20 at 06:58

Shiven Saini · Accepted Answer · 2020-07-24T10:35:14.170

12

This is an error in the file extract.py from pytube.

Go to the location where the package was installed. If you don't know where, run the command
```
pip show pytube3
```
And it'll give you something like this:

We can see Location: c:\users\tiago\anaconda3\lib\site-packages.

Go to that location, open the folder pytube and the file extract.py

In the file, line no. 306 or 301, you will find parse_qs(formats[i]["cipher"]). If yes, then change "cipher" to "signatureCipher" (make sure 'C' is capital).

So, you'll initially have

 cipher_url = [
                 parse_qs(formats[i]["cipher"]) for i, data in enumerate(formats)
             ]

but it should be

 cipher_url = [
                 parse_qs(formats[i]["signatureCipher"]) for i, data in enumerate(formats)
             ]

Run the following script to see it working

 # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
 """
 Created on Mon Jun 15 12:21:49 2020

 @author: tiago
 """
 from pytube import YouTube

 video_url = "https://youtu.be/gp5tziO5lXg" # YouTube video URL
 youtube = YouTube(video_url)
 video = youtube.streams.first()
 video.download("C:/Users/tiago/Desktop/videos/") # Path where to store the video

You'll then see the video downloaded in that folder

edited Jul 24 '20 at 10:35

answered May 31 '20 at 12:04

Shiven Saini

146
5

Hi Shiven, Thank you for your answer, please consider providing a path to the file that needs editing, and please wrap your code in ` signs. Happy geeking! – WiGeeky May 31 '20 at 12:10
1

You are most welcome. I think YouTube has recently changed their signature styles on some videos and pytube3 has not received any upgrade so this error is generating. But this fix is working. – Shiven Saini May 31 '20 at 23:36
Working for me too -> pytube (pytube3) – Albentrix Jul 23 '20 at 08:16
Thanks. As a side note: I have been trying to download directly in cmd, like "pytube link". After applying this solution, it says "Loading video..." then it aborts. But interestingly, when added "--resolution 720p" after it, it worked. – Emre ATAKLI Oct 18 '20 at 18:47

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited Jul 21 '20 at 10:47

1

Just go to the pytube\extract.py (in pytube library) file. The path of file will be (in Windows): C:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\pytube\extract.py
Open extract.py file and search for line:

parse_qs(formats[i]["cipher"]) for i, data in enumerate(formats)
Now replace 'cipher' with 'signatureCipher'.
Save it.
Now run your code again

edited Jul 21 '20 at 10:47

pringi

1,369
3
19
26

answered Jul 21 '20 at 08:59

Mukul Kirti Verma

31
3

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered May 30 '20 at 16:18

0

This is a problem with pytube3, I believe as of now they have not submitted a fix yet. Here is the link to the issue on github

answered May 30 '20 at 16:18

Dzone64

1
1

yeah but it won't download those videos which has offline download button disabled otherwise it works fine with other videos who has offline download button enable..can we solve this issue? – Tarun May 31 '20 at 07:11

score 0 · Answer 4 · edited Jul 17 '20 at 10:19

In case you are getting error as Keyerror:"cipher", then go to location of pytube open extract.py and on line no.301 you will get this

cipher_url = [
                parse_qs(formats[i]["Cipher"]) for i, data in enumerate(formats)
            ]

now edit this line to this

cipher_url = [
                parse_qs(formats[i]["signatureCipher"]) for i, data in enumerate(formats)
            ]

save the changes and....Boom you are done. now try downloading the video you won't get any error now.

score -1 · Answer 5 · answered Apr 19 '21 at 11:02

-1

in pytube library ,there is a extract.py file in this file change the cipher to signaturecipher

answered Apr 19 '21 at 11:02

Mukul Kirti Verma

31
3

Why my YouTube video downloader only downloads some videos and for other videos it shows keyerror like URL and cipher?

5 Answers5

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