pytube: AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'span'

Question

I just downloaded pytube (version 11.0.1) and started with this code snippet from here:

from pytube import YouTube
YouTube('https://youtu.be/9bZkp7q19f0').streams.first().download()

which gives this error:

AttributeError                            Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-29-0bfa08b87614> in <module>
----> 1 YouTube('https://youtu.be/9bZkp7q19f0').streams.first().download()

~/anaconda3/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pytube/__main__.py in streams(self)
    290         """
    291         self.check_availability()
--> 292         return StreamQuery(self.fmt_streams)
    293 
    294     @property

~/anaconda3/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pytube/__main__.py in fmt_streams(self)
    175         # https://github.com/pytube/pytube/issues/1054
    176         try:
--> 177             extract.apply_signature(stream_manifest, self.vid_info, self.js)                                                                            
    178         except exceptions.ExtractError:
    179             # To force an update to the js file, we clear the cache and retry                                                                           

~/anaconda3/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pytube/extract.py in apply_signature(stream_manifest, vid_info, js)                                                     
    407 
    408     """
--> 409     cipher = Cipher(js=js)
    410 
    411     for i, stream in enumerate(stream_manifest):

~/anaconda3/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pytube/cipher.py in __init__(self, js)
     42 
     43         self.throttling_plan = get_throttling_plan(js)
---> 44         self.throttling_array = get_throttling_function_array(js)
     45 
     46         self.calculated_n = None

~/anaconda3/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pytube/cipher.py in get_throttling_function_array(js)                                                                   
    321 
    322     array_raw = find_object_from_startpoint(raw_code, match.span()[1] - 1)                                                                              
--> 323     str_array = throttling_array_split(array_raw)
    324 
    325     converted_array = []

~/anaconda3/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pytube/parser.py in throttling_array_split(js_array)                                                                    
    156             # Handle functions separately. These can contain commas
    157             match = func_regex.search(curr_substring)
--> 158             match_start, match_end = match.span()
    159 
    160             function_text = find_object_from_startpoint(curr_substring, match.span()[1])

AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'span'

and I wonder why? Can anyone help me? I am running this snippet in an ipython console (IPython version 7.22.0) with Python 3.8.8 in a conda environment.

Answer 1

Edit:

I have tried to keep my solution up to date but I started to feel that pytube appears to have problems frequently and these bugs detrimentally affect my project. So I refactored it and started to use ytdlp library from now on. So at the time you are reading this, this solution might not work for you.

For the time being as we got this error again. You can try solution given here

Or

Make sure you in pytube/cipher.py on line 293:

You change

name = re.escape(get_throttling_function_name(js))

to

name = "hha"

Thanks Jeffery Williams

Answer 2

I had the same problem, I changed parser.py as in the answer above, just forked pytube lib on GitHub, and changed the file.

You can install pytube this way:

pip install git+https://github.com/baxterisme/pytube

Instead of:

pip install pytube

Answer 3

The problematic version was 11.0.1 and now has already been fixed, so you just need to upgrade to the newer version, and will be working fine again:

pip install --upgrade pytube

Answer 4

The most simplest solution can be:

1. Go to the location where your python is installed (Mainly in : C:/Users/HP/appdata/local/programs/python)
2. Search for pytube in the top right corner and delete all the pytube modules you see
3. open your cmd (in administrative mode) here
4. enter the command : pip install pytube
5. it's done ? Now try running the code again [ ?I had the same issue and these steps solved it]