Using Pytube to download playlist from YouTube

Question

I am looking to download a YouTube playlist using the PyTube library. Currently, I am able to download a single video at a time. I cannot download more than one video at once.

Currently, my implimentation is

import pytube

link = input('Please enter a url link\n')
yt = pytube.YouTube(link)
stream = yt.streams.first()
finished = stream.download()
print('Download is complete')

This results in the following output

>> Download is complete

And the YouTube file is downloaded. When I try this with a playlist link (An example) only the first video is downloaded. There is no error outputted.

I would like to be able to download an entire playlist without re-prompting the user.

Answer 1

The solutions above no longer work. Here's a code which downloads the sound stream of the videos referenced in a Youtube playlist. Pytube3 is used, not pytube. Note that the playlist must be public for the download to succeed. Also, if you want to download the full video instead of the sound track only, you have to modify the value of the Youtube tag constant. The empty Playlist.videos list fix was taken from this Stackoverflow post:PyTube3 Playlist returns empty list

import re
from pytube import Playlist

YOUTUBE_STREAM_AUDIO = '140' # modify the value to download a different stream
DOWNLOAD_DIR = 'D:\\Users\\Jean-Pierre\\Downloads'

playlist = Playlist('https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzwWSJNcZTMSW-v1x6MhHFKkwrGaEgQ-L')

# this fixes the empty playlist.videos list
playlist._video_regex = re.compile(r"\"url\":\"(/watch\?v=[\w-]*)")

print(len(playlist.video_urls))

for url in playlist.video_urls:
    print(url)

# physically downloading the audio track
for video in playlist.videos:
    audioStream = video.streams.get_by_itag(YOUTUBE_STREAM_AUDIO)
    audioStream.download(output_path=DOWNLOAD_DIR)

Answer 2

from pytube import Playlist
playlist = Playlist('https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6gx4Cwl9DGCkg2uj3PxUWhMDuTw3VKjM')
print('Number of videos in playlist: %s' % len(playlist.video_urls))
for video_url in playlist.video_urls:
    print(video_url)
playlist.download_all()

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjuHHI60s44
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z40N7b9NHTE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvziRqkLrEU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN2-87haa8k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgI4UKyL0Lc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvPIgm2SMG8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpdmUmglPBA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmVmJi5dR9c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYNuKXjcriM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWONqLqSxYc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKmLXiA4zaQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DHCm9AlXvo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cRaGaIZQlo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkcEB96iMFk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Fcf-8LPvws
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWLgdSgsBFo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcKYFEgfV-I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtSQIxDPnLc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5kh_-6e4kk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuWVDz-48-o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yjc5Y7Wbmw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5T59WsrNCU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWldNGdX9zE

I'm using pytube3 9.6.4, not pytube.

Now Playlist.video_urls works well.

And Playlist.populate_video_urls() function was deprecated.

Answer 3

if one needs to download the highest quality video of each item in a playlist

playlist = Playlist('https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZclsCzhzt4&list=PLk-w4cD8sJ6N6ffzp5A4PQaD76RvdpHLP')

for video in playlist.videos:
    print('downloading : {} with url : {}'.format(video.title, video.watch_url))
    video.streams.\
        filter(type='video', progressive=True, file_extension='mp4').\
        order_by('resolution').\
        desc().\
        first().\
        download(cur_dir)

Answer 4

this code allows you to download a playlist to your assigned folder

import re
from pytube import Playlist
playlist = Playlist('https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=Pd5k1hvD2apA0DwI3XMiSDqp')   
DOWNLOAD_DIR = 'D:\Video'
playlist._video_regex = re.compile(r"\"url\":\"(/watch\?v=[\w-]*)")    
print(len(playlist.video_urls))    
for url in playlist.video_urls:
    print(url)    
for video in playlist.videos:
    print('downloading : {} with url : {}'.format(video.title, video.watch_url))
    video.streams.\
        filter(type='video', progressive=True, file_extension='mp4').\
        order_by('resolution').\
        desc().\
        first().\
        download(DOWNLOAD_DIR)

Answer 5

Though it seems like a solved problem, but here is one of my solutions which may help you to download the playlist specifically as video of 1080P 30 FPS or 720P 30 FPS (if 1080P not available).

from pytube import Playlist
playlist = Playlist('https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeo1K3hjS3uvCeTYTeyfe0-rN5r8zn9rw')
print('Number of videos in playlist: %s' % len(playlist.video_urls))

# Loop through all videos in the playlist and download them
for video in playlist.videos:
    try:
        print(video.streams.filter(file_extension='mp4'))
        stream = video.streams.get_by_itag(137) # 137 = 1080P30
        stream.download()
    except AttributeError:
        stream = video.streams.get_by_itag(22) # 22, 136 = 720P30; if 22 still don't work, try 136
        stream.download()
    except:
        print("Something went wrong.")

Answer 6

This works for me. Just takes the URLs in the playlist and downloads them one by one:

from pytube import Playlist

playlist = Playlist('URL')
print('Number of videos in playlist: %s' % len(playlist.video_urls))
for video_url in playlist.video_urls:
    print(video_url)
    urls.append(video_url)
    for url in urls:
        my_video = YouTube(url)

        print("*****************DOWNLOAD VID*************")
        print(my_video.title)

        my_video = my_video.streams.get_highest_resolution()
        path = "PATH"
        my_video.download(path)
        print("VIDEO DOWNLOAD DONNNNE")

Answer 7

import pytube
from pytube import Playlist
playlist = Playlist('plylist link')
num = 0
for v in playlist.videos:
    print(v.watch_url)
    one = pytube.YouTube(v.watch_url)
    one_v = one.streams.get_highest_resolution()
    name = f"{0}" + one_v.default_filename
    one_v.download()
    num = num + 1

Download all playlist

Answer 8

This works flawlessly to download complete playlist

check pytube github to install

pip install pytube

Now, go to this folder and open cipher.py

D:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\Lib\site-packages\pytube\

replace at line 273

function_patterns = [
        r'a\.[a-zA-Z]\s*&&\s*\([a-z]\s*=\s*a\.get\("n"\)\)\s*&&\s*.*\|\|\s*(.*)\(',
        r'\([a-z]\s*=\s*([a-zA-Z0-9$]{3})(\[\d+\])?\([a-z]\)',
    ]

main.py

from pytube import Playlist
playlist = Playlist('https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwdnzlV3ogoXUifhvYB65lLJCZ74o_fAk')

playlist._video_regex = re.compile(r"\"url\":\"(/watch\?v=[\w-]*)")

print(len(playlist.video_urls))

for url in playlist.video_urls:
    print(url)

for video in playlist.videos:
    video.streams.get_highest_resolution().download()

Answer 9

this work for me in windows 11 or 10.5 Original code: Jean-Pierre Schnyder

import re
from pytube import Playlist

DOWNLOAD_DIR = input ("Download dir")

playlist = input ("Link:")


playlist._video_regex = re.compile(r"\"url\":\"(/watch\?v=[\w-]*)")

print(len(playlist.video_urls))

for url in playlist.video_urls:
    print(url)

for video in playlist.videos:
    audioStream = video.streams.get_highest_resolution()
    audioStream.download(output_path=DOWNLOAD_DIR)