Install yt‐dlp

youtube-dl Is Outdated

The youtube-dl tool, while once popular for downloading videos from YouTube and other platforms, has seen a slowdown in updates and may not work reliably with newer changes to these platforms. As an alternative, the community has developed a more up-to-date and feature-rich tool called yt-dlp, which is seen as an improved fork of youtube-dl.

If you've been using youtube-dl and have been facing issues, it's recommended to switch to yt-dlp for a better experience.

How to Install yt-dlp on Ubuntu:

1. Update System Repositories: Before installing any new software, it's a good practice to update the system's repositories to ensure you're accessing the latest versions of packages.

   sudo apt update

2. Install yt-dlp: yt-dlp can be installed using pip, Python's package installer. If you don't have pip installed, you can install it using the package manager:

   sudo apt install python3-pip

   Once pip is installed, you can install yt-dlp:

   sudo pip3 install -U yt-dlp

3. Updating yt-dlp: Since yt-dlp is installed via pip, you can easily update it using the following command:

   sudo pip3 install -U yt-dlp

Setting up Daily Auto-Update for yt-dlp:

1. Open Crontab: To edit the crontab for the current user, use the following command:

   crontab -e

2. Add Daily Update Command: At the end of the file, add the following line to ensure yt-dlp updates every day at a specific time (e.g., 2:30 AM):

   30 2 * * * /usr/local/bin/pip3 install -U yt-dlp
   

3. Save and Exit:

   • If you're using the nano editor (the default for many systems): Press CTRL + X to close, then press Y to confirm the changes, and finally press Enter to save.
   • If you're using the vim editor: Press Esc, then type :wq and press Enter.

4. Verify the Cron Job: To make sure your new cron job has been added, you can list the crontab entries with:

   crontab -l

You should see your new command in the list. This will ensure that yt-dlp is updated daily at the specified time.

Note: The exact path to pip3 might differ based on how it was installed and your system setup. The provided path (/usr/local/bin/pip3) is a common one. If pip3 is located elsewhere, you might need to adjust the path in the cron job accordingly. You can find the path using which pip3.