Foreword
This tutorial offers one possible solution. If you have a better free solution, feel free to share it in the comments.
⚠️For paid videos, make sure your account has viewing access.
Tool Setup
Step 1: Install yt-dlp
Method 1: Download the binary directly and configure environment variables manually
For example, on Windows:
https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe
Method 2: Install via Python
1 | pip install -U yt-dlp |
Run yt-dlp --version to verify the installation:
1 | 2025.01.26 |
Step 2: Get YouTube cookies
Install the extension Get cookies.txt LOCALLY - Chrome Web Store
On YouTube, click the extension and download the cookies as a txt file in Netscape format.
Note ⚠️: In my experience, if YouTube is open in a regular browser tab, the cookies may refresh and invalidate the ones you just exported. To avoid this, use a less frequently used browser or open an incognito window when exporting cookies.
Download Command
You’ll need to configure your network environment yourself. For more yt-dlp commands and options, see:
yt-dlp/yt-dlp: A feature-rich command-line audio/video downloader
Run the following command:
1 | yt-dlp [playlist_url] -f mp4 --cookies [path_to_cookies.txt] |
For example:
1 | yt-dlp https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZHQObOWTQDOMxJDswBaLu8xBMKxSTvg8 -f mp4 --cookies youtube.com_cookies.txt |
The program will then automatically download all videos in the playlist. Videos are saved to the current directory by default. For paid videos, make sure the cookie account has viewing access.