video-downloader unable to obtain file audio codec with ffprobe

[sofasurfer]

Before I crashed my system I used video-downloader with no problems. Now with my new istallation I get this message on EVERY attempt... Download Failed...ERROR: WARNING: unable to obtain file audio codec with ffprobe
Obviously I am missing something.
I installed $ sudo apt install ubuntu-restricted-extras
I installed $ sudo apt install ffprobe
I installed yt-dlp
I updated and upgraded. Whats left?

 

[Condobloke]

GitHub - BKSalman/ytdlp-gui: a very simple GUI for ytdlp written in Rust

a very simple GUI for ytdlp written in Rust. Contribute to BKSalman/ytdlp-gui development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

1- download yt-dlp
from your distribution repo

2- download ffmpeg or ffmpeg-free from your distribution repos (you may already have it)
3- download the ytdlp-gui binary from the releases page: https://github.com/BKSalman/ytdlp-gui/releases

ytdlp-gui_3.0.1-1_amd64.deb ......once downloaded, it is a .deb file, so double click it and install it.


Some music may not download from youtube, due to cookies issues. Both Chrome and Firefox have a extension called : cookies.txt ....this will solve that issue. on downloading window, click on Settings. cookies file: click on browse...locate that cookies.txt wherever you downloaded it to...desktop or downloads folder. it will end up looking like this : /home/brian/Downloads/cookies.txt
For run of the mill music, it is simple and works like a dream. If it has the cookies drama, it is still simple, and it works.

That's it....not as hard as it looks. Good app.

 

[sofasurfer]

GitHub - BKSalman/ytdlp-gui: a very simple GUI for ytdlp written in Rust

a very simple GUI for ytdlp written in Rust. Contribute to BKSalman/ytdlp-gui development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

3- download the ytdlp-gui binary from the releases page: https://github.com/BKSalman/ytdlp-gui/releases

ytdlp-gui_3.0.1-1_amd64.deb ......once downloaded, it is a .deb file, so double click it and install it.


It say that there is no such file at github. I copy and pasted ytdlp-gui_3.0.1-1_amd64.deb but no luck. I tried the terminal sudo apt install but it said it could not find the package.

 

[Condobloke]

which distro are you running?

I installed yt-dlp

You already have that

So, to summarise, if you are running Linux Mint, look in Software Manager and you will see yt-dlp there...it shoulf have a tick against it....that tells you it is already installed.
The same applies to Ff-mpeg (if there is no tick, then install it

The .deb fil in the pic immediately above.....single click it to download it and save it.

Then double click it and it will install.

The app will be in the menu... YouTube Downloader ....right click and select add to panel. easy to get to it

copy a you tube url and paste it in the top line of the app.... to paste , hold the Ctrl key and tap the v key.

The set it to download either music or video....and click on Download.

if you encounter any errors, there is an extension called: cookies.txt ....download it o the Downloads folder. The app will find it.

 

[GatorsFan]

I installed $ sudo apt install ffprobe

You need to make sure ffmpeg is installed - ffprobe is part of that

See screenshot of Synaptic Package Manager

FFmpeg is the leading multimedia framework, able to decode, encode, transcode,
mux, demux, stream, filter and play pretty much anything that humans and
machines have created. It supports the most obscure ancient formats up to the
cutting edge.

This package contains:
* ffmpeg: a command line tool to convert multimedia files between formats
* ffplay: a simple media player based on SDL and the FFmpeg libraries
* ffprobe: a simple multimedia stream analyzer
* qt-faststart: a utility to rearrange Quicktime files

 

[KGIII]

This is a tool that I use and have now used extensively:

Stacher7

Stacher7. The yt-dlp GUI you've been looking for.

stacher.io

 

[sofasurfer]

I am using Ubuntu NOT mint. I have the ffmpeg package installed.
Just a note...I just tried downloading a video with wget and a file was saved but it was just an empty file. Here is the result of the wget attempt. Maybe it will tell you something...

$ wget https://youtu.be/MtgP5yraW9U
--2025-09-16 19:46:30--  https://youtu.be/MtgP5yraW9U
Resolving youtu.be (youtu.be)... 142.250.190.46, 2607:f8b0:4009:814::200e
Connecting to youtu.be (youtu.be)|142.250.190.46|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 303 See Other
Cookie coming from youtu.be attempted to set domain to youtube.com
Cookie coming from youtu.be attempted to set domain to youtube.com
Location: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtgP5yraW9U&feature=youtu.be [following]
--2025-09-16 19:46:30--  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtgP5yraW9U&feature=youtu.be
Resolving www.youtube.com (www.youtube.com)... 142.250.191.238, 142.251.32.14, 172.217.1.110, ...
Connecting to www.youtube.com (www.youtube.com)|142.250.191.238|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: unspecified [text/html]
Saving to: ‘MtgP5yraW9U’

MtgP5yraW9U             [  <=>               ]   1.17M  1.98MB/s    in 0.6s    

2025-09-16 19:46:31 (1.98 MB/s) - ‘MtgP5yraW9U’ saved [1231105]

 

[KGIII]

I am using Ubuntu NOT mint. I have the ffmpeg package installed.

Have you tried Stascher7? It ensures all the dependencies are satisfied.

 

[theLegionWithin]

this is something I threw together after my goto app (Parabolic) stopped working - though the issue has since been fixed, I still find it useful. using your test link (looks like something about pyramids) I was able to get it in ~5 seconds.

#!/bin/bash

# Check if a URL is provided as an argument
if [ -z "$1" ]
then
    echo "Usage: $0 <video_url>"
    exit 1
fi

VIDEO_URL="$1"
OUTPUT_DIR="~/Downloads/" # Default output directory

echo "Downloading video from: $VIDEO_URL"
echo "Saving to: $OUTPUT_DIR"

# Download the video in MP4 format
yt-dlp -f 'bestvideo[ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/best[ext=mp4]/best' \
       -o "$OUTPUT_DIR/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "$VIDEO_URL"

if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
    echo "Download complete."
else
    echo "Download failed."
fi