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As someone else mentioned in the comments, the "get cookies.txt" [0] extension works to circumvent the age restricted measure and i have been using it with succ

As someone else mentioned in the comments, the "get cookies.txt" [0] extension works to circumvent the age restricted measure and i have been using it with success for weeks now. get the extension, export the cookies.txt file to a folder, then run youtube-dl in that folder with: youtube-dl --cookies cookies.txt https://youtu.be/id https://youtu.be/id it works as of right this minute [1] and in my experience that cookie continues to work even if you log out of your account in the browser and log back in etc i'm trying to imagine a way to have a more permanent solution, maybe if youtube-dl provided some kind of login prompt type thing to enter some your credentials to virtually log in, although i imagine that would start to be another cat and mouse game of it working and then not working. [0] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/get-cookiestxt/bgaddhkoddajcdgocldbbfleckgcbcid https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/get-cookiestxt/bga... [1] https://i.jollo.org/ytdl.gif https://i.jollo.org/ytdl.gif

philshem 5y ago
youtube-dl does have “—-username” and “—-password” flags, or will prompt for a password if you just specify “-u”. https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#authentication-options https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#authentication-option... But as of a couple days ago it wasn’t working for age-restricted videos.
- ComputerGuru 5y ago
  That is for HTTP auth.
zimpenfish 5y ago
> the "get cookies.txt" [0] extension works to circumvent the age restricted measure Doesn't that only work if you a) are in the EU and have verified your age or b) outside the EU?
qwerty456127 5y ago
But I don't want to use the cookies, I used youtube-dl exactly to watch age-restricted videos without signing-in. I don't want YouTube to track which videos I watch and make history-based suggestions so I never sign-in and reset cookies often. I occasionally stumble upon age-restricted videos and feel curious what's there but I don't want any of them to influence what does YouTube believe my interests are so I just use youtube-dl INSTEAD of signing-in. And by the way, I always mostly used random birth dates whenever registering anywhere because I consider that personal information and don't want to share it. I don't even know what birth date did I set when I got my GMail back in the days it required invitations. I don't feel like watching an age-restricted video ever again if this actually requires identification and leaves no workaround. UPDATE: I'm actually surprised this gets down-voted.
- 63 5y ago
  This feels a bit overdramatic. You can remove videos from your watch history and, in my experience, YouTube will cease to give you recommendations based on them. You could also create a separate account used solely for watching videos with YouTube-dl instead of using your main one if you're worried about recommendations. I agree that it sucks that a workaround is necessary, but I don't think this particular one is worth getting too worked up about.
  - Seattle3503 5y ago
    Does this work in practice? Most websites require text verification for accounts. With that they can just link separate accounts in the back end.
    - 63 5y ago
      It works for me in practice. YouTube definitely are capable of linking separate accounts in the back end, but in my experience they don't do so for recommendations. I have a separate account specifically for watching a given type of content and I don't receive any of its recommendations on my main account. Now, whether or not they use linking to give advertisements or sell data I'm not sure, but at that point they can link based on IP anyway and we're talking about a separate issue.
      - TheSmiddy 5y ago
        Yeah this is a very common strategy of language learners. Have a seperate YouTube account where you only watch content in your target language to keep the recommendations clean
    - rainbowzootsuit 5y ago
      Maybe get a cheap MVNO SIM like Ting Mobile and use that to register? I know I've had google accounts that didn't require any re authentication in the way of phone numbers for going on years so you can likely discard the number after you show you are human.
1vuio0pswjnm7 5y ago
"... in my experience that cookie continues to work even if you log out..." Honest question: Should logging out invalidate the cookie for future use. If one of these cookies falls into the wrong hands it grants "evergreen" access to the account. No password needed. I have noticed this behaviour with both Gmail and Facebook. These evergreen cookies makes it very easy to check FB and mail using shell scripts without logging in, which is nice, but it seems like it should be a security issue.
- ronsor 5y ago
  >Should logging out invalidate the cookie for future use Yes. The act of logging out implies that you want the session terminated.
rrjanbiah 5y ago
Curious... Do we have any bugmenot like cookies sharing site?
- alphabet9000 5y ago
  this is a great idea.. i wonder how rapidly youtube cracks down on IPs being used across 1 cookie in a short period of time

philshem 5y ago

youtube-dl does have “—-username” and “—-password” flags, or will prompt for a password if you just specify “-u”. https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#authentication-options https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#authentication-option... But as of a couple days ago it wasn’t working for age-restricted videos.

ComputerGuru 5y ago
That is for HTTP auth.

zimpenfish 5y ago

> the "get cookies.txt" [0] extension works to circumvent the age restricted measure Doesn't that only work if you a) are in the EU and have verified your age or b) outside the EU?

qwerty456127 5y ago

But I don't want to use the cookies, I used youtube-dl exactly to watch age-restricted videos without signing-in. I don't want YouTube to track which videos I watch and make history-based suggestions so I never sign-in and reset cookies often. I occasionally stumble upon age-restricted videos and feel curious what's there but I don't want any of them to influence what does YouTube believe my interests are so I just use youtube-dl INSTEAD of signing-in. And by the way, I always mostly used random birth dates whenever registering anywhere because I consider that personal information and don't want to share it. I don't even know what birth date did I set when I got my GMail back in the days it required invitations. I don't feel like watching an age-restricted video ever again if this actually requires identification and leaves no workaround. UPDATE: I'm actually surprised this gets down-voted.

63 5y ago
This feels a bit overdramatic. You can remove videos from your watch history and, in my experience, YouTube will cease to give you recommendations based on them. You could also create a separate account used solely for watching videos with YouTube-dl instead of using your main one if you're worried about recommendations. I agree that it sucks that a workaround is necessary, but I don't think this particular one is worth getting too worked up about.
- Seattle3503 5y ago
  Does this work in practice? Most websites require text verification for accounts. With that they can just link separate accounts in the back end.
  - 63 5y ago
    It works for me in practice. YouTube definitely are capable of linking separate accounts in the back end, but in my experience they don't do so for recommendations. I have a separate account specifically for watching a given type of content and I don't receive any of its recommendations on my main account. Now, whether or not they use linking to give advertisements or sell data I'm not sure, but at that point they can link based on IP anyway and we're talking about a separate issue.
    - TheSmiddy 5y ago
      Yeah this is a very common strategy of language learners. Have a seperate YouTube account where you only watch content in your target language to keep the recommendations clean
  - rainbowzootsuit 5y ago
    Maybe get a cheap MVNO SIM like Ting Mobile and use that to register? I know I've had google accounts that didn't require any re authentication in the way of phone numbers for going on years so you can likely discard the number after you show you are human.

1vuio0pswjnm7 5y ago

"... in my experience that cookie continues to work even if you log out..." Honest question: Should logging out invalidate the cookie for future use. If one of these cookies falls into the wrong hands it grants "evergreen" access to the account. No password needed. I have noticed this behaviour with both Gmail and Facebook. These evergreen cookies makes it very easy to check FB and mail using shell scripts without logging in, which is nice, but it seems like it should be a security issue.

ronsor 5y ago
>Should logging out invalidate the cookie for future use Yes. The act of logging out implies that you want the session terminated.

rrjanbiah 5y ago

Curious... Do we have any bugmenot like cookies sharing site?

alphabet9000 5y ago
this is a great idea.. i wonder how rapidly youtube cracks down on IPs being used across 1 cookie in a short period of time