Update to yt-dlp 2026.08.19
WubTheCaptain
Let's "
fix video players in VRChat
" 🤞 (you know what I mean).yt-dlp 2026.08.19, released on Aug 19, 2026, 23:48 UTC.
Fixes YouTube
403 Forbidden
errors from yt-dlp android_vr
client by adding web_embedded
as a client fallback (#17462) for format 18 (360p video with audio) when android_vr
or visionos
are unable to download the video. android_vr
is broken and was also removed from the default list of clients.The new default
visionos
extractor does not have compatible formats (f=18) with audio+video in the same format for VRChat, thus the download may fail and it should fallback to web_embedded
which will serve format 18 from YouTube.I can also suggest changing the default client preferences to
youtube:player_client=visionos,android
or similar for format 18 for VRChat, in the event web_embedded
breaks there will be another extractor in VRChat for YouTube's format 18.Additional info:
- https://ask.vrchat.com/t/video-players-completely-broken/48829/2
- https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/17456
Updating yt-dlp will resolve
many
in-client bug reports at VRChat Feedback bug reports board that are coming in daily about this issue about YouTube/TV/video players in VRChat.See the yt-dlp
2026.08.19
release notes for additional changes.Photo Viewer
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WubTheCaptain
If yt-dlp
2026.08.19
plays only video [1] and no audio with this new version in VRChat in testing, then the default visionos
client needs to be dropped. youtube:player_client=android,web_embedded,-visionos
.[1]: As reported on X: https://x.com/neruneruhobby/status/2090681556625191254
WubTheCaptain
For VRChat developers: If this change is needed at the source code level as a patch instead of as configuration to support this, in yt-dlp
2026.08.19
you can change the _DEFAULT_CLIENTS
and _DEFAULT_JSLESS_CLIENTS
in yt_dlp/extractor/youtube/_video.py
lines 143-144, optionally updating README.md
's player_client
documentation too.WubTheCaptain
The current yt-dlp version in VRChat as of writing this:
PS C:\Users\linda.LINDALAP\AppData\LocalLow\VRChat\VRChat\Tools> .\yt-dlp.exe --version
2026.07.04
2026.07.04
in VRChat uses android_vr
to fetch format 18 from YouTube at the moment, but all android_vr
formats with client version 1.65.10 user-agent are returning 403 Forbidden
when downloaded. Thus no YouTube playback in VRChat with this one.Photo Viewer
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