How do I enable youtube-dl to bypass the age restriction on YouTube?

Solution 1:

yt-dlp looks like a fork of youtube-dl and works as expected. You can install it as follows (from the project's GutHub page):

UNIX users (GNU/Linux, macOS, BSD) can also install the latest release one of the following ways:

sudo curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp

sudo wget https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -O /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp

sudo aria2c https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp

Solution 2:

You can try this workaround using Python 3.x with the following command (I've added the --verbose flag in case of debugging):

python3 /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl -f bestvideo+bestaudio \
    --all-subs --cookies $PWD/youtube.com_cookies.txt \
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID_HERE" --verbose

Make sure to do the following first:

• Ensure the python3 is installed, that the command is working, and that it actually runs a version of Python 3.x.
• Make sure that the path to your cookies file is correct.
• Make sure that you have the latest version of youtube-dl installed (youtube-dl --version).
• Ensure the absolute file path for the youtube-dl binary or installation (In a UNIX-like terminal use which youtube-dl).

Solution 3:

There is a workaround, but not exactly by using youtube-dl. Currently the best method to access Youtube's age-restricted videos (without logging in) is to use the Invidious network, which provides an alternate method of accessing Youtube's video content. For example you can use the main site of Invidious network, https://yewtu.be/ . Invidious network sites provide a download option under each video.

There is also an application called FreeTube that allows to view and download Youtube videos. It can automatically use Invidious servers in case it can't download the video from Youtube directly.