youtube-dl not working signature algorithm

Question

I am getting this error when I am trying to download a video from youtube via youtube-dl:

WARNING: Warning: Falling back to static signature algorithm
ERROR: unable to download video data: HTTP Error 403: Forbidden

Answer 1

The copy of youtube-dl in the Ubuntu Repositories is often quite old and Youtube frequently changes the way it serves files rendering older versions of youtube-dl ineffective. Use the following to get a modern copy:

sudo apt-get remove -y youtube-dl
sudo wget https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
hash -r

You should find that your error will no longer appear. Routinely update your installation (every week or so) by running:

sudo youtube-dl --update

In fact it will be mandatory for you to update / upgrade in this way as youtube-dl will not be a standard Ubuntu Repository package.

Reference:

• How do I update youtube-dl?