How do add cookies?

[harshmandan]

How do I add cookies, extracted from chrome (cookies.txt). Also how do I verify that the cookies are working?

[fent]

ytdl(url, {
  requestOptions: {
    headers: {
      Cookie: 'a=1;b=2'
    }
  }
});

[harshmandan]

request options is not available for ytdl.getInfo(). I just want the info but without cookies it just keeps getting 429s.
Also this is my cookie file extracted using cookie.txt:

# Netscape HTTP Cookie File
# This file is generated by youtube-dl.  Do not edit.

[redacted]

So, according to your answer my cookie would be like this?

{Cookie: 'APISID: 82OXkGHhjizKHEU788ABYZK3ldt_1iJREGF; SAPISID:XYA2VbHdaaFgfIjRlbG-/AQYu_EU4y1UYVLi ..........'

[fent]

request options is not available for ytdl.getInfo()

it is available, it takes similar options as calling ytdl()

Also this is my cookie file extracted using cookie.txt:

I've edited your post. be careful about posting sensitive information, even cookies. someone could login to your account with that.

So, according to your answer my cookie would be like this?

use = instead of :. and no spaces between key and value

[harshmandan]

Okay! Thanks for the info but it still isn't working.
Now it throws this error:

Error: Error parsing info: JSON.parse(...).reduce is not a function
at exports.getBasicInfo (/home/live/node_modules/ytdl-core/lib/info.js:43:11)
at processTicksAndRejections (internal/process/task_queues.js:97:5)
at async Object.exports.<computed> [as getBasicInfo] (/home/live/node_modules/ytdl-core/lib/info.js:296:18)
at async exports.getFullInfo (/home/live/node_modules/ytdl-core/lib/info.js:187:14)
at async Object.exports.<computed> [as getFullInfo] (/home/live/node_modules/ytdl-core/lib/info.js:296:18)

I tried with this code:

ytdl.getInfo(req.body.vid, { requestOptions: 
                { 
                    headers: {
                        Cookie: 'APISID=secure;LOGIN_INFO=secure;PREF=f1=50000000&hl=en;SAPISID=secure;SID=secure;SIDCC=secure;SSID=secure;VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=secure;__Secure-3PAPISID=sec;__Secure-3PSID=sec;__Secure-APISID=sec;__Secure-HSID=sec;__Secure-SSID=sec;s_gl=sec'
                    }
                }
            }, (err, info) => {
                      console.log(info);
            });

[fent]

try adding a space after each ;. all examples i've seen of cookies have them like that

key=value; another_key=another_value; more=stuff;

[harshmandan]

Still nothing. I logged the body in info.js at 43rd line. The body has this output:

{"reload":"now"}

[fent]

hmm, I'll have to investigate this. this was also noticed in this issue #632 (comment)

[fent]

I tried using cookies myself, everything worked, didn't get {"reload":"now"}

[harshmandan]

Alright. I think I can tell you how to replicate this. I generated my cookie file using the cookie.txt extension in chrome.
Cleared cookies, logged in into youtube, extracted the cookie file using extension.

Then I generated this string:

APISID=sec; LOGIN_INFO=sec; PREF=f1=50000000&hl=en; SAPISID=sec; SID=sec; SIDCC=sec; SSID=sec; VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=sec; __Secure-3PAPISID=sec; __Secure-3PSID=sec; __Secure-APISID=sec; __Secure-HSID=sec; __Secure-SSID=sec; s_gl=sec'

sec is where my secret keys go.

Used these keys in my code as:

ytdl.getInfo(req.body.vid, { requestOptions: 
                { 
                    headers: {
                        Cookie: cookieString
                    }
                }
            }, (err, info) => {
                if (err) {
                    console.log(err);
                    return res.status(422).send({code:422, status:"err", err:err});
                }
                res.json({code:200, status:"success", info});
            });

When I run this code, its throws this error:

Error: Error parsing info: JSON.parse(...).reduce is not a function
at exports.getBasicInfo (/home/live/node_modules/ytdl-core/lib/info.js:43:11)
at processTicksAndRejections (internal/process/task_queues.js:97:5)
at async Object.exports.<computed> [as getBasicInfo] (/home/live/node_modules/ytdl-core/lib/info.js:296:18)
at async exports.getFullInfo (/home/live/node_modules/ytdl-core/lib/info.js:187:14)
at async Object.exports.<computed> [as getFullInfo] (/home/live/node_modules/ytdl-core/lib/info.js:296:18)

To verify the cookie file. I've used the ytdl command line utility and it works fine.

Can you verify if the cookies you used were obtained using the same process and/or are an youtube account's cookies?

Thanks!

---

Edit 1:

I tried another method to extract cookies here and add it to header.
Added logs to the info.js file and logged url (line 37), requestOptions (lines 37) and body (line 41).
I got this output:

url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1uR4vC0Z5g&hl=en&bpctr=1593938137&pbj=1

reqOptions: {
    headers: {
        Cookie: 'String extracted from browser',
        'x-youtube-client-name': '1',
        'x-youtube-client-version': '2.20191008.04.01'
        }
    }

body: {"reload":"now"}

Error: Error parsing info: JSON.parse(...).reduce is not a function
at exports.getBasicInfo (/home/live/node_modules/ytdl-core/lib/info.js:43:11)
at processTicksAndRejections (internal/process/task_queues.js:97:5)
at async Object.exports.<computed> [as getBasicInfo] (/home/live/node_modules/ytdl-core/lib/info.js:296:18)
at async exports.getFullInfo (/home/live/node_modules/ytdl-core/lib/info.js:187:14)
at async Object.exports.<computed> [as getFullInfo] (/home/live/node_modules/ytdl-core/lib/info.js:296:18)

---

Edit 2:
Took a look at the issue #632 and the temp fix for it as well. But removing the cookie header is not an option for me as I'm using a server to extract info and have a fixed IP which gets blocked (429s) very quickly if I don't use cookies.

[fent]

ok, I was able to replicate it by using the cookies.txt extension to extract cookies, and I did get a { "reload": "now" } response. but I think that could have to do with giving a bad cookie header.

if I try the 2nd method you posted, I don't get an error and all the requests go through fine. but, I'm also not sure if I'm really logged in.

[harshmandan]

Okay! I can understand if the first method doesn't work. But I'm getting error with the second method as well.

Just to confirm if this is the procedure you followed.

• Open Incognito/Private session.
• Head to youtube and log in
• You'll be redirected to youtube homepage.
• Open dev tools and head to network tab.
• Now refresh the page again.
• Copy Cookie from REQUEST Header section from the first request (It should show up as www.youtube.com)
• Use that header with YTDL

[fent]

I found a way, it needs the x-youtube-identity-token header. you can find this in the watch page's source if you search for ID_TOKEN. but I'll make a change so that ytdl-core looks for it if the cookie header is set

[mh4ck]

Even with the x-youtube-identity-token header i get the parsedBody.reduce is not a function error

I wrote a small and dirty nightmare.js script which extract the values from YouTube:

const Nightmare = require("nightmare");
const fs = require("fs");
const request = require("request");

const nightmare = Nightmare({
    show: true,
    height: 768,
    width: 1024
});

nightmare
.useragent("Chrome")
.goto("https://www.youtube.com/")
.wait('a[href*="accounts.google.com"]')
.click('a[href*="accounts.google.com"]')
.wait(10000)
.type('#Email', '[your email]')
.click('#next')
.wait(10000)
.type('input[type=password]', '[your password]' + '\u000d')
.wait(10000)
.useragent("Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_5) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/83.0.4103.116 Safari/537.36")
.goto("https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhaB4KEUGW0")
.wait('#avatar-btn')
.evaluate(() => {
    var ret = {cookie: document.cookie, cv: null};
    var cv_regex = /innertubeContextClientVersion":\"([^\"]+)/gm;
    var str = document.body.innerHTML;
    var m = cv_regex.exec(str);
    if(m && m[1]) {
        ret.cv = m[1];
    }

    var headHTML = document.head.innerHTML;
    var id_regex = /ID_TOKEN":\"([^\"]+)/gm;
    var idM = id_regex.exec(headHTML);
    if(idM && idM[1]) {
        ret.id = idM[1];
    }
    return ret;
})
.end()
.then((ret) => {
    let cookie = ret.cookie;
    console.log(cookie);
    let clientVersion = ret.cv;
    console.log(clientVersion);
    let idToken = ret.id;
    console.log(idToken);

    request.post("[send to your address where you need it]", {
        form: {
            cookie: cookie,
            clientVersion: clientVersion,
            idToken: idToken
        }
    },
    (err, resp, body) => {
        if(err) {
            console.log(err);
            return;
        }

        if(resp.statusCode != 200) {
            console.log("[Error]: Received status code: " + resp.statusCode);
            return;
        }

        console.log("[Info]: Cookie send successfull to Server!");
    });
})
.catch((err) => {
    console.log(err);
});

I'm sending now these headers to the info request

• cookie
• x-youtube-client-name
• x-youtube-client-version
• x-youtube-identity-token

And get the error "Error parsing info: parsedBody.reduce is not a function"

Am i doing smth. wrong? @fent

[fent]

I'm sending now these headers to the info request

• cookie
• x-youtube-client-name
• x-youtube-client-version
• x-youtube-identity-token

are you defining those yourself in the options to getInfo? or letting ytdl-core add them?

[mh4ck]

I'm sending now these headers to the info request

• cookie
• x-youtube-client-name
• x-youtube-client-version
• x-youtube-identity-token

are you defining those yourself in the options to getInfo? or letting ytdl-core add them?

I define them myself in the headers, if i let it do itself it says that it can't find the identity token.

[fent]

does the cookie work for you in your browser? are you using a proxy or a custom user-agent?

[mh4ck]

Yes it works in my browser, while login i'm usung the UA 'Chrome' otherway the login is not working.

I'm using the script above to generate/read the header values.

Then i set them in getInfo requestOptions...

Edit: Yes sure i'm using more than 1000 different proxies - for login i'am using no proxy. Then i send the cookie with the getInfo request and a proxy.