Why is youtube-dl So Slow in 2021? (And How to Fix It) If you've noticed your download speeds crawling at 50–70 KiB/s in 2021, you aren't alone. This sudden drop is primarily due to YouTube's implementation of a new server-side throttling mechanism designed to detect and slow down automated scrapers. The Main Culprit: YouTube's "n-sig" Throttling
yt-dlp is more actively maintained and has a built-in bypass for n-sig based throttling. youtube-dl slow download speed 2021
It uses almost identical commands to youtube-dl. If you use a GUI, you can often replace the youtube-dl.exe in your program's folder with the renamed yt-dlp.exe to fix the speed immediately. Why is youtube-dl So Slow in 2021
In 2021, YouTube began requiring clients to solve a complex JavaScript challenge—the or n-sig —to unlock full download speeds. If a downloader fails to solve this, YouTube limits the speed to a rate just enough for standard video streaming. Because development on the original youtube-dl slowed down significantly this year, it often lacks the updated logic to bypass these new restrictions. How to Fix Slow Download Speeds in 2021 1. Switch to yt-dlp (The Recommended Fix) The Main Culprit: YouTube's "n-sig" Throttling yt-dlp is
The most effective solution in 2021 is to switch from the original youtube-dl to a fork called yt-dlp .