TranscriptsDisabled But it's not disabled (works locally, fails on Cloud machine)

[atoonk]

To Reproduce

using youtube-transcript-api-0.6.2:

cat test.py 
from youtube_transcript_api import YouTubeTranscriptApi

print(YouTubeTranscriptApi.get_transcript('w8rYQ40C9xo'))

outputs:

python3 ./test.py 
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/root/border0-plugin/./test.py", line 3, in <module>
    print(YouTubeTranscriptApi.get_transcript('w8rYQ40C9xo'))
          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/root/border0-plugin/myenv2/lib/python3.11/site-packages/youtube_transcript_api/_api.py", line 137, in get_transcript
    return cls.list_transcripts(video_id, proxies, cookies).find_transcript(languages).fetch(preserve_formatting=preserve_formatting)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/root/border0-plugin/myenv2/lib/python3.11/site-packages/youtube_transcript_api/_api.py", line 71, in list_transcripts
    return TranscriptListFetcher(http_client).fetch(video_id)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/root/border0-plugin/myenv2/lib/python3.11/site-packages/youtube_transcript_api/_transcripts.py", line 48, in fetch
    self._extract_captions_json(self._fetch_video_html(video_id), video_id),
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/root/border0-plugin/myenv2/lib/python3.11/site-packages/youtube_transcript_api/_transcripts.py", line 62, in _extract_captions_json
    raise TranscriptsDisabled(video_id)
youtube_transcript_api._errors.TranscriptsDisabled: 
Could not retrieve a transcript for the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8rYQ40C9xo! This is most likely caused by:

Subtitles are disabled for this video

If you are sure that the described cause is not responsible for this error and that a transcript should be retrievable, please create an issue at https://github.com/jdepoix/youtube-transcript-api/issues. Please add which version of youtube_transcript_api you are using and provide the information needed to replicate the error. Also make sure that there are no open issues which already describe your problem!

What code / cli command are you executing?

I am running

from youtube_transcript_api import YouTubeTranscriptApi
print(YouTubeTranscriptApi.get_transcript('w8rYQ40C9xo'))

Which Python version are you using?

Python 3.11.6

Which version of youtube-transcript-api are you using?

youtube-transcript-api-0.6.2

Expected behavior

Describe what you expected to happen.
I expected to receive the english transcript
I can see it in browser, see screenshot:

Actual behaviour

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/root/border0-plugin/./test.py", line 3, in <module>
    print(YouTubeTranscriptApi.get_transcript('w8rYQ40C9xo'))
          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/root/border0-plugin/myenv2/lib/python3.11/site-packages/youtube_transcript_api/_api.py", line 137, in get_transcript
    return cls.list_transcripts(video_id, proxies, cookies).find_transcript(languages).fetch(preserve_formatting=preserve_formatting)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/root/border0-plugin/myenv2/lib/python3.11/site-packages/youtube_transcript_api/_api.py", line 71, in list_transcripts
    return TranscriptListFetcher(http_client).fetch(video_id)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/root/border0-plugin/myenv2/lib/python3.11/site-packages/youtube_transcript_api/_transcripts.py", line 48, in fetch
    self._extract_captions_json(self._fetch_video_html(video_id), video_id),
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/root/border0-plugin/myenv2/lib/python3.11/site-packages/youtube_transcript_api/_transcripts.py", line 62, in _extract_captions_json
    raise TranscriptsDisabled(video_id)
youtube_transcript_api._errors.TranscriptsDisabled: 
Could not retrieve a transcript for the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8rYQ40C9xo! This is most likely caused by:

Subtitles are disabled for this video

If you are sure that the described cause is not responsible for this error and that a transcript should be retrievable, please create an issue at https://github.com/jdepoix/youtube-transcript-api/issues. Please add which version of youtube_transcript_api you are using and provide the information needed to replicate the error. Also make sure that there are no open issues which already describe your problem!

[Ibrahim-Faisal15]

Yes the issue is valid, but it seems that this does not show with the link, which Youtube gave us when we use the link from Share button.

[jdepoix]

Hi @atoonk, do you only have this issue with this specific video, or all videos you are trying to retrieve? I can retrieve the subtitles for that video without any issues, which usually means that you are being rate-limited by YouTube (which would also mean that this should happen for all videos).

[SKVNDR]

Hi @jdepoix, I encountered the same problem yesterday with every video I tried. Although I don't use the API frequently, I do access it a few times per day. I hope it's not some new restriction from YouTube. I experienced the same problem as @atoonk, and the issue is still present today.

Thanks a lot for your quick response and for this amazing tool; I really like it.

[jdepoix]

Hi @SKVNDR, then you're most definitely being blocked by YouTube. The only way to work around this is to change your IP address in any way (VPN, proxy, or assign a new IP if possible).

[fleerdayo]

I can confirm that YouTube is most likely blocking =/
It works from my local dev env but it doesn't work in production all things equal.

[jdepoix]

If you're running your code on a cloud machine it could be that (depending on your setup) you're getting assigned an IP from a pool that is shared with other machines. So the IP you're using could potentially be blocked without you doing anything. YouTube could also generally black list certain IPs that are known to belong to cloud providers (just a guess, I don't know if they actually do that!).

[atoonk]

Ah yes, i tried it from my laptop at home and it works fine now. And indeed, it affected all videos, which I why I thought it was a bug or new behaviour in YT api.
So, I guess YouTube blocked me (this was on Digital ocean machine). Bummer, gotta find a way around that. Any docs on the ratelimit numbers or when folks get added? I only run this once every few weeks and only for a dozen videos or so. So bit surprised I was blocked. Unless it's all of digital ocean.

[jdepoix]

Since this is not an official API, there unfortunately is no information on rate limits and when or for how long you will get blocked. People have been reporting different things, so I don't feel like it is consistent either.

[jdepoix]

I will pin this issue and leave it open, since there are issues being opened due to this all the time.
Feel free to discuss workarounds and share your experience on YouTubes blocking heuristics, but be aware that there is no proper fix here and probably never will be. That's the nature of using an unofficial API unfortunately.

[SKVNDR]

Same for me. I use a droplet on DigitalOcean, and YouTube probably blocked the IP from there, but using a proxy fixed the issue...

[auspy]

Same for me. I use a droplet on DigitalOcean, and YouTube probably blocked the IP from there, but using a proxy fixed the issue...

how did you create a proxy can you share the code. did you use a free proxy or paid? how did you obtain that proxy?

[SKVNDR]

Hi @auspy,

from youtube_transcript_api import YouTubeTranscriptApi  
YouTubeTranscriptApi.get_transcript(video_id, proxies={"https": "https://user:pass@domain:port"})

I'm using a paid proxy from smartproxy.com with the "Residential" offer.
There are probably other better proxies available; I chose this one randomly.

[atoonk]

confirmed, using a proxy from my droplet worked. I used this to proxy traffic from my digital ocean droplet to my local laptop. https://docs.border0.com/docs/expose-a-http-proxy
which will allow you to expose a proxy on localhost and have it egress on a separate machine (in my case my laptop)

transcript = YouTubeTranscriptApi.get_transcript(video_id, proxies={"https": "http://localhost:8080"})

can make a more details quick video if folks are interested in how to use that.