Hello, first: thank you for this awesome project! im running pinchflat and it works great for about half the channels i download, the other half gives me this error: "WARNING: [youtube] BNI4u4cpOI: Unable to download webpage: HTTP Error 429: Too Many Requests (caused by <HTTPError 429: Too Many Requests) WARNING: [youtube] No supported JavaScript runtime could be found. Only deno is enabled by default; to use another runtime add --js-runtimes RUNTIME[:PATH] to your command/config. YouTube extraction without a JS runtime has been deprecated, and some formats may be missing. See https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/EJS for details on installing one WARNING: [youtube] No title found in player responses; falling back to title from initial data. Other metadata may also be missing ERROR: [youtube] BNI4u4cpOI: Sign in to confirm you’re not a bot. Use --cookies-from-browser or --cookies for the authentication. See https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/FAQhow-do-i-pass-cookies-to-yt-dlp for how to manually pass cookies. Also see https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Extractorsexporting-youtube-cookies for tips on effectively exporting YouTube cookies" so online it says to add --js-runtimes node to the yt-dlp config file ..its a little over my head as im just beginning to understand docker, but im happy to try, just not sure where to find the config thanks for the help
7 replies
Chris wrote:
Thanks for the kind words, and for pasting the full log — that helps a lot. One thing worth separating: the JS-runtime line is only a WARNING. The line actually stopping those downloads is the ERROR — YouTube's "Sign in to confirm you're not a bot" check, which usually follows the 429 rate-limiting just above it. So a JS runtime alone probably won't unblock those channels. On your question: Pinchflat's config and data do live on your box, at /opt/sparkbox/modules/pinchflat/config. But SparkBox doesn't currently expose a supported way to pass extra yt-dlp options, and I don't want to hand you a file edit I can't verify. I'm flagging this to Tom — he handles these personally — so you get steps that actually work.
Chris wrote:
Glad it sorted itself out — that's the 429 easing off. YouTube throttles in bursts, so downloads that fail together will often go through on a later retry, exactly like you saw. Being straight with you on the rest: there's still no supported way to pass extra yt-dlp options (a cookies file, for instance) through SparkBox, so a channel that hits the harder bot-check can still get stuck. That part is with Tom now, and I'll post back here if that changes.
Chris wrote:
Following up as promised — this changed today. Tom shipped v1.6.435, and your report is named in it. Run sudo sparkbox update first. For your yt-dlp options: create /opt/sparkbox/modules/pinchflat/config/extras/yt-dlp-configs/base-config.txt and put one option per line, exactly as you would in a yt-dlp config. It applies to every download, and that folder survives SparkBox updates. Two extras worth knowing. There is a new Parallel downloads setting for Pinchflat — turn it to 1 if the 429s come back, since each worker is its own request to YouTube. And for a channel that hard-fails the bot check, you can add a Netscape cookies.txt in that same extras folder; use a throwaway YouTube account for that, not your main one.
Chris wrote:
That means a lot — thanks for saying it. Tom builds this from what people report in here, so write-ups like yours are the reason things move. On your plan: running Tailscale on the router is a sensible way to go with a Proxmox container. It keeps Tailscale off the box entirely, and your SparkBox just gets reached over your home network like any other machine — nothing to change on the SparkBox side for that. If it does turn awkward, start a fresh thread with what you're seeing and we'll take a look.
zebraelch wrote:
Thank you for your fast response! Indeed it seems I didnt check the error message properly and it was a rate block from youtube, when it retried some of the failed downloads now, they are going through.
zebraelch wrote:
Wow, the response and fix times on this project are insane! I so wish I found this earlier, I have wasted so much time trying to get arrstacks from different people and even paid tools to work on proxmox lxc and your tool just worked flawless out of the box! I know i might have issues with tailscale and lxc but i dont mind, tailscale will be on my router in that case anyway. Thanks so much!
Chris wrote:
Before you get to that — one correction to what I told you earlier, so it doesn't trip you up. I said to run sudo sparkbox update to pick up v1.6.435, but that command only refreshes your apps' images; it doesn't move your box onto a newer SparkBox release. The one you want is sudo sparkbox upgrade. It matters here because the yt-dlp options folder and the new Parallel downloads setting arrive with the release itself — so if base-config.txt looks ignored, or that setting isn't in Settings yet, this is why. Sorry for the extra step, and thanks again for the kind words.