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[facebook] "Cannot parse data" with cookies (impersonation needed) #15161
Description
Activity
This is the page that is being downloaded. I was not sure if that would help with the troubleshooting or not.
Facebook.htmEDIT- This is the webpage that is served when you go to https://www.facebook.com/1620978459/videos/2306498449816137/?idorvanity=144287478966603
Sorry for so many posts but I am on my lunch so I was trying to troubleshoot some more. I noticed that depending on how I go to the video I can also see it using the URL https://www.facebook.com/1620978459/videos/pcb.25362102660091737/2306498449816137
When I try doing that I get the same error message. I have attached the a download of the webpage below.
are you acquiring the webpages you're sharing by using the
--write-pagesoption? and if you're not, then how do you know that's what yt-dlp is actually receiving?are you acquiring the webpages you're sharing by using the
--write-pagesoption? and if you're not, then how do you know that's what yt-dlp is actually receiving?I did not. Sorry, I was not aware of that option. I have put the dump files below, I appended txt to them so I was able to upload them here.
2306498449816137_0ce6e495ab6daac0972205d6970e39d7_https_-_www.facebook.com_video_tahoe_async_2306498449816137_chain=true_isvideo=true_payloadtype=primary.dump.txt
2306498449816137_https_-_www.facebook.com_1620978459_videos_2306498449816137_idorvanity=144287478966603.dump.txt@sew3521 Have you tried
--impersonate "Chrome-99"? That worked for me.That worked for me! Thanks :)
Should I keep this bug open since I needed to use @ArnieGA 's workaround to get this to work?
Thank you both for the help with this.
Should I keep this bug open since I needed to use @ArnieGA 's workaround to get this to work?
Actually I don't take credit for that workaround, since I found it on another thread here (I apologize for forgetting which one in specific).
Sorry, I was not aware of that option...
Me neither, no worries. I suggest you do as I did:
yt-dlp.exe --help > yt-dlp-help.txtand keep that for future reference, as well asyt-dlp.exe --list-impersonate-targets > yt-dlp-impersonate-targets.txt.Cheers!
Reacted by Stephen Wesche and Varun Chandakcould one of you share verbose output from a successful run with
--impersonate chrome-99?could one of you share verbose output from a successful run with
--impersonate chrome-99?Here you go!
PS C:\Users\stephen.wesche\Downloads> .\yt-dlp.exe -vU https://www.facebook.com/1620978459/videos/pcb.25362102660091737/2306498449816137 --cookies-from-browser firefox --impersonate "Chrome-99" [debug] Command-line config: ['-vU', 'https://www.facebook.com/1620978459/videos/pcb.25362102660091737/2306498449816137', '--cookies-from-browser', 'firefox', '--impersonate', 'Chrome-99'] [debug] Encodings: locale cp1252, fs utf-8, pref cp1252, out utf-8, error utf-8, screen utf-8 [debug] yt-dlp version stable@2025.11.12 from yt-dlp/yt-dlp [335653be8] (win_exe) [debug] Python 3.10.11 (CPython AMD64 64bit) - Windows-10-10.0.26100-SP0 (OpenSSL 1.1.1t 7 Feb 2023) [debug] exe versions: ffmpeg 2025-10-21-git-535d4047d3-full_build-www.gyan.dev (setts) [debug] Optional libraries: Cryptodome-3.23.0, brotli-1.2.0, certifi-2025.10.05, curl_cffi-0.13.0, mutagen-1.47.0, requests-2.32.5, sqlite3-3.40.1, urllib3-2.5.0, websockets-15.0.1, yt_dlp_ejs-0.3.1 [debug] JS runtimes: deno-2.5.6 [debug] Proxy map: {} Extracting cookies from firefox [debug] Extracting cookies from: "C:\Users\stephen.wesche\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\1389z6e5.default-release\cookies.sqlite" [debug] Firefox cookies database version: 16 Extracted 2675 cookies from firefox [debug] Request Handlers: urllib, requests, websockets, curl_cffi [debug] Plugin directories: none [debug] Loaded 1844 extractors [debug] Fetching release info: https://api.github.com/repos/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest Latest version: stable@2025.11.12 from yt-dlp/yt-dlp yt-dlp is up to date (stable@2025.11.12 from yt-dlp/yt-dlp) [facebook] Extracting URL: https://www.facebook.com/1620978459/videos/pcb.25362102660091737/2306498449816137 [facebook] 2306498449816137: Downloading webpage [facebook] 2306498449816137: Downloading webpage [debug] Formats sorted by: hasvid, ie_pref, lang, quality, res, fps, hdr:12(7), vcodec, channels, acodec, size, br, asr, proto, vext, aext, hasaud, source, id [debug] Default format spec: bestvideo*+bestaudio/best [info] 2306498449816137: Downloading 1 format(s): 1420394003424928v+822724204085671a [debug] Invoking http downloader on "https://video-ord5-3.xx.fbcdn.net/o1/v/t2/f2/m366/AQPibIrYmvDV72ORCwm10BQYz1cND8oT-RuwdCcPdNHBGwWUYI0vhPWrnzfWzjfX6xklL9GZk4PSraSJdKJYCh1jCA8mc-Ak7mpRUYMbVMioPg.mp4?_nc_cat=106&_nc_sid=9ca052&_nc_ht=video-ord5-3.xx.fbcdn.net&_nc_ohc=j_ebbj_cd60Q7kNvwHxcMMK&efg=eyJ2ZW5jb2RlX3RhZyI6ImRhc2hfdnA5LWJhc2ljLWdlbjJfMTA4MHAiLCJ2aWRlb19pZCI6MjMwNjQ5ODQ0OTgxNjEzNywib2lsX3VybGdlbl9hcHBfaWQiOjAsImNsaWVudF9uYW1lIjoidW5rbm93biIsInhwdl9hc3NldF9pZCI6MTE0NDEzNTE2MTAzNDQzNCwiYXNzZXRfYWdlX2RheXMiOjAsInZpX3VzZWNhc2VfaWQiOjEwMTIxLCJkdXJhdGlvbl9zIjozMiwiYml0cmF0ZSI6MjA2MDY2NiwidXJsZ2VuX3NvdXJjZSI6Ind3dyJ9&ccb=17-1&_nc_gid=W6vrWsR4fsAEQsoM7fkspw&_nc_zt=28&oh=00_AfjaQMfVGrbUP0vG7Zb2xC2MNgYzTngHMcspioCsZ1J5-w&oe=692BB0E6" [debug] File locking is not supported. Proceeding without locking [download] Destination: Facebook [2306498449816137].f1420394003424928v.mp4 [download] 100% of 8.07MiB in 00:00:00 at 12.19MiB/s [debug] Invoking http downloader on "https://video-ord5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/o1/v/t2/f2/m412/AQOd9t0vZSPyOXcXmLElYGYREVGfhAaFRCTRXFedBSrzWq-OuOEyl0awRvmcEFzml2Soy6BL7W_jVKoQ--1ELUJCv5aAipG95U1ffXY.mp4?_nc_cat=111&_nc_sid=9ca052&_nc_ht=video-ord5-1.xx.fbcdn.net&_nc_ohc=MAOpsj0yTuUQ7kNvwGupHdE&efg=eyJ2ZW5jb2RlX3RhZyI6ImRhc2hfbG5faGVhYWNfdmJyM19hdWRpbyIsInZpZGVvX2lkIjoyMzA2NDk4NDQ5ODE2MTM3LCJvaWxfdXJsZ2VuX2FwcF9pZCI6MCwiY2xpZW50X25hbWUiOiJ1bmtub3duIiwieHB2X2Fzc2V0X2lkIjoxMTQ0MTM1MTYxMDM0NDM0LCJhc3NldF9hZ2VfZGF5cyI6MCwidmlfdXNlY2FzZV9pZCI6MTAxMjEsImR1cmF0aW9uX3MiOjMyLCJiaXRyYXRlIjo4MTA4OSwidXJsZ2VuX3NvdXJjZSI6Ind3dyJ9&ccb=17-1&_nc_gid=W6vrWsR4fsAEQsoM7fkspw&_nc_zt=28&oh=00_Afi_KaOORA1xL-yiTEyuMz7VtFptqBjqJ1cpG6FDKCKqRg&oe=692BBEBC" [download] Destination: Facebook [2306498449816137].f822724204085671a.m4a [download] 100% of 325.45KiB in 00:00:00 at 1.60MiB/s [Merger] Merging formats into "Facebook [2306498449816137].mp4" [debug] ffmpeg command line: ffmpeg -y -loglevel repeat+info -i "file:Facebook [2306498449816137].f1420394003424928v.mp4" -i "file:Facebook [2306498449816137].f822724204085671a.m4a" -c copy -map 0:v:0 -map 1:a:0 -movflags +faststart "file:Facebook [2306498449816137].temp.mp4" Deleting original file Facebook [2306498449816137].f822724204085671a.m4a (pass -k to keep) Deleting original file Facebook [2306498449816137].f1420394003424928v.mp4 (pass -k to keep)Reacted by Vangelis66- Sorry to hear that. Have you tried "impersonating" other agents?…On Sat, Nov 29, 2025, 11:28 AM Adam Nieckarz ***@***.***> wrote: *aallfik11* left a comment (yt-dlp/yt-dlp#15161) <#15161 (comment)> @sew3521 <https://github.com/sew3521> Have you tried --impersonate "Chrome-99"? That worked for me. Doesn't work for me unfortunately, not really sure what to do atm — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#15161 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ADEPLHL3MVD53JUZHT7RUK337G3TBAVCNFSM6AAAAACNB4VTUOVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZTKOJRG42TCOBXHA> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>
Doesn't work for me unfortunately, using
--cookies-from-browserdid seem to do the trick, without--impersonateoption--cookies-from-browserand--impersonateshould still work, though, right?The issue experienced in the OP is when using cookies fails without impersonation (likely due to Facebook's Tahoe API doing some gatekeeping via HTTP header fingerprinting).
Hello, it didn't download for me either, i was permanently using different cookies for Youtube, so i saved them to the disk for Facebook again. It's a well-known add-on https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/cookies-txt/ , on logged in Facebook i saved the so-called "current site" to the file "fb-cookies.txt"
Then the command worked:
yt-dlp --paths=C:\Tools\yt-dlp\yt-download\video\Facebook --progress --cookies=fb-cookies.txt -f "bestvideo[ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/mp4" %url%- changed the title
[-]Unable to download video from Facebook[/-][+][facebook] Cannot parse data (impersonation needed)[/+]on Jan 31, 2026 7 remaining items
- marked [facebook] 2535988590166522: Cannot parse data #16575 as a duplicate of this issue
on Apr 26, 2026 I have been dealing with this issue for a week and found that if I STOPPED importing my firefox cookies (windows user, sorry) the extractor is able to parse the facebook link(s) I was having trouble with before. I can't explain why but hopefully someone sees this and finds it helpful (and/or CAN explain why!)
Reacted by GitResetHardReacted by 7GrnIt would help for the error message to be more relevant and to stop saying to report the issue.
- marked [facebook] cannot parse data issue #17365 as a duplicate of this issue
on Aug 5, 2026
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USA
Provide a description that is worded well enough to be understood
I am currently unable to download some videos from Facebook. It seems like older videos and Reels work fine.
Provide verbose output that clearly demonstrates the problem
yt-dlp -vU <your command line>)'verbose': TruetoYoutubeDLparams instead[debug] Command-line config) and insert it belowComplete Verbose Output