Version 1.26.1 – Bug fixes

This release has bug fixes and Spanish language improvements:

• Fixed the crash when “Check yt-dlp version on startup” is turned on.
• Added some Spanish translations that were missing and improved others – many thanks to Michel.
• Default settings should be translated correctly when switching between English and other languages then back again.
• The “Utilities” dialog should no longer trim longer text labels in non-English languages.
• Simplified wording of the update YT-DLP facility in “Utilities”.

Version 1.26 – New features, options and bug fixes

Version 1.26 has a new formats listing dialog, can download multiple files in parallel and has a number of new options.

• The names of log files now start with “ytdl_log-” instead of “youtube-dl_log-”. MacYTDL no longer installs youtube-dl which has not been updated since December 2021.
• The “Settings” dialog has been split into two separate dialogs. The “Settings” dialog continues to handle settings which relate more to particular downloads. The second dialog is called “Admin” and handles settings which are more related to ongoing functions and control over how MacYTDL operates. Previously the “Settings” dialog could extend below the bottom of the screen on low resolution screens thus preventing new settings being added. This split enables more new settings to be added to MacYTDL.
• It is now possible to download multiple videos in parallel. This can speed up downloads when individual downloads do not use all the available bandwidth. Parallel downloads are available for multiple URLs, playlists and batches.
• A setting has been added to restrict resolution of downloaded videos. YT-DLP defaults to the best resolution available. This setting sets a maximum resolution to be downloaded which can make watching those videos more viable on slow/old Macs or low resolution screens.
• A setting has been added to disable use of “.part” files. YT-DLP can use “.part” files during a download to indicate more clearly that the download is not complete. But, those files are not usually immediately playable.
• A new setting to choose whether partially downloaded files should be deleted. If “part” file names are not used, however, a playable partially downloaded file is retained.
• A “Suppress warnings” setting is now available which causes YT-DLP to ignore all warnings.
• There is now a setting to discard or keep a URL after download. Previously MacYTDL would always discard URLs after download has started. The default is now to keep URLs available in Main dialog text box.
• The “Formats List” dialog has been redesigned and is now scrollable on low resolution screens instead of extending below the bottom of the screen. Also, the list displays more quickly if the user needs to return to the dialog e.g. after pressing “Download” without selecting a format. The new dialog is formed with the Myriad Tables Lib by Shane Stanley.
  Note: This function is problematic. If MacYTDL crashes, it can be worth trying the same URL again.
• The “Formats List” now reports average bitrate. This should help distinguish more formats.
• The “Formats List” no longer crashes:
  • if a Return is pressed on the warning issued when no formats have been selected; and
  • on videos from Dailymotion and 9Now.
• Automatic downloads should work more often. It turns out that it has not worked much since version 1.23 of MacYTDL.
  Note: I’ve not been to find a cure for the faults in this function and so it may result in an error.
• Embedding subtitles no longer require specific file format or remux settings. However, some combinations will fail, depending on the codecs contained by the source download.
• Downloading a batch now respects the user’s subtitle settings.
• Adding two or more URLs to a batch should now work.
• Installing a YT-DLP nightly build no longer crashes MacYTDL if the credentials dialog is cancelled.
• The Monitor and Adviser dialogs should now show the playlist name when MacYTDL is downloading a playlist.
• The Adviser dialog should play the downloaded file, if requested, more reliably.
• Pressing the “Esc” key no longer closes the Monitor dialog and cancels a download. The only way to cancel a download is to click on the “Stop” or “Pause” buttons. Previously, a download could be accidentally cancelled by pressing the “Esc” key.
• Code which previously worked around problems with downloading from SBS Australia has been removed. The workarounds are no longer needed.
• MacYTDL no longer reports old stable YT-DLP builds as being more recent than current nightly builds.

Version 1.25 – One new feature and quite a lot of bug fixes

UPDATE 10/9/23: Had to replace the MacYTL dmg file as MacYTDL wasn't notarized and the Help and Release notes files had the wrong permissions. My apologies.

This release includes a facility to install “nightly” releases of YT-DLP. The nightly builds provide quick access to the latest fixes and changes. The installed version can be switched to the latest stable release as desired. All the other changes in this release are bug fixes.

• Users can now install “nightly” releases of YT-DLP using the Utilities dialog. The nightly releases are the most up-to-date available and include all changes made to YT-DLP to that point. There can be a number of nightly builds each week.
• The gap between the title bar and window content of all windows has been reduced to provide some more screen real estate.
• The MacYTDL Service now prefers the URL of the active web browser window to any URL stored in the Clipboard. Previously, URLs remaining in Clipboard from earlier actions could be preferred even though they were invalid and/or did not relate to any video download.
• The automatic updates to the MacYTDL Service will now function. There were bugs in the update code which prevented the Service from being updated.
• Automatic downloads with subtitles should now work instead of causing an error.
• “Get formats list” should now work with YouTube, ABC iView and SBS OnDemand videos instead of crashing.
• Utilities dialog should be wide enough to show all contents.
• Utilities dialog should show the actual installed YT-DLP version number instead of an old version.
• MacYTDL should now record live streams from SBS Australia.
• Attempting an auto-download when download folder not available should no longer cause a crash.
• It’s now more likely that the MacYTDL Service will be removed from the Services menu when the Service is removed using the Utilities dialog.
• All kinds of downloads from SBS Australia should now work – enabled by fixes to YT-DLP.
• The SBS “Chooser” should now work again – code was searching for the wrong text.
• The “Adviser” dialog should show more reliably.
• Text in the “Monitor” dialog is less likely to overlap with the MacYTDL logo.

Version 1.24.1 – Bug fix release

This release is mainly to attend to a fatal bug in the Homebrew code. MacYTDL should now respect a Homebrew install if it pre-dates a MacYTDL install. Problems with SBS downloads and rare errors with the auto-download function remain. Changes in this release include:

• Should no longer crash when Homebrew users first start MacYTDL.
• Should no longer crash if downloads folder is not available during an auto download.
• Should no longer crash if user chooses to return the “Main” on a warning dialog during an auto download.
• Minor change to code which checks for Homebrew installs of YT-DLP on Intel Macs.
• The “Show settings before download” dialog has been updated to include recently added settings.
• A dialog is shown asking if the cookies location should be emptied if the “Use cookies” setting is turned off.
• Improved position and reduced size of the MacYTDL logo in the “Monitor” progress dialog.
• Simulate stage now respects “Use custom settings” setting for playlists.

Note: Release notes are wrongly titled "Release notes - v1.25". They are in fact for v1.24.1. This release was a rushed job.

Version 1.24 – New features and bug fixes

Release 1.24 adds a few new features and, as usual, attempts to deal with bugs:

• All users can now use YT-DLP.
  • Users on macOS 10.13 and 10.14 no longer need to use the two dylib files in order to use YT-DLP.
  • Users currently using youtube-dl can continue to do so or switch to YT-DLP – highly recommended.
  • New users will be given YT-DLP by default.
• Homebrew and MacPorts installs of YT-DLP, FFmpeg and FFprobe will be used if MacYTDL installs are not in place.
• A new “Formats chooser” provides the option of choosing which file formats are to be downloaded.
  • Note that the layout of the dialog is a work-in-progress and may not be ideal for all cases.
• MacYTDL should not crash on showing the Utilities dialog after the first installation.
• Code has been added to help diagnose “end of file” errors which currently cannot be reliably reproduced.
• Preparing to download playlists for which playlist item specifications have been entered in “Use custom settings” should be faster.
• Updating YT-DLP should work again. The layout of the YT-DLP releases page was changed causing the macOS releases to be hidden.
• MacYTDL should no longer crash when SBS Australia changes URLs.
• A custom file name template than is empty or a single space character will cause an error.
• Downloads from SBS OnDemand in Australia should generally work. This has been achieved by a workaround which may be broken by a future release of YT-DLP.
• Items in the “Settings” dialog have been squeezed closer together to ensure the dialog is fully visible on low resolution screens.
• MacYTDL no longer crashes if the preferences plist file is deleted while MacYTDL is open.
• “Check for yt-dlp update” in “Utilities” now checks the version number of the currently installed YT-DLP instead of using the version number stored in the MacYTDL.plist file.
  • On multi-user setups, this should ensure every user has the same version number stored in MacYTDL.plist.
• The “Check for FFmpeg update” function in “Utilities” now checks the installed FFprobe version as well as the FFmpeg version. A full update is done if either are out-of-date.

Version 1.23.1 – Bug fixes

Release 1.23.1 fixes a few critical bugs that were entirely developer error:

• MacYTDL should now trap errors caused by URLs from which videos cannot be downloaded.
• The delay before download commences should be shorter – code which checks for live streams has been made faster by combining with the simulate stage.
• Batch functions should now be working normally. Bug was a missing variable in all the calls to batch functions.
• The file names of certain downloads from ABC, ITV and 7Plus will no longer start with “NA-”.
• The facility for playing completed live streams should be working again.

Version 1.23 – New settings, Pause/Resume & yet more bug fixes

Release 1.23 adds some new features and has work on quite a number of bugs:

• Added a “Pause/Resume” function to the “Monitor” dialog. A download can be resumed for as long as the Monitor dialog is displayed.
• Added a “Force overwrite” setting. By default, MacYTDL will not delete an existing download file. This setting forces MacYTDL to look for an existing file and if found, offers to delete the file.
• Added a “QT compatible video” setting which converts downloaded video into a format which can be shown in Quicktime Player – NOTE: the re-encoding can take a very long time.
• MacYTDL should no longer crash when checking playlists.
• Change naming of log files from “response” to “log”.
• Changed shortcut for “Cancel” from [command-c] to [command-.]. This enables [command‑c] to be used to copy text in dialogs.
• There should no longer be an errant full stop in the log file name when downloading a video which has a four character file name extension.
• Progress text in Monitor dialog should be centre aligned in all versions of macOS.
• Only the first item of audio-only playlists will be checked for available formats. Previously used to check all items which took a long time. There was no need as formats are usually the same for all items.
• The “Cookies” file text box is larger to accommodate longer file names.
• The window position is now saved if the “Utilities” or “Settings” dialogs are moved.
• Should no longer get this warning on some YouTube videos: “yt_dlp/jsinterp.py:346: FutureWarning: Possible nested set at position 3”.
• There should no longer be a crash if “Force overwrites” and “Auto download” are on, the download file already exists and user chooses “Return”.
• MacYTDL is now released in “Run-Only” format – which is slightly smaller and faster. This means that its AppleScript code cannot be opened. However, text copies of each script are published on GitHub.
• MacYTDL now identifies YouTube “Handle URLs” as channels.
• YouTube channels, including “tabs”, are now handled in the same way as playlists.
• The rare case of warning text showing in log file names should no longer occur.
• MacYTDL should no longer crash if choosing not to download from a channel when auto-download is invoked.
• MacYTDL now warns if there are more than 20 items in a playlist or channel (previously would warn if there were more than 35 items).
• Downloading from YouTube channels using youtube-dl is no longer supported.
• There should be fewer problems with ABC iView URLs.

Version 1.22 – New platform switcher + more bug fixes

This release primarily addresses problems related the the SBS OnDemand web site in Australia. It includes these changes:

• A facility to switch between Intel and ARM versions of FFmpeg and FFprobe has been added to Utilities.
• Restoring the current settings file to itself should no longer cause a crash.
• Auto-gen subtitles are now found when using YT-DLP.
• Installation now warns gently if user is offline or uses outgoing firewalls such as LittleSnitch.
• Many changes to enable downloads from SBS OnDemand including from “Show” pages.
• Downloads from SBS live pages not working at present. Waiting on a fix for YT-DLP.
• A more gentle warning is issued when attempting to download from generic OnDemand and iView web pages instead of an error.
• Attempting to automatically download from an Australian commercial “Show” page no longer causes a crash.
• Preparing to download single playlist items should be significantly faster.
• “srv3” has been added to list of available subtitle formats.

Version 1.21.2 – More bug fixes + ARM64 native code

With this release MacYTDL no longer requires Rosetta 2 to be used. It also has a number of classic bug fixes. In summary:

• MacYTDL no longer requires use of Rosetta 2. This has been achieved by:
  • sourcing Apple Silicon builds of FFmpeg and FFprobe from https://ffmpeg.martin-riedl.de/;
  • using Homebrew to build an ARM64 version of AtomicParsley then merging that with an x86-64 version with lipo to make a Universal 2 version; and
  • using the same procedure to build a Universal 2 version of ets.
• The “Settings” dialog should no longer show missing values in drop down boxes for non-English languages.
• Timestamps should now be correctly provided in log files. There was a bug in the path to ets in MacYTDL code.
• MacYTDL should function normally when the path to its location includes a space or special character.
• The “Adviser” should display correctly when the path to MacYTDL’s location includes a space or special character.
• Apostrophes should show correctly in the “SBS Chooser” dialog.
• MacYTDL should no longer show an error when subtitles are specified for more than one episode in the “SBS Chooser”.
• There should be no permission error when using the “Adviser” to open a log file after a download encountered an error.
• Auto-downloads should now work when subtitles are specified.
• MacYTDL no longer crashes if downloading a new version of MacYTDL when downloads folder is not available.
• The "Show settings before download" setting is ignored if "Auto download" is operating.

Version 1.21.1 – More critical bug fixes

This release only contains bug fixes. I have had a lot of trouble with more stringent permissions controls since macOS 12.3. Some of these fixes, hopefully, have solved most of the problems:

• Trying to change download folder when saved location not available should no longer crash MacYTDL.
• Remux formats now include “mov”.
• “Edit” batch file should no longer cause a permission denied error.
• “Download” from batch file should no long crash MacYTDL.
• Saving settings when MacYTDL Service is not installed should no longer cause an error.
• MacYTDL should no longer crash when batch file is empty and “Download” is chosen in batch functions dialog.
• Opening the “Help” file should not produce a permissions error – didn’t completely solve this in v1.21.