Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art + yt-dlp

Try using this: --merge-output-format MP4 I guess this will preserve the original webm video stream, and just pack the AV stream into MP4 container. Do let me know if this worked for you.

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That's not an error and can be ignored. Does the thumbnail not embed in the final file? If so, provide verbose log

github.com › yt-dlp › yt-dlp

GitHub - yt-dlp/yt-dlp: A feature-rich command-line audio/video downloader · GitHub

6 days ago - (Alias: --ppa) -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk after post-processing --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after post-processing (default) --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default) --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4, webm and mkv videos) --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default) --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default) --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file.

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VideoHelp

forum.videohelp.com › forum home › video conversion

YouTube-DL - Embedding Thumbnail in MKV File - VideoHelp Forum

August 15, 2020 - @echo off cd /D "%~dp0" setlocal enableDelayedExpansion set /p video="Paste the video link to download: " youtube-dl ^ -f ("bestvideo[width>=1920]"/bestvideo)+bestaudio/best --write-thumbnail --embed-thumbnail ^ --o "L:/VideoSharingSites/%%(title)s.%%(ext)s" ^ !video! PAUSE For the MKV downloaded I then dragged it into MKV Toolnix GUI. I resized the thumbnail file to various sizes as mentioned below. I renamed the file as "cover_land" and dragged it into the attachments tab.

Hacker News

news.ycombinator.com › item

Youtube-dl can convert to mp3 and add cover-art from the Youtube thumbnail, not ... | Hacker News

July 5, 2018 - No such item

reddit.com › r/youtubedl › youtube thumbnail is being properly embedded to video file, but thumbnail is not being displayed

r/youtubedl on Reddit: YouTube Thumbnail is being properly embedded to video file, but thumbnail is not being displayed

May 11, 2024 -

The goal was to download a 720 resolution video with the best audio available, embed the thumbnail to the file, and save it as an mp4. I'm not sure why the file was saved as an mkv. But it seems like the proper thumbnail was written to the file, but VLC is not displaying the thumbnail as it's "cover art". I used Tag Editor to extract the thumbnail to view it (it is the correct thumbnail). I wanted to ask what I missed in regards to it being saved as an mkv vs. mp4, and also wanted to make sure I'm not missing something else in regards to the thumbnail.

picture of the yt thumbnail

picture showing the thumbnail is attached to the file

picture showing vlc is not identifying the album art

picture of the file

verbose log below:

C:\Users\Mike\Downloads\youtubedl>yt-dlp -f "bestvideo[height<=720][ext=mp4]+bestaudio/mp4" --embed-thumbnail --verbose https://youtu.be/RjO0JCSR7K0?si=mP-qqd_PVG3seshA [debug] Command-line config: ['-f', 'bestvideo[height<=720][ext=mp4]+bestaudio/mp4', '--embed-thumbnail', '--verbose', 'https://youtu.be/RjO0JCSR7K0?si=mP-qqd_PVG3seshA'] [debug] Encodings: locale cp1252, fs utf-8, pref cp1252, out utf-8, error utf-8, screen utf-8 [debug] yt-dlp version stable@2024.04.09 from yt-dlp/yt-dlp [ff0779267] (pip) [debug] Python 3.11.0 (CPython AMD64 64bit) - Windows-10-10.0.22631-SP0 (OpenSSL 1.1.1q 5 Jul 2022) [debug] exe versions: ffmpeg git-2020-03-12-675bb1f, ffprobe git-2020-03-12-675bb1f [debug] Optional libraries: Cryptodome-3.16.0, brotli-1.0.9, certifi-2022.12.07, mutagen-1.47.0, requests-2.31.0, sqlite3-3.38.4, urllib3-2.1.0, websockets-12.0 [debug] Proxy map: {} [debug] Request Handlers: urllib, requests, websockets [debug] Loaded 1810 extractors [youtube] Extracting URL: https://youtu.be/RjO0JCSR7K0?si=mP-qqd_PVG3seshA [youtube] RjO0JCSR7K0: Downloading webpage [youtube] RjO0JCSR7K0: Downloading ios player API JSON [youtube] RjO0JCSR7K0: Downloading android player API JSON WARNING: [youtube] Skipping player responses from android clients (got player responses for video "aQvGIIdgFDM" instead of "RjO0JCSR7K0") [debug] Loading youtube-nsig.17fd9675 from cache [debug] [youtube] Decrypted nsig ghxr4G0-lNlobt => sH2E3Mkt3Qp5Uw [debug] Loading youtube-nsig.17fd9675 from cache [debug] [youtube] Decrypted nsig Gw6mrP8U7koxMg => 86gcavseAv4_Xg [youtube] RjO0JCSR7K0: Downloading m3u8 information [debug] Sort order given by extractor: quality, res, fps, hdr:12, source, vcodec:vp9.2, channels, acodec, lang, proto [debug] Formats sorted by: hasvid, ie_pref, quality, res, fps, hdr:12(7), source, vcodec:vp9.2(10), channels, acodec, lang, proto, size, br, asr, vext, aext, hasaud, id [info] RjO0JCSR7K0: Downloading 1 format(s): 609+251 [info] Downloading video thumbnail 41 ... [info] Writing video thumbnail 41 to: $2 Cheesy Bread Meal Prep for Fat Loss [RjO0JCSR7K0].webp WARNING: webm doesn't support embedding a thumbnail, mkv will be used [debug] Invoking hlsnative downloader on "https://manifest.googlevideo.com/api/manifest/hls_playlist/expire/1715483004/ei/HN0_ZoLPIvKJkucP-cWBgAE/ip/##.###.###.##/id/4633b4242491ecad/itag/609/source/youtube/requiressl/yes/ratebypass/yes/pfa/1/wft/1/sgovp/clen%3D73044674%3Bdur%3D783.733%3Bgir%3Dyes%3Bitag%3D247%3Blmt%3D1712792024826659/rqh/1/hls_chunk_host/rr4---sn-ab5l6nrl.googlevideo.com/xpc/EgVo2aDSNQ%3D%3D/mh/Bt/mm/31,26/mn/sn-ab5l6nrl,sn-p5qddn7d/ms/au,onr/mv/m/mvi/4/pl/19/initcwndbps/1035000/vprv/1/playlist_type/DVR/dover/13/txp/5537434/mt/1715461251/fvip/3/short_key/1/keepalive/yes/sparams/expire,ei,ip,id,itag,source,requiressl,ratebypass,pfa,wft,sgovp,rqh,xpc,vprv,playlist_type/sig/AJfQdSswRAIgR6ocnVw4ER1n6EXi2PT7eqn7Xyau4ABGB-eEyw-CUOQCIFXz8x5NGnrSl1w_B2w5f-tIDuxczvywe53NN8wOxbJE/lsparams/hls_chunk_host,mh,mm,mn,ms,mv,mvi,pl,initcwndbps/lsig/AHWaYeowRQIgfaI4px16KeTeCC5uKNa_E1RqJ4IubYGgBH6IrAWhXf8CIQChwP8Xt9jXxkqnQ47Umt_Yre89LYTAKYd6slo1JrgOtg%3D%3D/playlist/index.m3u8" [hlsnative] Downloading m3u8 manifest [hlsnative] Total fragments: 150 [download] Destination: $2 Cheesy Bread Meal Prep for Fat Loss [RjO0JCSR7K0].f609.mp4 [debug] File locking is not supported. Proceeding without locking [download] 100% of 69.78MiB in 00:00:58 at 1.19MiB/s [debug] Invoking http downloader on "https://rr4---sn-ab5l6nrl.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?expire=1715483002&ei=Gt0_ZpvfK6WLkucPzr2luA4&ip=##.###.###.##&id=o-AFjz7IvhPDA5H_pzLxQwrM3mGkihGCefLMR-mLo2RYW8&itag=251&source=youtube&requiressl=yes&xpc=EgVo2aDSNQ%3D%3D&mh=Bt&mm=31%2C26&mn=sn-ab5l6nrl%2Csn-p5qlsndr&ms=au%2Conr&mv=m&mvi=4&pl=19&initcwndbps=966250&bui=AWRWj2T85zReDOY9HWPYf6tdOenoiCdc1o6rjolkvSs4zCReCAcI79BEoO93pl8mqZVfUyoWw0Dbj6jo&spc=UWF9f4ujdoBYqeNVesocytj3VP8ek94CeocF37RUEb5VpR81YtD2d3k&vprv=1&svpuc=1&mime=audio%2Fwebm&ns=sK2e2ucooPr_VSkN-EZ2LCEQ&rqh=1&gir=yes&clen=13955530&dur=783.761&lmt=1712780508447942&mt=1715461010&fvip=3&keepalive=yes&c=WEB&sefc=1&txp=5532434&n=86gcavseAv4_Xg&sparams=expire%2Cei%2Cip%2Cid%2Citag%2Csource%2Crequiressl%2Cxpc%2Cbui%2Cspc%2Cvprv%2Csvpuc%2Cmime%2Cns%2Crqh%2Cgir%2Cclen%2Cdur%2Clmt&sig=AJfQdSswRQIhAN72cGHB1PiwC815dFPgk-OyaiIOlLHugGe_960ejsRLAiAwiKv562Me496Se9nxu6MFpqZyCjipKzmjbNfQgsvRpw%3D%3D&lsparams=mh%2Cmm%2Cmn%2Cms%2Cmv%2Cmvi%2Cpl%2Cinitcwndbps&lsig=AHWaYeowRAIgeX_Q9PQOh1gx83b_8AP2g-_rp1xW_G6hVJX9swYTGnICIBPGW2jyjlZ0JugsVdxyl_QlQNeHpNB75t6Q51-UPzuX" [download] Destination: $2 Cheesy Bread Meal Prep for Fat Loss [RjO0JCSR7K0].f251.webm [download] 100% of 13.31MiB in 00:00:01 at 8.85MiB/s [Merger] Merging formats into "$2 Cheesy Bread Meal Prep for Fat Loss [RjO0JCSR7K0].mkv" [debug] ffmpeg command line: ffmpeg -y -loglevel repeat+info -i "file:$2 Cheesy Bread Meal Prep for Fat Loss [RjO0JCSR7K0].f609.mp4" -i "file:$2 Cheesy Bread Meal Prep for Fat Loss [RjO0JCSR7K0].f251.webm" -c copy -map 0:v:0 -map 1:a:0 -movflags +faststart "file:$2 Cheesy Bread Meal Prep for Fat Loss [RjO0JCSR7K0].temp.mkv" Deleting original file $2 Cheesy Bread Meal Prep for Fat Loss [RjO0JCSR7K0].f609.mp4 (pass -k to keep) Deleting original file $2 Cheesy Bread Meal Prep for Fat Loss [RjO0JCSR7K0].f251.webm (pass -k to keep) [debug] ffprobe command line: ffprobe -hide_banner -show_format -show_streams -print_format json "file:$2 Cheesy Bread Meal Prep for Fat Loss [RjO0JCSR7K0].mkv" [EmbedThumbnail] ffmpeg: Adding thumbnail to "$2 Cheesy Bread Meal Prep for Fat Loss [RjO0JCSR7K0].mkv" [debug] ffmpeg command line: ffmpeg -y -loglevel repeat+info -i "file:$2 Cheesy Bread Meal Prep for Fat Loss [RjO0JCSR7K0].mkv" -map 0 -dn -ignore_unknown -c copy -attach "file:$2 Cheesy Bread Meal Prep for Fat Loss [RjO0JCSR7K0].webp" -metadata:s:2 "mimetype=image/webp" -metadata:s:2 "filename=cover.webp" -movflags +faststart "file:$2 Cheesy Bread Meal Prep for Fat Loss [RjO0JCSR7K0].temp.mkv"

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github.com › yt-dlp › yt-dlp › issues › 730

[Question] Possible to embed custom thumbnail (from image)? · Issue #730 · yt-dlp/yt-dlp

August 19, 2021 - But when I do so, I get the following: ['-i', 'thumbnail.jpg', '-map', '1', '-map', '0', '-disposition:0', 'attached_pic', '-c', 'copy'] [debug] Encodings: locale UTF-8, fs utf-8, out UTF-8, pref UTF-8 [debug] yt-dlp version 2021.08.10 [debug] Python version 3.7.0 (CPython 64bit) - Darwin-19.6.0-x86_64-i386-64bit [debug] exe versions: ffmpeg 4.4, ffprobe 4.4, rtmpdump 2.4 [debug] Optional libraries: mutagen, pycryptodome, sqlite, websockets [debug] Proxy map: {} [debug] [ParamountPlus] Extracting URL: https://www.paramountplus.com/shows/uefa-champions-league/video/QAwKIRrc1jjTN47xDhAfCBexYklc1

Author yt-dlp

reddit.com › r/youtubedl › goal is to download audio only and embed thumbnail from yt vids as the album art. best way to do this?

r/youtubedl on Reddit: Goal is to download audio only and embed thumbnail from YT vids as the album art. Best way to do this?

December 9, 2022 -

Need some advice here--up til recently, I used YouTube-dl but I stopped since my old computer broke. On my old computer, I was using YouTube-dl + ffmpg + atomic parsley so I could download the audio only of songs on YouTube, and also get the album art embedded from the video's thumbnail. This all took a lot of effort and struggling over two years ago when I got it set up, since I am not tech savvy so doing stuff in my Mac's Terminal was not easy.

Now, my new computer doesnt have that software installed and I also know YT-dl was getting super slow. Has YT-dlp been the main replacement? Or should I use something else?

All I want to be able to do is: download files that are 1) audio only, 2) the actual audio quality of the file that was uploaded to YouTube (not downgraded even more) and 3) retain the thumbnail art. Any suggestions? Really appreciate it!!

yt-dlp -S ext:m4a -x --embed-thumbnail This downloads the AAC audio from YouTube without converting. I first tried -x --remux-video "webm>ogg/opus>ogg/aac>m4a" --embed-thumbnail to get the audio stream yt-dlp considers to be the best quality (in this case OPUS) and convert it to OGG (or m4a if the audio was AAC), but apparently yt-dlp can't add thumbnails to OGG either.

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2) the actual audio quality of the file that was uploaded to YouTube (not downgraded even more) youtube doesn't offer original files, they re-encode everything.

github.com › yt-dlp › yt-dlp › issues › 14041

[Feature] Better way to handle thumbnails · Issue #14041 · yt-dlp/yt-dlp

August 16, 2025 - I'm using the following command to download audio files to crop album art and embed it with artist name: yt-dlp -f251 -x <LINK> --embed-thumbnail --convert-thumbnail jpg --exec-before-download "ffmpeg -i %(thumbnails.-1.filepath)q -vf crop=\"'if(gt(ih,iw),iw,ih)':'if(gt(iw,ih),ih,iw)'\" _%(thumbnails.-1.filepath)q" --exec-before-download "rm %(thumbnails.-1.filepath)q" --exec-before-download "mv _%(thumbnails.-1.filepath)q %(thumbnails.-1.filepath)q" -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" What I've noticed is the thumbnail is comparatively worse than if you open the video in the highest quality.

Author yt-dlp

MusicBrainz

community.metabrainz.org › musicbrainz

Question about YouTube cover art - MusicBrainz - MetaBrainz Community Discourse

March 8, 2024 - Can a print screen from youtube be used for cover art? It is not an official cover but the start of a youtube clip

Find elsewhere

Google Bing Mojeek

OmicX

omicx.cc › posts › 2022-08-30-install-and-usage-of-yt-dlp

Install and Usage of yt-dlp - OmicX

August 30, 2022 - $ yt-dlp --format "bv*+ba/b" ... works only for mp4, webm and mkv videos. To embed thumbnail into the video: The option --embed-thumbnail embed thumbnail (if available) on the video as cover art....

reddit.com › r/youtubedl › correct method to add cover art(not only thumbnail) to mp3 files using youtube-dl

r/youtubedl on Reddit: Correct method to add cover art(not only thumbnail) to mp3 files using youtube-dl

November 12, 2021 -

I am trying to extract audio as mp3 from youtube with metadata and the cover art. Currently I am using the below command from bash shell in termux.

youtube-dl -f $audioformat --extract-audio --audio-format mp3 $url -o $storagepath --embed-thumbnail --add-metadata --postprocessor-args "write_id3v1 1 -id3v2_version 3"

This actually downloads mp3 with embedded thumbnail. But when I am downloading multiple mp3 files afterwards the cover art gets messed up(the new mp3 replaces cover art of the first one). I tried several music players in android that uses the cover art of the first mp3 files as cover art of the others. If I move the mp3 files to different location then cover art gets blank. What am I missing here.

In windows I tried Windows Media Player and cover art shows correctly(so the problem is in android only). Also in android file manager thumbnail is correct but the cover art during playing the file is incorrect. Any help is appreciated.

I am kinda new to youtube-dl so I don't think I can help unfortunantly but I was wondering what "--postprocessor-args "write_id3v1 1 -id3v2_version 3"" does?

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**Correct answer**: As youtube-dl stores covert art on album basis. We have to set a unique album name with every download, otherwise the new cover art with replace previously downloaded ones. One solution is to use timestamps `youtube-dl -f $audioformat --extract-audio --audio-format mp3 $url -o $storagepath --embed-thumbnail --add-metadata --postprocessor-args "-metadata album="$timestamp" write_id3v1 1 -id3v2_version 3"` This uses timestamp to create unique album name on every download.

Luxian

notes.luxian.ro › node › 68

youtube-dl: How to convert landscape thumbnails to square by adding blur using ffmpeg filtering | Luxian's Notes

February 21, 2024 - After spending a few hours researching, here's the final result: a bash function that downloads a video/audio file from a URL supported by yt-dlp, converts it to mp3 320kpbs, and adds the metadata, including the picture, which was transformed to a square by adding blur to fill in the missing parts (similar to the way YouTube adds blur to the vertical videos on the desktop). You can find the code on Github (in case the embedded JS does not load): https://gist.github.com/Luxian/...

Zorin Forum

forum.zorin.com › customization

Any Ideas? Show embedded mp4 coverart as video Thumbnail in files - Customization - Zorin Forum

July 18, 2024 - For months I am trying to use embedded coverart from mp4 files as the thumbnail for the respective file in the files app (nautilus I assume). All videos were downloaded with the yt-dlp utility and the "--embed-thumbnail" flag enabled.

github.com › yt-dlp › yt-dlp › issues › 6245

Embed the corresponding thumbnail image of the chapter when splitting chapters instead of the same cover image for all chapters · Issue #6245 · yt-dlp/yt-dlp

February 16, 2023 - For example on youtube those thumbnails are shown on the right: I don't know if youtube or the other websites provides a public url for those images, but I guess that those pictures are the first non black keyframes from each the video chapter. Even if youtube or the other websites do not provide it, it would be easy to extract it with ffmpeg and embed it as a cover in the corresponding chapter.

Author yt-dlp

reddit.com › r/youtubedl › having trouble getting thumbnail and metadata to embed with dlp

r/youtubedl on Reddit: Having trouble getting thumbnail and metadata to embed with dlp

May 12, 2025 -

I always pass the "--embed-thumbnail --embed-metadata" arguments, but DLP never actually does it.

In the CLI output, it'll indicate that it will use mkv since webm doesn't support thumbnails, and I can see the [Metadata] and [EmbedThumbnail] processes executing, but the final file is always missing the thumbnail, and the Details tab in Properties only has the video title, length, and url. Frame rate, resolution, and any other data are missing, and total bitrate is always displayed as 0kbps.

I can't tell what's going wrong. DLP is updated, and I didn't think I needed to specify a container. For reference, here is the full command I usually use:

"yt-dlp --embed-thumbnail --embed-metadata --abort-on-unavailable-fragment --ignore-errors [URL]"

Does anybody know what could be going wrong?

this is a problem of your file explorer not supporting certain file types. in windows, install icaros for mkv support. should at least help with thumbnail, unsure of the other metadata. can also install mediainfo to view a file's metadata (not thumbnail). your ffmpeg should come with ffprobe which is great to view metadata and technical info of the file on the command line. ffprobe FILE

Linus Tech Tips

linustechtips.com › software › operating systems › windows

[SOLVED] How to display embedded thumbnail of video file instead of auto generated one? - Windows - Linus Tech Tips

April 16, 2022 - I use youtube-dlp to download Youtube videos. yt-dlp is also able to download and embed the original thumbnail in the video file. Sure enough, checking it with mp3tag a 1280x720 png image is in it.

reddit.com › r/youtubedl › any youtubedl gui with support for coverart/thumbnails?

r/youtubedl on Reddit: Any YoutubeDL Gui with support for coverart/thumbnails?

June 14, 2021 -

Hello guys, like the title says. Any Gui which supports these features?

reddit.com › r/youtubedl › yt-dlp | how do you embed an existing thumbnail to an existing video without having to download the video again

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Check the Wiki Info for GUIs

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You want the GUI to do what with the thumbnail? Just display them in their GUI or to embed them to the downloaded media?

r/youtubedl on Reddit: yt-dlp | How do you embed an existing thumbnail to an existing video without having to download the video again

August 24, 2022 -

I have a video that I want to embed a thumbnail to it, how do you do it without having to download the video?

Add '--write-thumbnail --skip-download' to your command

reddit.com › r/youtubedl › yt-dlp embed thumbnail doesnt work proberly

r/youtubedl on Reddit: yt-dlp embed thumbnail doesnt work proberly

November 7, 2022 -

i want the video thumbnail/cover to be exactly like youtube , but many of the videos seems to be embedded with the first frame of the video not the youtube thumbnail/photo

so how can i download a playlist with the exact video cover ?

what tool are you using to check the thumbnail? it's typically a problem with windows explorer that it doesn't always manage to read the thumbnail in the file. you can open file in vlc and go to Tools then Media information and the embedded thumbnail should show there.