Commons talk:Video2commons

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Archives Archive 1 Archive 2 2022 2023 2024 2025

Before you file a report, please check whether the following list already includes the problem you have.

Known bugs and common errors

1. Subtitles are not imported https://github.com/toolforge/video2commons/issues/148

   Since circa 2020, subtitles have not been automatically imported even if the option is selected. Unknown cause, possibly bug in codes. Previous discussions: Commons_talk:Video2commons/Archive_2#Youtube_subtitle_not_imported Commons_talk:Video2commons/Archive_2#Not_importing_subtitles_from_youtube.--RoyZuo (talk) 17:04, 1 January 2023 (UTC) Wish: Make video2commons subtitle import work again & add subtitles to earlier video imports. --Prototyperspective (talk) 12:38, 7 June 2025 (UTC)

This wish is now open for voting in case anybody here also cares about the subtitles. Prototyperspective (talk) 10:51, 15 October 2025 (UTC)

Video size

I uploaded a movie (File:Charlie Chan's Secret - 1936.webm). In my PC it's 2.97 GB, but uploaded it's only 707.29 MB. Is this right? In the other movies I uploaded the size didn't change. Yilku1 (talk) 21:07, 22 July 2025 (UTC)

@Yilku1: The video frame as uploaded is 640 × 480, what is it on your PC?   — 🇺🇦Jeff G. ツ please ping or talk to me🇺🇦 21:57, 22 July 2025 (UTC)

The same. Yilku1 (talk) 22:27, 22 July 2025 (UTC)

@Yilku1: Perhaps there is 2.1 GB of hidden content (or lousy compression) in the file, where did you get it?   — 🇺🇦Jeff G. ツ please ping or talk to me🇺🇦 23:16, 30 July 2025 (UTC)

Same here, HD videos are being uploaded in SD. – Illegitimate Barrister (talk • contribs), 23:43, 12 August 2025 (UTC)

See also thread Suddenly imports at low quality. Prototyperspective (talk) 10:50, 15 October 2025 (UTC)

Moreover, it uploads only the largest webm file but if the webm is of significantly higher quality, it apparently doesn't download the mp4 and convert it to a webm on the server. For an example, see the upcoming motd video File:MARIBOR, Slovenia - 4K 60fps (UHD).webm which when I download it as a mp4 with yt-dlp has a size of 1.18GiB.

Created a wish about this in the Community Wishlist as well: W447: Fix video2commons so it imports videos at max resolution & fix videos imported with low quality Prototyperspective (talk) 17:55, 6 November 2025 (UTC)

Around 90 aerial videos on Youtube

I uploaded around 100 aerial videos on YouTube on an open CC licence a year or so ago. I transferred around 10 to Commons, so there are around 90 awaiting. If anyone can do this transfer it would be wonderful, as they are mainly Grade 1 and II* listed buildings and some climate change Defence Improvements. Much needed on WP! My account is here: Dronau Dros Gymru - DRONES OVER WALES. Thanks for any help. Llywelyn2000 (talk) 08:57, 2 October 2025 (UTC)

@Llywelyn2000 Could you provide the list of those 10 files so they can be omitted when the videos are selected to transfer? -- DaxServer (talk) 09:17, 3 October 2025 (UTC)

Many thanks DaxServer! It seems I uploaded more than 10 to Commons. Here's a list of the videos on YouTube NOT yet transferred:

• 11th century church of Sant Sadwrn, Dinbych, Wales
• 12th century Sant Tudno's Church, Y Gogarth Fawr, Llandudno, Wales
• 15th century Welsh farmhouse: Caer Afallen, Rhuthun, Wales
• Aberdyfi, Gwynedd, 2024
• Abergynolwyn, Gwynedd
• Barry Island Friar's Point and Whitmore Bay
• Bronze Age Celtic Round Barrow, Rhuthun, Wales
• Brynaman, Sir Gaerfyrddin, Cymru (Wales)
• Caerberllan, Dyffryn Dysynni, Gwynedd 2024 - c1590
• Castell Dinas Bran, Llangollen - built by Welsh Prince Madog against the English invaders
• Castle of the Welsh Princes - Castell y Bere, Gwynedd o gyfeiriad Tywyn, Cymru (Wales)
• Cegidon (Llan Sain Siôr) - Saint George village and church, Wales
• Celtic Hillfort of Moel y Gaer, near Llangollen, Wales
• Cerrig yr Orsedd, Rhuthun, ar dir Castell Rhuthun - Stone circle at Ruthin Castle
• Dinorben Hillfort - now Braich y Dinas Quarry, Wales - Safle Bryngaer Dinorben ger Abergele
• Eglwys Cadfan Tywyn
• Eglwys Sant Sannan, Lansannan, Sir Conwy - Church at Llansannan, Denbighshire, Wales
• Great Ormes Head Lighthouse, a Listed Building in Llandudno, Conwy, Wales
• Home of billionaire Hywel Hughes Bogota - Plas Ty'n Dŵr, Llangollen
• Llanfair Talhaearn, Cyng Bwrdeisdref Conwy - Llanfair Talhaiarn, Conwy County, Wales
• Medieval historic house of Berain, Llanefydd, Sir Conwy - home of Catrin, Mother of Wales
• Michelin Star restaurant, Colwyn Bay - Bwyty Bryn Williams, Porth Eirias Hydref 2024
• Neuadd Pengwern, Llangollen
• Olion Pwll Pysgod Castell Rhuthun - mediaeval fishpond of Ruthin Castle, Wales
• Penrhyn Bay and Rhos on Sea Coastal Defence Improvements, Wales: 2025
• Perspectif y Cymro ar y We Fyd-eang; 1969
• Pincyn Llys, Dyffryn Clwyd
• Plas yn Rhiw, rhwng Aberdaron a Phwllheli, Gwynedd
• Senghennydd yn Awst 2024
• Stablau Rhosydd, Cwmorthin, Blaenau Ffestiniog, Gwynedd - Rhosydd Stables, Cwmorthin, Wales 17
• Tre'r Ceir, Yr Eifl, Gwynedd
• Twthill, Caernarfon, Gwynedd - taith dron
• Tyrrau Mewnlif Llyn Stwlan, Gwynedd - double intake towers at Llyn Stwlan, Gwynedd, Wales
• Tywyn o'r Traeth, Hydref 2024 - Tywyn, Meirionnydd, Wales from the sea
• Un bore oer yn Aberaeron - y dref ei hun - Aberaeron, Ceredigion Cymru (Wales)
• YesCymru AUOB march Kingsway, Abertawe; with CCBY audio; 20 May 2023
• Ynys Aberteifi (recently translated to Cardigan Island), Y Ferwig, Ceredigion, Cymru - Wales - 01
• Yr Eglwys Farmor, Bodelwyddan Marble Church, Wales

I count 38 videos. If some of these could be transferred I would be VERY grateful. Thanks. Llywelyn2000 (talk) 09:39, 7 October 2025 (UTC)

Yet another demonstation/example for why it needs:

1. A tool to upload all videos from a channel – see here (please implement this)
2. A way to omit videos already on Commons which is done by the UploadWizard for images – see issue #247 Prevent duplicate uploads via the YouTube ID

Prototyperspective (talk) 12:05, 7 October 2025 (UTC)

@Prototyperspective I just received collaborator access to the project on GitHub. I'll try to start some development sooner or later. -- DaxServer (talk) 14:52, 7 October 2025 (UTC)

Sounds amazing! It's really important, thank you very much! Prototyperspective (talk) 13:12, 9 October 2025 (UTC)

Created a wish about 1. in the Community Wishlist: W443: Enable uploading playlists and a user's videos/audios via video2commons.

It is now open for voting as with the wish about importing subtitles. Prototyperspective (talk) 13:33, 4 November 2025 (UTC)

Any way to upload new version of file with video2commons?

See section #Video size above. When trying to manually fix videos imported at low resolution like this, I could either upload the video another time as a separate file which isn't ideal or download the highest-res video from YouTube and convert it to webm locally on my computer. The latter takes quite long and clogs the computer so I'd like to use video2commons to convert the mp4 to webm. Ideally, I would be able to see the webm file size to check whether it's actually larger and prevent upload if it's about the same size as the existing video.

Is there any way to make video2commons a file as a new revision of an existing file? Prototyperspective (talk) 10:01, 17 November 2025 (UTC)

I do not know any easy way. In the past I have used video2commons to upload the high res as 2nd file, moved the 2nd file to the name of the low res file, which deletes it. And restored the deleted revisions for transparency. This way all usages stay alive. Raymond (talk) 10:11, 17 November 2025 (UTC)

Thanks, I can't restore deleted revisions and if I nominate the earlier file for deletion asking for it to be redirected to the newer file, admins may not delete it because it was uploaded arguably not recently. Prototyperspective (talk) 10:44, 17 November 2025 (UTC)

Ah yes, I am an admin, so it's easy for me. Feel free to ping me if I can help you wirh specific files. Raymond (talk) 12:02, 17 November 2025 (UTC)

Failed to upload videos from bilibili

Reproduction: Upload this link, select keep video and keep audio, then got An exception occurred: DownloadError: b'ERROR: Postprocessing: file:/srv/v2c/output/3d9c276d627ff19f/dl.danmaku.xml: Invalid data found when processing input'

I found this issue in Github that seems related to subtitles, but I'm sure I have unselected "Import subtitles". Steven Sun (talk) 00:38, 8 December 2025 (UTC)

I tried running yt-dlp command yt-dlp https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1hw411i7Ba/ in my local that works fine, so I think it is not a yt-dlp issue. Steven Sun (talk) 00:59, 8 December 2025 (UTC)

Age-restricted videos

Prior discussion: Commons talk:Video2commons/Archive/2024#Cannot upload age-restricted videos

@Don-vip: is there an update on this?

I'm trying to upload a free-licensed documentary that includes graphic content of industrial livestock farming and for that reason is 18+ and requiring a login. I'm able to download it locally with yt-dlp just fine without any extra options or plugins but converting the mp4 to webm with the --recode-video webm option will take a long time on my computer. Prototyperspective (talk) 11:25, 12 December 2025 (UTC)

@Prototyperspective I upload mp4 videos directly to video2commons and the server handles the conversion to webm. Would this be a solution for you too? Raymond (talk) 12:01, 12 December 2025 (UTC)

@Amdrel I think I forgot to mention this point in the video2commons TODO-list. vip (talk) 14:31, 12 December 2025 (UTC)

YouTube changed license to CC BY 4.0

YouTube changed the standard license to CC BY 4.0, but V2C adds the license template for CC BY 3.0 (see here: Commons:Village_pump#YouTube_moved_to_CC_BY_version_number_4.0) --PantheraLeo1359531 😺 (talk) 15:33, 22 December 2025 (UTC)

Document examples of ffmpeg arguments to use at own hardware

I tried to upload a video in Apple QuickTime format (from Olympus E-M10 Mark II camera) to the Commons and I was send to https://video2commons.toolforge.org. I'm using the tool for the first time. I see a task (without audio and subtitles):

Running cmd: /mnt/nfs/labstore-secondary-project/gentoo-prefix/usr/bin/ffmpeg -y -i /srv/v2c/output/d8419babdc8fb744/dl.unknown_video -max_muxing_queue_size 4096 -movflags use_metadata_tags -map_metadata 0 -threads 8 -crf 30 -b:v 0 -vcodec libsvtav1 -svtav1-params lp=8 -preset 6 -f webm -ss 0 -an /srv/v2c/output/d8419babdc8fb744/dl.unknown_video.an.av1.webm

Maybe we can document such commands with recommended parameters, so experienced users can use them locally and not spend servers time? Alexey Vazhnov (talk) 19:27, 24 December 2025 (UTC)

@Alexey Vazhnov: Please see en:ffmpeg and ffmpeg.org for starters, and then Adjust VP9 quality to lower output size #253.   — 🇺🇦Jeff G. ツ please ping or talk to me🇺🇦 20:12, 24 December 2025 (UTC)

@Alexey Vazhnov, I suggest the opposite: leave it to v2c.

the servers are actually most of the time not that busy. RoyZuo (talk) 20:54, 24 December 2025 (UTC)

Couldn't find any example for av1 from your links (so I had to search further, I know).

Let me keep here the second command, which converts both video (into amazing AV1) + audio (into Opus):

Running cmd: /mnt/nfs/labstore-secondary-project/gentoo-prefix/usr/bin/ffmpeg -y -i /srv/v2c/output/7c0ebb1e8301c920/dl.unknown_video -max_muxing_queue_size 4096 -movflags use_metadata_tags -map_metadata 0 -threads 8 -crf 30 -b:v 0 -vcodec libsvtav1 -svtav1-params lp=8 -preset 6 -f webm -ss 0 -b:a 128000 -ar 48000 -acodec libopus /srv/v2c/output/7c0ebb1e8301c920/dl.unknown_video.av1.webm

--Alexey Vazhnov (talk) 20:59, 24 December 2025 (UTC)