r/youtubedl

PLEASE HELP: --cookies-from-browser chrome DOES NOT WORK ON MY WINDOWS 11 MACHINE — EVEN WITH CHROME COMPLETELY CLOSED

I'm at the point where I genuinely need someone who understands yt-dlp's Chrome-cookie implementation to tell me what the hell I'm supposed to do.

I am trying to download the audio from certain YouTube videos with yt-dlp. These videos require authentication/cookies, so I am trying to use:

--cookies-from-browser chrome

I am NOT asking how to use yt-dlp in general. My normal yt-dlp downloads work. The problem is specifically getting Chrome cookies into yt-dlp.

I am running:

• Windows 11
• Chrome
• yt-dlp nightly 2026.09.27.232945
• yt-dlp commit 51bab8a01
• Python 3.10.11
• Deno 2.6.7
• FFmpeg 2026-09-17
• yt-dlp has Cryptodome, curl_cffi, sqlite3, etc. available

I first tried:

yt-dlp.exe --verbose --cookies-from-browser chrome --simulate "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qF-bTbXeGGg"

The URL is just an example of one of the videos where I need this.

Here is the COMPLETE relevant output:

[debug] Command-line config: ['--verbose', '--cookies-from-browser', 'chrome', '--simulate', 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qF-bTbXeGGg']
[debug] Encodings: locale cp1252, fs utf-8, pref utf-8, out utf-8, error utf-8, screen utf-8
[debug] yt-dlp version nightly@2026.09.27.232945 from yt-dlp/yt-dlp-nightly-builds [51bab8a01] (win_exe)

[debug] Python 3.10.11 (CPython AMD64 64bit) - Windows-10-10.0.26300-SP0 (OpenSSL 1.1.1t 7 Feb 2023)
[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg 2026-09-17-git-7070fe638e-essentials_build-www.gyan.dev (setts)
[debug] Optional libraries: Cryptodome-3.23.0, brotli-1.2.0, certifi-2026.07.22, curl_cffi-0.16.0, mutagen-1.48.1, requests-2.34.2, sqlite3-3.40.1, urllib3-2.7.0, websockets-16.1.1, yt_dlp_ejs-0.8.0
[debug] JS runtimes: deno-2.6.7
[debug] Proxy map: {}

Extracting cookies from chrome
[Cookies] Searching for "Cookies": 1 files searched
Extracting cookies from chrome
[debug] Extracting cookies from: "C:\Users\bagpi\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Network\Cookies"

ERROR: Could not copy Chrome cookie database. See https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/7271 for more info

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "yt_dlp\cookies.py", line 324, in _extract_chrome_cookies
File "yt_dlp\cookies.py", line 1115, in _open_database_copy
File "shutil.py", line 417, in copy
File "shutil.py", line 254, in copyfile
PermissionError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: 'C:\\Users\\bagpi\\AppData\\Local\\Google\\Chrome\\User Data\\Default\\Network\\Cookies'

ERROR: Could not copy Chrome cookie database.

Yes, I read issue #7271.

And yes, I tried the obvious solution:

I COMPLETELY CLOSED CHROME.

I made sure Chrome was not simply minimized. I closed the browser and checked that Chrome was no longer running.

Then I ran the same test again.

IT STILL DID NOT WORK.

So please don't just tell me:

> "Close Chrome."

I already did that.

I am also already running a current nightly. This is not an ancient yt-dlp installation.

---

What I actually need

I need someone to give me a concrete, step-by-step Windows solution for getting YouTube cookies into yt-dlp in 2026.

If the answer is:

--cookies cookies.txt

then PLEASE explain exactly how a Windows Chrome user is supposed to create a working YouTube cookies.txt file today, including:

1. Exactly what browser extension/tool should be used.
2. Exactly what settings it needs.
3. Exactly what page should be open when the cookies are exported.
4. Exactly what format the exported file must be in.
5. Exactly where the file should be placed.
6. Exactly what yt-dlp command should be used to test it.
7. How to tell from the output whether the cookies were actually imported successfully.

Please don't just say "export your cookies." I need the actual procedure.

I am blind, so a solution that depends on visually identifying something in a browser extension UI without explaining the keyboard-accessible route is especially problematic. I can absolutely use Chrome and Command Prompt, but I need the procedure itself to be accessible.

---

Why I'm frustrated

The whole point of:

--cookies-from-browser chrome

is presumably that users shouldn't have to manually perform some ridiculous cookie-export ritual every time they need authenticated YouTube access.

Instead, I'm getting:

PermissionError: [Errno 13] Permission denied

against the Chrome cookie database even after completely closing Chrome.

And this isn't some ancient version. This is the September 2026 yt-dlp nightly with Deno installed and all the relevant optional libraries present.

I have spent enough time changing random yt-dlp arguments.

I don't want another suggestion to randomly add:

--extractor-args
--js-runtimes
--player-client

unless you can explain why that has anything to do with the cookie database permission failure, because the failure happens before yt-dlp even gets to the actual YouTube extraction.

So:

WHAT IS THE CORRECT, WORKING 2026 PROCEDURE FOR A WINDOWS 11 + CHROME USER TO PROVIDE YOUTUBE COOKIES TO YT-DLP WHEN --cookies-from-browser chrome CANNOT ACCESS THE CHROME COOKIE DATABASE?

Please give me an actual procedure that someone has tested recently, rather than telling me to repeat the same things I've already tried.

I'm completely willing to provide additional -v output, configuration information, or test results. I just need someone to help me get past this damn cookie wall.