YouTube, along with a lot of video streaming websites don’t exactly allow users to download footage and save it locally in a place where it can be easily accessible. That said, there are usually third-party downloaders that can do the job for you.
In this article, we’re talking about yt-dlg, an open-source tool you can use to download as many videos as you’d like from YouTube or other supported websites. We’ll be talking about the “open video downloader error binaries missing/corrupted” error in the program, its causes and what you can do to fix the problem.
What causes this error?
As the name suggests the most probable cause of the error is a corrupt or incomplete installation of the program where binary files required for the program to run are either corrupted or missing from your PC. There are a number of reasons why this might happen.
- Corrupt installation.
- Third-party antivirus interfering with the program.
- Firewall issues.
Also read: 10 best YouTube downloaders and converters
How to fix this?
Here are six fixes you can try out.
Temporarily disable antivirus
Overly aggressive third-party antivirus or antimalware programs can sometimes cause problems with third-party programs, especially the ones without a valid certificate from a big company. In such cases, try temporarily disabling your antivirus to see if that makes a change.
Check out our detailed guide on how to disable antivirus in Windows here.
Disable the firewall
As an extension to the previous solution, an overly aggressive firewall can sometimes block programs from communicating over a network. Try disabling your firewall and downloading to see if that helps.
Check out our detailed guide on how to disable the firewall in Windows here.
Download the program again
As mentioned before, one of the leading causes of the error is a corrupt or incomplete installation. You can download yt-dlp or any other third-party program that you’re using from their respective sources and run in the installer again (preferably with administrative privileges) to see if that solves the problem.
Use the Microsoft store
If yt-dlp isn’t working for you, you can use one of the many alternative options available on the Microsoft Store to see if that can get the job done. Since the programs are on Microsoft’s Store, there’s a lower chance that they’ll be flagged by any antivirus as being suspicious and will have a higher success rate as well.Â
Also read: How to fix Javascript error: ipython is not defined?
Update your GPU drivers
Outdated GPU drivers can also cause this issue in particular. While you should update all your drivers, take special care of your display drivers if you run into an error like this.
Step 1: Right-click Start and select Device Manager from the menu.

Step 2: Under Display Adaptors, find your graphics card’s name, right-click on it and click on Update Drivers.

Step 3: Click on Search automatically for drivers. Windows will then automatically look for and download the latest drivers for your particular GPU.

While this should help resolve the error, in case it doesn’t, click Uninstall device and restart your PC to force Windows to install the required drivers. You can then update them later. Alternatively, you can also remove your GPU and reinsert it if you can.
Use the terminal version
Last but not least, if nothing else works you can revert to using the terminal version of the program. It won’t be as easy and convenient as the many GUI-based forks of the program out there, but it’ll get the job done.