Accessing YouTube with Cookies

YouTube sometimes asks users to confirm a sign-in, age, or that a request is legitimate. In these cases, yt-dlp can access the video with cookies from an active browser session. Thunder passes the selected cookie source to the local yt-dlp; the Thunder website does not receive or store this data.

Where to enable Cookies

Open Settings → Downloader → Advanced: YouTube access and choose one of these modes:

• From browser — Thunder asks yt-dlp to read cookies from the selected browser.
• cookies.txt file — Thunder passes a Netscape-format cookies file to yt-dlp.
• Off — no cookies are used. This is the safe default for videos that do not require authorization.

The setting applies only to YouTube links.

Option 1: Cookies from a browser

1. Sign in to YouTube in the selected browser and confirm that the video opens there.
2. In Thunder, select From browser and choose the same browser.
3. If cookies cannot be read, fully close the browser and try again. On macOS, the system may also request permission to access browser data.

This option is convenient, but import availability depends on the browser, profile, and operating system credential protection.

Option 2: A cookies.txt file

Export YouTube cookies to a Netscape-format cookies.txt file, select cookies.txt file, and choose the exported file. If the session expires or YouTube asks you to sign in again, export a fresh file.

Security

Cookies can grant access to your active YouTube session. Never publish cookies.txt, attach it to bug reports, or share it with anyone. Treat the file like a password and delete it when it is no longer needed. Consider using a separate browser profile if you want to isolate this session from your primary account.

Cookies do not grant access to removed, paid, or region-restricted content. Only download content you are legally allowed to access.