Fix "Sign in to confirm you're not a bot" on YouTube

Why does YouTube ask downloaders to confirm you’re not a bot?#

“Sign in to confirm you’re not a bot” is YouTube’s request for a signed-in account before it serves a video to a request it does not trust. As of September 2026, download tools meet the check often, because they usually ask for the video without a login.

YouTube does not publish the rules behind the check. The yt-dlp wiki notes on YouTube give a sense of scale: the wiki estimates 300 videos per hour for a signed-out guest session and 2000 for a signed-in account. Those limits point at volume from one connection, and an outdated yt-dlp is the other cause to rule out when a video plays in your browser but fails in a downloader.

The message comes from YouTube and reaches you through yt-dlp, the download engine B-ROLL runs for every video. For the tool itself, see what yt-dlp is and whether it is safe to use. The wording varies, and its sibling “Sign in to confirm your age” has another cause but the same fix in B-ROLL.

Ema Zamboni, who built B-ROLL to collect b-roll for YouTube edits, hit the message when YouTube started asking for it. What fixed it was exporting a fresh cookies.txt from a signed-in browser and loading it in B-ROLL. Cookies expire, so the message can return, and the fix is to export again.

What should you try first when the bot check appears?#

Update yt-dlp first, then retry. The fastest way is to close and reopen B-ROLL: at every launch the app updates yt-dlp to the latest nightly build, and Force update yt-dlp in the sidebar’s Advanced panel does the same without a restart.

yt-dlp is where fixes for YouTube changes land. The yt-dlp README says nightly builds publish on any day the code changes, and it calls the nightly channel the recommended one for regular users. An update changes nothing about your account, so it is the cheapest thing to try before any sign-in.

After the update, click ↻ retry on the failed card. Then open About with the ⓘ button and click Check for updates: you get either “You’re on the latest version.” or the Update available dialog with Update now. A newer B-ROLL is worth installing, but for this error a current yt-dlp matters more.

Check one more thing before you reach for cookies. If the video does not play in your browser either, the video is the problem, not the download: it may be private, removed or blocked where you are. The how-to steps for clearing the bot check list the whole order, from restart to cookies.txt.

What does B-ROLL do automatically when YouTube asks for sign-in?#

B-ROLL handles the check in a fixed order: when YouTube asks to confirm you are not a bot, B-ROLL tries your browser’s YouTube login, then opens a guided cookies.txt wizard for your own account.

1. First attempt. With a cookies.txt set, every download uses it from the start. Without one, the first attempt uses no cookies.
2. Detection. A yt-dlp error line containing “Sign in to confirm” or “confirm your age” counts as a sign-in request.
3. Browser logins. With no cookies.txt set, B-ROLL retries with the YouTube login of each installed browser: Firefox first, then Edge, Brave, Chrome, Vivaldi and Opera. The log reads “Trying your saved logins…”.
4. Fresh export. Next, B-ROLL looks for a freshly exported cookies.txt in Downloads, Desktop and the OneDrive Downloads and Desktop folders, and retries once with it.
5. Wizard. If nothing worked, the Sign-in needed window opens.

Chrome, Edge and Brave encrypt their cookies in a way yt-dlp often cannot read while the browser, or its background process, is running, and the log says so. Firefox signed in to YouTube, or a cookies.txt, are the dependable routes.

The wizard, headed “YouTube needs your login”, offers both. With Firefox installed, click I’m signed in, try now after you sign into YouTube there once; without it, Get Firefox opens mozilla.org. For the file route, Open store finds a browser extension that exports cookies, Open YouTube opens the site so you can export while signed in, and you drop the file on the wizard or click Browse…. The yt-dlp FAQ requires the Mozilla/Netscape format, with a first line that reads # HTTP Cookie File or # Netscape HTTP Cookie File.

B-ROLL copies the chosen file to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Broll\cookies.txt, so you can delete the original export. The copy appears in Settings under Cookies file, with Choose… and Reset, next to Use browser login for age-restricted videos (on by default). Both are covered in B-ROLL settings and advanced options explained.

Which bot-check messages does B-ROLL show?#

B-ROLL reports the bot check in four places: the download card, the download log, the hint next to the Paste button and the wizard. Card lines are English only and cut at 66 characters, so open Open download log in the Advanced panel for the full text.

The table lists each message as the app shows it (with the app’s dashes written as a colon), where it appears, what it means and what to do next.

A card that reads “YouTube blocked this (HTTP 403)” is a different failure with its own causes: see HTTP Error 403 Forbidden on YouTube downloads. Any other failure shows yt-dlp’s last “ERROR” line on the card.

What if the bot check comes back after you add cookies?#

Export a fresh cookies.txt and load it again: YouTube cookies expire, and an expired file fails the same check. B-ROLL recognizes the case, so the card reads “Sign-in rejected: refresh your cookies.txt” and the wizard opens headed “Your cookies expired: refresh them”.

B-ROLL does not keep retrying with a rejected file. The log explains that the sign-in was rejected, that the cookies likely expired, and that a fresh export from a logged-in YouTube tab is the fix. Drop the new file on the wizard and retry the card.

How long an export lasts depends on how you make it. The yt-dlp wiki explains that YouTube rotates the cookies of open tabs, and its method exports from a private window that you close right away. The step-by-step export, expiry and account safety are on YouTube cookies.txt: export, use and refresh it.

If a fresh file still fails, open the video in the same signed-in browser. An account that cannot watch it there cannot download it either, which is often the case with age-restricted videos. Otherwise pause before the next attempt: a restart brings the newest yt-dlp, and fewer requests from your connection lower the load the yt-dlp wiki warns about. Short answers on these limits are also in the B-ROLL FAQ on downloads and problems.

What should you avoid when YouTube asks you to sign in?#

Avoid anything that hands your login to someone else or floods YouTube with requests. A cookies.txt holds your signed-in YouTube session, so treat it like a password.

• Pasting cookies into online downloader sites. B-ROLL reads the file on your PC, and yt-dlp sends the cookies only to YouTube with its requests.
• Hammering retry. Each failed attempt is one more request from the same connection. The yt-dlp wiki recommends a delay of around 5 to 10 seconds between downloads; B-ROLL already downloads one video at a time.
• Tools that promise to skip the check without an account. B-ROLL offers one route: your own sign-in, through a browser login or a cookies.txt.
• Your main account for bulk work. The yt-dlp wiki warns that an account used with yt-dlp risks a temporary or permanent ban, and advises watching your request rate or using a separate account.
• Reinstalling B-ROLL to clear the error. Uninstalling leaves %LOCALAPPDATA%\Broll, with the copied cookies.txt, in place, and a restart already updates yt-dlp.

Other download errors, from HTTP 403 to heavy AV1 playback, are collected in YouTube downloader not working? Fixes for editors.