'write EPIPE -4047' error with some videos

[AMDBartek]

My friends tried to play this video on my Discord bot and it threw a write EPIPE (warning, it is loud): https://youtu.be/ihmDR7W1P1o

This video also throws a write EPIPE error but not immediately: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thW6YPgJm2U
It happens on both Windows and Linux hosts, I could not find the culprit for this issue but it only happens with a few videos, there is a couple of examples above. Is it something to do with the format of the videos?

Error: write EPIPE
    at afterWriteDispatched (node:internal/stream_base_commons:162:15)
    at writeGeneric (node:internal/stream_base_commons:153:3)
    at Socket._writeGeneric (node:net:764:11)
    at Socket._write (node:net:776:8)
    at writeOrBuffer (node:internal/streams/writable:382:12)
    at Socket.Writable.write (node:internal/streams/writable:333:10)
    at PassThrough.ondata (node:internal/streams/readable:715:22)
    at PassThrough.emit (node:events:327:20)
    at PassThrough.Readable.read (node:internal/streams/readable:515:10)
    at flow (node:internal/streams/readable:988:34) {
  errno: -4047,
  code: 'EPIPE',
  syscall: 'write'
}

Sample of my code:

client.on("message", message => {
    
  var ismusicCommand = message.content.toLowerCase().startsWith(config.prefix + "play") || message.content.toLowerCase().startsWith(config.prefix + "skip") || message.content.toLowerCase().startsWith(config.prefix + "stop");
    
  if (message.author.bot) return;
  
  if (!message.channel.guild) {
      if (ismusicCommand == true) {
      message.react("723607808255197244");
      message.channel.send("Music functionality can only be used while in a guild!");
    return;
      }
      return;
  }

  const serverQueue = queue.get(message.guild.id);

  if (message.content.toLowerCase().startsWith(config.prefix + `play`)) {
    message.react("723607808062390363");
    execute(message, serverQueue);
    return;
  } else if (message.content.toLowerCase().startsWith(config.prefix + `skip`)) {
    message.react("723607808062390363");
    skip(message, serverQueue);
    return;
  } else if (message.content.toLowerCase().startsWith(config.prefix + `stop`)) {
    message.react("723607808062390363");
    stop(message, serverQueue);
    return;
  }
});

async function execute(message, serverQueue) {
  const args = message.content.split(" ");

  const voiceChannel = message.member.voice.channel;
  if (!voiceChannel)
    return message.channel.send("You need to be in a voice channel to play audio!");
  const permissions = voiceChannel.permissionsFor(message.client.user);
  if (!permissions.has("CONNECT") || !permissions.has("SPEAK")) {
    return message.channel.send("I need the permissions to join and play audio in your voice channel!");
  }

  const songInfo = await ytdl.getInfo(args[1]);
  const song = {
    title: songInfo.videoDetails.title,
    author: songInfo.videoDetails.author.name,
    url: songInfo.videoDetails.video_url
  };

  if (!serverQueue) {
    const queueContruct = {
      textChannel: message.channel,
      voiceChannel: voiceChannel,
      connection: null,
      songs: [],
      volume: 5,
      playing: true
    };

    queue.set(message.guild.id, queueContruct);

    queueContruct.songs.push(song);

    try {
      var connection = await voiceChannel.join();
      queueContruct.connection = connection;
      play(message.guild, queueContruct.songs[0]);
    } catch (err) {
      console.log(err);
      queue.delete(message.guild.id);
      return message.channel.send(err);
    }
  } else {
    serverQueue.songs.push(song);
    return message.channel.send(`${song.title} **by** ${song.author} has been added to the queue!`);
  }
}

function skip(message, serverQueue) {
  if (!message.member.voice.channel)
    return message.channel.send("You have to be in a voice channel to skip audio!");
  if (!serverQueue)
    return message.channel.send("There is no audio that I could skip!");
  serverQueue.connection.dispatcher.end();
}

function stop(message, serverQueue) {
  if (!message.member.voice.channel)
    return message.channel.send("You have to be in a voice channel to stop audio playback!");
  serverQueue.songs = [];
  serverQueue.connection.dispatcher.end();
  message.channel.send("Successfully stopped audio playback and left voice channel.")
}

function play(guild, song) {
  const serverQueue = queue.get(guild.id);
  if (!song) {
    serverQueue.voiceChannel.leave();
    queue.delete(guild.id);
    return;
  }

  const dispatcher = serverQueue.connection
    .play(ytdl(song.url), {bitrate: 192000 /* 192kbps */})
    .on("finish", () => {
      serverQueue.songs.shift();
      play(guild, serverQueue.songs[0]);
    })
    .on("error", error => console.error(error));
  dispatcher.setVolumeLogarithmic(serverQueue.volume / 5);
  serverQueue.textChannel.send(`Started playing: ${song.title} **by** ${song.author}`);
}

[redbrain]

Are you at the latest version of ytdl-core? The current latest version is 4.1.4, make sure you upgrade to that.
If an upgrade doesn't work, it's possible that altering or removing the bitrate setting may fix the issue.
I've also noticed that this code snippet closely matches the first Google result for "discord music bot javascript".
I strongly encourage you to learn more about JavaScript and Discord.JS so you can write and debug your own code in the future.

[AMDBartek]

Removing the bitrate setting didn't work, as for the code I did copy and paste a part for the example. It's probably not the code because going back to ytdl-core 3.4.2 fixes the issue, but that version is a bit unstable and I don't want to have to use a bad work-around. I also am using the latest version of ytdl-core (4.1.4).

[redbrain]

I'm unable to reproduce the error on either version with your code. I'll leave this open in case someone else can help.

[AMDBartek]

What code did you use to get the video (or how did you download the video), was it streaming through a Discord bot or just downloading and playing back the video? I have been trying to get this working for days, rewrote the code from scratch and it still produced a 'write EPIPE -4047' error, it doesn't happen with all videos only a small percentage of them.

[TimeForANinja]

🤔 stumbled across the same error earlier today in the example/ffmpeg.js
running it twice produces the error after crashing since the output file already exists
the stack isn't that helpful

[AMDBartek]

Yep, the first time it does nothing, second time produces a 'write EPIPE -4047' error.

[zLuisTv]

I still have the same error

[LangkaWS]

Hey !
I'm having this error too on some musics, don't really know why.
I tried the 2 musics that AMDBartek gave, these are working with by bot ^^" I have more or less the same code as him.
Maybe this bug comes from discord.js or node and not from ytdl-core package.

[N1C0exe]

Hey @AMDBartek have you resolved this issue?

[stale]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[AMDBartek]

Sorry for the (very) late response, I did manage to solve the issue by rewriting my code but I think this issue should be kept open as others seem to be having the same issue.

[redbrain]

If that's the case, then perhaps this isn't a bug with ytdl but rather improper handling of a stream.
Can you share what you did to fix the issue, if you know?

[AMDBartek]

Unfortunately, I do not know what specific part of code fixed the issue.

[TimeForANinja]

If that's the case, then perhaps this isn't a bug with ytdl but rather improper handling of a stream.
Can you share what you did to fix the issue, if you know?

that's what I thought after this find #816 (comment)

that way it is either a ytdl problem or a ytdl-example problem 😂

[CarbonNeuron]

I am also having this issue after following the ffmpeg example

[Noomaok]

Hi, I recently made a similar implementation and found a way to prevent this error.
I am not sure I works 100% of the time, but so far it worked for me.

Here is the code I used :

let stream = ytdl(song.url, {
        filter : "audioonly",
        opusEncoded : false,
        fmt : "mp3",
        encoderArgs: ['-af', 'bass=g=10,dynaudnorm=f=200'] 
});

const dispatcher = serverQueue.connection
        .play(stream, {type : "unknown"})
        .on("finish", () => {
                //do finish step
        })
        .on("error", error => console.error(error));

I did not tried this code with the ffmpeg example but with my own discord bot

[karfelren]

Hi, I recently made a similar implementation and found a way to prevent this error. I am not sure I works 100% of the time, but so far it worked for me.

Here is the code I used :

let stream = ytdl(song.url, {
        filter : "audioonly",
        opusEncoded : false,
        fmt : "mp3",
        encoderArgs: ['-af', 'bass=g=10,dynaudnorm=f=200'] 
});

const dispatcher = serverQueue.connection
        .play(stream, {type : "unknown"})
        .on("finish", () => {
                //do finish step
        })
        .on("error", error => console.error(error));

I did not tried this code with the ffmpeg example but with my own discord bot

thanks, this solved my problem about "typeerror: the compressed data passed is corrupted"

[TimeForANinja]

just wanna let you know that these parameters serve no use with ytdl-core 😉

        opusEncoded : false,
        fmt : "mp3",
        encoderArgs: ['-af', 'bass=g=10,dynaudnorm=f=200'] 

[moonstar-x]

Hey there, I recently came across this issue myself with the following video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_HCA7G9qUQ

Checking the format output for that video using youtube-dl gave out the following:

[youtube] M_HCA7G9qUQ: Downloading webpage
[youtube] M_HCA7G9qUQ: Downloading MPD manifest
[info] Available formats for M_HCA7G9qUQ:
format code  extension  resolution note
139          m4a        audio only DASH audio   50k , m4a_dash container, mp4a.40.5 (22050Hz), 931.23KiB
251          webm       audio only tiny  126k , webm_dash container, opus @126k (48000Hz), 2.36MiB
140          m4a        audio only tiny  129k , m4a_dash container, mp4a.40.2@129k (44100Hz), 2.41MiB
278          webm       256x144    DASH video   95k , webm_dash container, vp9, 30fps, video only
160          mp4        256x144    DASH video  108k , mp4_dash container, avc1.4d400b, 30fps, video only
242          webm       426x240    DASH video  220k , webm_dash container, vp9, 30fps, video only
133          mp4        426x240    DASH video  242k , mp4_dash container, avc1.4d400c, 30fps, video only
243          webm       640x360    DASH video  405k , webm_dash container, vp9, 30fps, video only
134          mp4        640x360    360p  584k , mp4_dash container, avc1.4d401e@ 584k, 30fps, video only, 10.88MiB
244          webm       854x480    DASH video  752k , webm_dash container, vp9, 30fps, video only
135          mp4        854x480    DASH video 1155k , mp4_dash container, avc1.4d400d, 30fps, video only
247          webm       1280x720   DASH video 1505k , webm_dash container, vp9, 30fps, video only
136          mp4        1280x720   720p 2105k , mp4_dash container, avc1.64001f@2105k, 30fps, video only, 39.16MiB
248          webm       1920x1080  DASH video 2646k , webm_dash container, vp9, 30fps, video only
137          mp4        1920x1080  1080p 4166k , mp4_dash container, avc1.640028@4166k, 30fps, video only, 77.50MiB
18           mp4        640x360    360p  658k , avc1.42001E, 30fps, mp4a.40.2 (44100Hz), 12.25MiB (best)

In my case, I'm using the quality: highestaudio option, so it would seem the format 140 would be chosen.

I tried downloading the file manually and then trying to play it directly on discord.js and surprise, it didn't work. However, trying with the format 251downloaded did.

I also tried doing the opposite for a video that worked normally, downloading it in audioonly format with m4a codec also made it fail.

Could it be maybe that the voice support for discord.js cannot handle an m4a stream?

[TimeForANinja]

Could it be maybe that the voice support for discord.js cannot handle an m4a stream?

depends on how u use it
as far as i know you can decide in the api-calls if it should assume a special encoding or use ffmpeg to just handle whatever you throw at it

[efefurkankarakaya]

In my case, I fixed this problem and the reason was the video title.

Some videos have special characters or emojis in their title which are not supported by the most of modern OS' as file name. You should remove all special characters before using title in any I/O operation (except it's a file content).

By the way, if you are a cross-platform developer, do not mix Bash and Powershell in Windows. Some packages can cause conflict during package installation.

[jovolopez]

I had the same problem when testing my code on Windows. I put it into a Docker container, and I had no more issues. I hope it helps someone else! (I recommend using the docker init command to set up the Dockerfile and compose.yml).