From 0bc502fa6f64805f97343567c8c4ba2b6fe2bc1f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: stephen schuresko <steve@fairfaxmedia.net>
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 2026 11:53:23 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] Refine download_captions function with enhanced fallback
 languages and better error handling

---
 youtube_transcript_downloader.py | 49 ++++++++++++++++----------------
 1 file changed, 25 insertions(+), 24 deletions(-)

diff --git a/youtube_transcript_downloader.py b/youtube_transcript_downloader.py
index 31c9ed8..020ea95 100644
--- a/youtube_transcript_downloader.py
+++ b/youtube_transcript_downloader.py
@@ -254,31 +254,32 @@ def download_captions(video_id):
                 'language': transcript.language,
                 'success': True
             }
-        
-        # If no English transcript is available, try any language
-        print("No English transcript found. Trying to get transcript in original language...")
-        transcript = YouTubeTranscriptApi().fetch(video_id, languages=[])
-        
-        if transcript:
-            return {
-                'transcript': transcript,
-                'language': transcript.language,
-                'success': True
-            }
-            
-        return {
-            'transcript': None,
-            'language': None,
-            'success': False
-        }
-        
     except Exception as e:
-        print(f"Error downloading captions: {e}")
-        return {
-            'transcript': None,
-            'language': None,
-            'success': False
-        }
+        try:
+            # If no English transcript is available, try any language
+            print("No English transcript found. Trying to get transcript in original language...")
+            transcript = YouTubeTranscriptApi().fetch(video_id, languages=['de','fa'])
+            
+            if transcript:
+                return {
+                    'transcript': transcript,
+                    'language': transcript.language,
+                    'success': True
+                }
+                
+            return {
+                'transcript': None,
+                'language': None,
+                'success': False
+            }
+        
+        except Exception as e:
+            print(f"Error downloading captions: {e}")
+            return {
+                'transcript': None,
+                'language': None,
+                'success': False
+            }
 
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":