Solution: Thanks for finding the solution, kate (in the comments). The option to control this is --extractor-retries .

I recently start using SponsorBlock feature with yt-dlp . When it looks up SponsorBlock server, it tries 3 times to connect and download information. I would like to increase the retries for this specifically, but could not find the right setting or option in the manual (man yt-dlp) and help (yt-dlp --help). I would like to increase it to at least 5 or maybe even 10 retries per video.

I’ve noticed for sometimes it cannot login within the first 3 look ups, but when I retry the command after that it will just look up fine. Therefore an increase in the retries setting would be helpful. Especially helpful when downloading entire playlists, leaving it for some time alone.