Sniff Task
New Task, Sniff is for pages that need a real browser. XiaDown opens a sniffing browser, watches the current page, and turns recognized media into a task.
Basic Flow
Section titled “Basic Flow”- Open New Task and choose Sniff.
- Enter or open the target site.
- Click Open Browser.
- In the browser, play the media, scroll, sign in, or finish verification.
- Return to XiaDown and click Check Link or Recheck.
- If media is recognized, choose quality, subtitles, and transcode options.
- Click Start or Add to Download Queue.
Supported Browsers
Section titled “Supported Browsers”Sniffing depends on browser debugging capability. XiaDown chooses from supported browsers installed on your machine:
| Mainstream browsers | Privacy and productivity browsers | Regional and specialty browsers |
|---|---|---|
| Chrome, Chromium, Edge | Brave, Vivaldi, Arc, Helium | Opera, Opera GX, Yandex Browser |
If your browser is missing, make sure it is installed, then open Settings and refresh the browser list.
Sniffing Settings
Section titled “Sniffing Settings”In lower-left avatar menu, Settings, Download page:
| Setting | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Sniffing browser | Chooses the browser used by New Task Sniff and Sniff Desk. |
| Refresh browser list | Rescans installed supported browsers. |
| Browser data | Shows the independent sniffing-browser data size. |
| Open folder | Opens the sniffing-browser data folder. |
| Clear data | Clears sniffing-browser data; sign-in and cache inside XiaDown may need to be rebuilt. |
| Fragment concurrency | Controls how many HLS or m3u8 segments YT-DLP downloads at the same time when sniffed media is handed to YT-DLP. 16 or less is recommended. |
The sniffing browser uses data isolated from your everyday browser. Clearing it does not erase normal browser data.
Optimized Sites
Section titled “Optimized Sites”New Task Sniff currently has 2 optimized site groups. For these sites, the dialog can show page state, current page, current user, media title, and author, and it can guide login or verification.
- Douyin: douyin.com, iesdouyin.com, and their subdomains.
- RedNote / Xiaohongshu: xiaohongshu.com, rednote.com, xhs.cn, xhslink.com, xhslink.cn, xhsurl.com, and rl.ink.
If a site is not optimized, the dialog tells you to handle it in Sniff Desk, where the full resource list, filters, preview, and download actions are available.
Dialog Actions
Section titled “Dialog Actions”| Action | Result |
|---|---|
| Open Browser | Starts the sniffing browser. |
| Reopen | Restarts the sniffing browser if it was closed or failed. |
| Check Link | Reads downloadable media from the current page. |
| Recheck | Reads again after the page state changes. |
| Enter Sniff Desk | Opens the full Sniff Desk page. |
| Add to Download Queue | Creates a download task from the recognized resource. |
When to Use Sniff Desk
Section titled “When to Use Sniff Desk”Use Sniff Desk when the page has many resources, when you need filters or preview, when the page uses non-standard HLS or API resources, when the dialog says the site is not optimized, or when normal Download cannot find media but the page plays correctly.