[BUG] Program throws an error when I attempt to download anything that requires the --authenticate flag.

[5708skier]

• I am reporting a bug.
• I am running the latest version of BDfR
• I have read the Opening an issue

Description

I just installed BDFR on a new hard drive. The program throws an error when I attempt to download anything that requires the --authenticate flag. This is when running praw 7.7.0

Command

bdfr download D:/saved --user me --authenticate --saved -L 5 --file-scheme “{DATE}_{SUBREDDIT}_{TITLE}_{POSTID}”

Environment (please complete the following information)

• OS: Windows 11
• Python version: 3.14.6

Logs

[2026-07-14 02:12:19,685 - bdfr.connector - DEBUG] - Disabling the following modules: 
[2026-07-14 02:12:19,685 - bdfr.connector - Level 9] - Created download filter
[2026-07-14 02:12:19,686 - bdfr.connector - Level 9] - Created time filter
[2026-07-14 02:12:19,686 - bdfr.connector - Level 9] - Created sort filter
[2026-07-14 02:12:19,773 - bdfr.connector - Level 9] - Create file name formatter
[2026-07-14 02:12:19,773 - bdfr.connector - DEBUG] - Using authenticated Reddit instance
[2026-07-14 02:12:19,774 - bdfr.connector - Level 9] - Commencing OAuth2 authentication
[2026-07-14 02:12:19,955 - root - ERROR] - Downloader exited unexpectedly
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python314\Lib\site-packages\requests\models.py", line 1116, in json
    return complexjson.loads(self.text, **kwargs)
           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python314\Lib\json\__init__.py", line 352, in loads
    return _default_decoder.decode(s)
           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^
  File "C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python314\Lib\json\decoder.py", line 345, in decode
    obj, end = self.raw_decode(s, idx=_w(s, 0).end())
               ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python314\Lib\json\decoder.py", line 363, in raw_decode
    raise JSONDecodeError("Expecting value", s, err.value) from None
json.decoder.JSONDecodeError: Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python314\Lib\site-packages\bdfr\__main__.py", line 117, in cli_download
    reddit_downloader = RedditDownloader(config, [stream])
  File "C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python314\Lib\site-packages\bdfr\downloader.py", line 41, in __init__
    super(RedditDownloader, self).__init__(args, logging_handlers)
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python314\Lib\site-packages\bdfr\connector.py", line 63, in __init__
    self._setup_internal_objects()
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
  File "C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python314\Lib\site-packages\bdfr\connector.py", line 80, in _setup_internal_objects
    self.create_reddit_instance()
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
  File "C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python314\Lib\site-packages\bdfr\connector.py", line 139, in create_reddit_instance
    oauth2_authenticator = OAuth2Authenticator(
        scopes,
        self.cfg_parser.get("DEFAULT", "client_id"),
        self.cfg_parser.get("DEFAULT", "client_secret"),
    )
  File "C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python314\Lib\site-packages\bdfr\oauth2.py", line 21, in __init__
    self._check_scopes(wanted_scopes)
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python314\Lib\site-packages\bdfr\oauth2.py", line 31, in _check_scopes
    known_scopes = [scope for scope, data in response.json().items()]
                                             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
  File "C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python314\Lib\site-packages\requests\models.py", line 1120, in json
    raise RequestsJSONDecodeError(e.msg, e.doc, e.pos)
requests.exceptions.JSONDecodeError: Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)