It seems YT started another attempt at blocking alternative clients. They changed something in their API and both SmartTube and Tubular (NewPipe fork) are completely broken. Apparently it started happening this past week, but we personally just felt it today.
Edit: SmartTube already has an update but still not working for 4K videos it seems. Tubular still not working but it might be due to the upstream (NewPipe) is still working on a fix.
New pipe has issues too
Freetube still working
The arms race is on!
I don’t think google can win this without serverely limiting access to Youtube
Agreed, but they can cause lots of friction to encourage people to use the official apps.
For now mull plus ublock origin are working on my phone.
That’s exactly their goal.
What’s mull?
Hardened Firefox project for android.
YouTube dlp also broken.
YT-DLP fixed already; I use it locally in conjunction with MPC-HC.
yt-dlp -U
oryt-dlp -U nightly
Or download latest nightly.
yt-dlp version nightly@2024.07.09.232843 from yt-dlp/yt-dlp-nightly-builds [d2189d3d3]
Freetube still working
Freetube is broken. It only works if you use the Invidious API, but the FreeTube API is broken at the moment. They created a fix, but it did not reach me yet on the Flatpak / Flathub version.
Freetube does work; it simply requires you switch to the Invidious API or have “Fallback to non-preferred API on Failure” enabled. (which honestly you always should have this setting ON).
Personally; I refuse to change my preferred API; so the “Fallback to non-preferred API on Failure” just works.
also yt-dlp does work but you need to upgrade to latest nightly/build.
yt-dlp version nightly@2024.07.09.232843 from yt-dlp/yt-dlp-nightly-builds [d2189d3d3]
I should point out that this isn’t always “Google is trying to block adblockers” again!
Google can, will, and does simply change how the YouTube watch pages look, feel and operate behind the scenes quite regularly.
Thankfully we have people like those at the FreeTube, NewPipe and yt-dlp projects to sift through those changes and update the code to cope with the new output.
Yeah! Freetube already has a patch committed, which is impressively fast.
https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/10397#issuecomment-2218346384
Looks like there’s several causes.
https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/3766
I don’t know how soon Tubular or NewPipe can fix their app; but it seems like a few simple changes will do.
USE GRAYJAY
https://github.com/yuliskov/SmartTube/issues/3606
It is an issue caused by a change that YouTube made. Grayjay and Clipious were the only ones apps that kept working.
SmartTube is back up and working. Just update it.
I dunno, I watch YouTube on desktop with a premium account.
Since they began experimenting with ad injection directly into videos a month or so ago, I no longer use YouTube really. Videos rarely load proper the first time. Often takes 7 or 8 reloads of the page to get a video to start, sometimes stopping mid video.
Clearly since I can get it to play, it feels like a Google problem. Could be because I’m on Firefox, or Linux though (maybe even an update to something else, but all other video streaming services work just fine). Turning off uBlock Origin and uMatrix do not help at all.
Even if it isn’t Google’s fault, it’s still causing me to not use their service anymore. Feels like they are just trying to drive away users in general.
found the issue of github: https://github.com/polymorphicshade/Tubular/issues/97
Invidious still seems to work for VODs provided the instance doesn’t get restricted. Livestreams have been broken for ages though.
Apparently it started happening this past week, but we personally just felt it today.
Since yesterday for me on Tubular. No video seems to load but live streams still work fine.
SmartTube was working before I went to work and now it isn’t. I’m not too worried or upset. Yet.
Smarttube next has a fix for now
Newpipe isn’t working at all for me, libretube is slow but works.
And so the war continues.
For now firefox+uBlockorigin+noscript seem to work for the mobile youtube page but it’s not ideal