I use Fennec + uBlock Origin over a VPN
Works 99% of the time (gotta keep the uBlock Origin filters up to date)
this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2025
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Privacy
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PipePipe is on F-Droid
I've been having issues with NewPipe as of late. I have to keep changing my VPN server until one works
I've been having huge problems with Revanced too, anyone else?
Grayjay still works and is being actively maintained. They also support other platforms like PeerTube and Odysee, which you can easily enable.
Still get blocked if on a VPN, have to switch servers, often countries. I usually give up and have it download it (by adding to a playlist that I set to download for auto retries). Then watch it when it's available offline
Hasn't worked for me for several months. Not with a VPN anyway.
I've noticed that Google is getting more and more aggressive with VPNs. It won't let me load anything on VPN without logging in. This applies to third-party tools like yt-dlp too.
This probably depends on your VPN provider. Perhaps I can make a throwaway google account just to get it to stfu? I don't know how hard it is to make a semi-anonymous Google account nowadays.
Requires a phone nunber, at least most of the time
Depends on how you sign up. If you sign up with Gmail or Google TV they do not, last I checked.
Grayjay is great and I look forward to some bug fixes in the next updates. Unfortunately, I also get YT blocking errors mostly when using a VPN (Proton). A side note, for some reason I can't paste links into the search bar, this kind of throws my game off when switching from Freetube or other YT links.
They released an update yesterday. If that doesn't fix it, please report your issues
Thanks for the heads up. I signed up for Futo Chat on Zulip and realized I didn't mention the problem was on my desktop client (MacOS). However, through your link, I found the update for Android. I'm happy with it, so cheers for that. For those interested, the Grayjay announcement on the 17th was: "Hey everyone, we've been aware of playback issues for YouTube and have been working hard to fix them. This fix is now released on the stable channel (and requires an app update). We are aware that age-restricted, controversial videos, or other videos requiring login may not yet work." We will work on this next week. The desktop release required for this fix will also be available next week. Here is the change log for the new mobile version 281:"
Edit: getting a UMP redirect fail issue on Android and can't play YT. When turning off my VPN, it seems to have fixed the issue. (perhaps temporarily)
Did it work for you? Didn't work for me but it seems to have worked for most people.
Nope, I'm getting the UMP redirect fail issue here.
Do you use free tier or paid proton VPN? I am evaluating different VPN options and appreciate the data points
Hey, I paid for a Proton Unlimited package for the second year. After hearing that Proton CEO Andy Yen voiced support for the U.S. Republican Party, I wondered about the company's direction. However, there isn't clear evidence that a Trump administration would be anti-privacy or worse than the Democrats regarding privacy in the U.S. I chose the company because Proton AG is headquartered in Plan-les-Ouates, Switzerland, where its data centers are also located. Additionally, I selected the EU model when purchasing. They have over 110 servers and seem fairly fast compared to my experience with NordVPN over the years. Sadly, in the YouTube field, most of these IP addresses across its global servers have been flagged, and I'm pretty sure I can't even post this reply on lemmy.world without pausing my VPN.
?
I use ProtonVPN (paid) and its works with Youtube just fine. I mean, occasionally you get a "Sign in to prove your're not a bot", but I just disconnect and reconnect and its a new server and it should work.
I mostly use North America servers via the "Secure Core" feature through Switzerland.
I'm using Fennec + uBlock Origin.
For Lemmy, you should use another instance that allows VPNs. I can even use Tor on top of VPN on my instance.
Btw I wouldn't worry about the Andy Yen debacle unless he starts going full elon. He's only one board member after all. (But I am keeping an eye on it and preparing to move to alternatives)
It's because LW is behind cloudflare iirc.
FreeTube v0.22.1-nightly-5404 Beta with the Local API is working fine for me. Try the latest nightly build.
Thank you, this fixed FreeTube for me. Guess official releases are too slow now or maybe YouTube is attacking the official release specifically
One trick is going to ghostarchive.org and sticking the link in there.
Another is using yt-dlp
Both of these are future-proof because you will end up with the data hoarded off of their server.
I'm not 100% certain if it's fully private, but I've been using a VPN and LibreWolf + uBlock Origin. I watch what I want to and reset my browsing session when I'm done.
From what I've gathered recently, the Mullvad browser left unmodified and combined with a VPN is one of the most private browsers you can use, short of using Tor.
yeah that's probably easily fingerprintable
So far JShelter has been the best single solution I have found, it even prevents creepjs from working at all. Nothing is going to stop casual users from getting TLS fingerprinted though.
Libretube with HLS experimental on. You need to refresh VPN location constantly if you use one.
Noticed errors in newpipe recently too. Did you try Firefox with ublock? In mobile u can enable background something too.
Yeah I tried it with fennac
even if you find a method.. whats your exit strategy? its inevitable that you will be unable to use it in the near future without an account, just like facebook.
Honestly: books and PeerTube.
whats your exit strategy?
books
👑
You got any good recommendations for an e-reader?
I have a Boox for when I want a bigger screen, and a Hisense touch (I think that’s the model). I like them both a lot. The Hisense device is also a HiFi audio player which is nice.
I like Odysee but it's kinda controversial due to its conspiracy theories and stuff
Last I checked they seemed to give up on decentralization as well
yeah i find it too difficult to find decent content in there
Nebula is decent
Yes. I've come to peace with that. I would like new pipe to allow me to sign in with a Google account. And I would just rotate Google accounts every month
Using Freetube via a personal VPS - never had a problem, maybe because the provider is smaller. Newpipe, however, did have trouble - page had to be reloaded several times before the video showed up. Now trying Pipepipe instead and not seen it repeat yet.
Invidious still works very well, however it is an ongoing battle with YouTube. They ban an instance and the instance's ban evasion routine tries again, or in the case of IP range bans migrates to another provider and the game goes on. Despite this, it is the only way I know of to access YouTube relatively pain free using a public VPN provider. By now YouTube has blocked a lot of public VPN IPs. To me, this advantage makes it worth it.
The best way to keep up with which instances are currently functional is via the Invidious Matrix room, https://matrix.to/#/#invidious:matrix.org. You can also check the instances list https://instances.invidious.io/ but it may get out of date sometimes.
Finally, I've found the best way to use Invidious is via FreeTube (Linux) or Clipious (Android).
Freetube + socks5 mullvad : works 100% of the time
Newpipe on mullvad, sometimes I have to cycle VPN endpoints if the bot detection gets triggered.
Shouldn't you be able to access YT without a Google account? So uBO correctly configured (at least on Firefox) should do a lot already. Maybe sharing with us what specific issues you're facing or what you want to be able to do may help you getting more specific solutions?
They are currently A/B testing blocking access to videos without an account. That's why some people are getting errors. It's likely that it will be rolled out to everyone in the future.
Oh, thx for the clarification. That certainly would not help.
It looks to me like Google has that idea they own their viewership and can treat them like trash if they fancy doing so. The not too distant future will tell us if they were right or not.
What I can say is that they don't own me. I was a Premium subscriber fir years (I can afford it and I want to support creators) but I cancelled the day they became serious against ad-blockers. For me, it was not about them forcing people to pay a sub. It never was. It was about destroying the free Web and making it a privately-owned something a few corporations would then be able to do what the fuck they wanted with. I certainly did not want to give them a cent more of my money to achieve that.
Well, login gating worked for Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (it's not dead yet despite some people's claims). We here are tiny minority of social media users.
Yep, you're right. I tend to forget that... way too often. [Sad face]
that's fun because some of my teachers like to upload their course material to youtube...
They'll tell you to make an account, what's the big deal, everyone uses Google?
And when you tell them how insane it is to lock access to course material behind a Google account, they'll stare at you blankly.