this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2025
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204
newpipe, freetube and yt-dlp not working anymore (lemmy.ml)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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yt-dlp or embedded youtube links say "Sign in to confirm you’re not a bot" but for me the whole plan of this operation is that i don't have to do that.

that's pretty bad

(edit: it works again, i changed nothing just waited)

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[–] AnAmericanPotato 59 points 1 week ago (1 children)

This is network-specific. It's been going on for a few months at least. yt-dlp itself still works without sign-in, if your network is not "suspicious".

Always worth making sure you're updated to the latest version of yt-dlp, but this is probably a network thing.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

yt-dlp hasn't worked for me for a few months on Mullvad. Using Swiss and Swedish servers but I've tried a couple other countries too, same problem.

[–] AnAmericanPotato 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I don't think you can expect any VPN to work without sign-in for very long. Google's playing whack-a-mole with VPNs.

I've never actually tried signing in with yt-dlp. How easy is it to make a throwaway google account nowadays? Do they require phone verification or something similarly onerous?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

I think yt-dlp allows you to use your browser's cookies to appear as a signed in user for downloading videos. I never bothered trying that.

How easy is it to make a throwaway google account nowadays?

I make throwaway Google accounts semi-frequently, though I don't remember what they require. If you have a phone number it's definitely sufficient but I don't remember if you can make one without a phone number. If they require a phone number you can just buy a cheap sim card (in cash if you care about privacy) and use that. It costs money so if you need hundreds of throwaway accounts maybe not, but if it's just one for downloading videos then it's probably NBD, you'd be spending money on the VPN anyway.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Pipepipe still works for me, I don't have to sign in

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago

true, that works for me. but having this moment where all of my default methods did not work was kind of scary. In the end all these methods are only temporary solutions and i think i should find more ways to completely ditch youtube

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 week ago

I'm watching Freetube right now, still working. v0.23.3

[–] Fijxu 16 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Hi, your IP is banned. lol

  • inv.nadeko.net admin
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

are you really? thanks for your service. 🫡

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Lately I've been using grayjay, going fine

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yep, found it about a year ago and never looked back. Its actually funded by futo which i think is owned by Yahoo. Hopefully it stays around for a while.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (2 children)

It is currently only owned by Eron Wolf, which is stated in their FAQ: https://futo.org/about/futo-faq/

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Thanks for the information.

The app is distributed in a third party repo, not the main F-Droid repo, so before installating I'm trying to check if it's open-source, had some independent review, and is safe to install.

The source is available but the license isn't recognised as OSS according to the OSI website. https://gitlab.futo.org/videostreaming/grayjay https://opensource.org/licenses

This may explain why it's not in the main F-Droid repo. It's better than closed source anyway.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

👍

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago

I get that when I'm usong a VPN. If I turn ot off, Tubular works agaim.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago

I just tried Newpipe to double check, it works fine for me

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Grayjay...

https://grayjay.app/

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Does grayjay let you block channels on youtube? I've been using freetube and pipepipe due to the ability to block channels.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'm still learning the ins and outs of Grayjay, but apparently the answer is yes.

Next to each video, you get an Options button.

Under Actions, you get...

  • Share
  • Hide Creator from Home
  • Hide
  • Play Feed as Queue
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It is a great feature for searches with how algorithm can flood results with bigger channels. Unfortunately app doesn't have sponsorblock which has become a must for me.

[–] Zyansheep 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

GrayJay has had sponsorblock for awhile now.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Where is it located? I type sponsor into field after clicking settings and it didn't come up and tried scrolling through settings to find it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

sources > youtube

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

"Allo, IT? Have you tried turning it off and on again?" ;)

yt-dlp -U ?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

I had this same issue the other day where none of my videos in new pipe would work and I found out that it was because YouTube wanted me to sign in and I'm assuming that that's the next phase of them trying to kick us off is just not serving people who do not have an account. So I would expect this to only increase over time. YouTube is about to end up the same way Facebook is where if you do not have an account you can't even look at anything on the service itself I would just about bet you that.

Because who doesn't have or doesn't want a Google account, right? /s

Edit: It's happening again right now, as a matter of fact.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

that's the next phase of them trying to kick us off is just not serving people who do not have an account. So I would expect this to only increase over time.

A losing business model considering the growing amount of people who are sick and tired of the aggressive ad placements all YouTube.

Kicking out everyone who doesn't log into a Google account would lead to an immediate loss in viewership throughout the month/year, and that wouldn't do well with investors.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I sincerely hope that is the bridge they cannot cross and get away with it. Because if you are right, then we will be okay. If you are wrong, we are screwed.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Perhaps.

I mean, it's not like YouTube creators are happy with the state of the platform either. They keep getting paid less and less to the point that they have to resort to begging for donations or include sponsorships in the videos.

I imagine at this point other platforms are well positioned to capitalize on what YouTube has been doing to the platform for some time now. Personally I really like what platform aggregators like Grayjay are doing: basically the idea of following creators, not platforms.

So you can just install Grayjay now through their website and you'll be surprised by how many youtubers you follow are already on other platforms.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I just go idle for a week or two and it works again. It seems like a soft IP block. I use a IPv4 address for yt-dlp so CGNAT sort of works in my favor here.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I really, really, really want to like peer tube. I mean, I truly, honestly do. But, at least currently, I can't find any of the content I want to watch on it. lemmy and Mastodon have reached a critical mass where there is enough content to not need other services. Peertube is not to that point. My guess is that it is due to the fact of the bandwidth and storage needed to host the video and the fact that video content takes more effort to create.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Switching around vpn server works. It helps if you use servers nobody else uses

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (2 children)

One of the reasons I use a VPS rather than a commercial VPN.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

sign in to confirm you are not a bot.

ive been getting the same error, even on regular youtube frontend. it usually goes away after a while.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Got this on newpipe for a bit earlier today (failure to load, not a demand to sign in), but it started working again a few hours later.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

I'm using an VPN and i get that daily. After switching Servers and rebboting the app it works

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

So annoying. I have to restart Freetube so many times to play a video.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Their just mad they can't track you as much. Switch VPN locations it takes sometimes many servers. Fuck them. Network issue.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

If you're using a VPN try connecting to a server in Albania, I've never had issues when connected from there for yt

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Glad to hear it's working for you again. I did look around on yt-dlp's github issue tracker and found one issue where the problem was that a user was downloading using a datacenter IP. I gather from this that it might've been a problem caused by your ISP perhaps giving you an IP that youtube sees as suspicious, or perhaps youtube messing up with their filters causing you to appear as suspicious by accident.
Good luck with your studies btw.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Haven't checked today since I woke up and went to work. But the post is 14 hours old, which means when it was posted I was happily watching some Red Letter Media on Freetube last night. So working fine for me (then at least). Will check when I'm home.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Newpipe works for me, though im not using the release version. Edit2: nvrmind just had to wipe meta data cache and it works again.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

I sometimes get this with Mullvad in official YouTube app as well.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

Free tube has never worked for me so i just use Invidious

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

I'm also having problems with Metrolist (YT Music) with songs not already in cache. It just stays there until I skip the song.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

Try grayjay. It lets you use an account to bypass the block

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