Been using yt-dlp for videos and for watching live streams VPN + Mullvad Browser. Tried Nadeko but keeps stopping and all of this is annoying. Wish Piped still worked.
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Please use the search before posting, itās already been discussed in multiple threads.
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Freetube works mostly.
NewPipe also works mostly.
Its a perpetual game of cat and mouse. All we have to do is wait and bounce around Invidious or just plain watch in browser, annoying it might seem.
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My VPN works with Youtube.
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PipePipe on my android works fine.
Edit: at least it was working. Now I can watch one video if Iām lucky. Newpipe isnāt any better.
I did find a work-around. Clear the appās cache and force closed it. Open it and start downloading the videos. No Sponsorblock this way but at least I can watch the videos.
I had planned on creating a google account just for youtube but I canāt do so without giving up my phone number. I can get a prepaid sim with cash and I do have a burner phone so that option is still available.
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Can I ask why is it stopped working?
Did you try switching Backends before complaining?
Nadeko works perfectly here so I have no idea what youāre saying honestly. But just in case you didnāt, Make sure to switch backends when a video doesnāt work, 99% of the time it works this way.
For me, FreeTube with TOR as a proxy works fine (almost, sometimes you need to change identity in TOR to get a new IP).
No luck for me, doesnāt work, like many others.
you tried the multiple backends like before?
Also iirc I think we already discussed about this.
Frontends havenāt been reliable lately. I keep getting API errors and there are posts on Reddit and Github with same complaints. I read Youtube and Frontend developers are in a constant battle.
Freetube has only worked around 50% of the time for me, on both Flatpak and Android version. Itās not working whatsoever the past couple days.
Invidious accessed through web browser has been equally successful as Freetube, though strangely sometimes one may work and not the other, even though Freetube uses Invidious instances. It seems Invidious is completely down at the moment, explaining why Freetube is too.
Libretube used to work fine on Android, but completely stopped working suddenly. I canāt find it on the Aurora store any more.
Iāve heard of Piped and NewPiped but canāt find them in the Linux Mint repositories or app stores so have never tried them.
Then today I found in an app called āCleantubeā which seems very similar to Freetube. On Aurora store it has 1m downloads, great ratings, and says no known trackers or data collection. Iām suprised Iāve never seen this mentioned any where before, yet it came up when I searched YouTube frontend on the store. Is it trustworthy?
What are you using at the moment, and is it reliable?
what Invidious instance were you using? The nadeko.net one?
yes the dev behind the invidious nadeko gets to uphill battles at times but theyāre also quick enough to recover it imo and Iāve been using them ever since.
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Is this the app youāre talking about?
Thereās a bunch of BS proprietary stuff in the Play Store, so I donāt think it could be trustworthy (at least for me). You may use this as your last option, but thatās up to you.
Yt-local bud
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Hadnāt heard of this one before, will give it a go. Thanks Viper!
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Private piped instances should still work, although it can be flaky sometimes.
invidious is dead i think. Youtube has made it more difficult now to watch videos through this frontend.
i donāt see if this problem would be fixed anytime soon.
So basically freetube is non-functional now .
Newpipe on mobile still works though
Freetube has just released a new version which fix the issue with youtube.
On android Newpipe and Grayjay work with no issues so far.
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For as long as YT content is king, all we can do is scurry from one front end to another.
There is no other way because we are all at the utter mercy and whims of YT. Hold fast and be patient. For as long as there are frontend devs we will be fine privateering our way forward.
We also need a better way to discover video recommendations, but sadly YT is the only game these days.
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I use newpipe and grayjay and they often have problems. I suspect Google has been vigilant about stopping third party apps from working because they block ads. I have a VPN on my phone and I find that changing servers can usually get it to work.
Thanks for the recommendation. I had the same problem with FreeTube as the OP, but Iāve switched to that one and it works well right now.
What is great about you guys holding your ground is - these āpeopleā, who run youtube are having to spend vast resources of time and money to create this. I like that a few open source devs are putting up a fight.
The known unknowns about this sudden uptick in youtubes campaign is; they want to be as annoying as possible so you give in, yeild and turn off VPNās, sign in - whatever. They know they cannot win the war, they can only win skirmishes, so that is what it is about - the game.
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