First time this happens to me. With a German protonvpn server.
Try clicking the sign in button, then navigating back to the video without actually signing in. Seems to work every time I’ve tried it so far.
It’s a VPN thing. I have a work VPN that gives me the same error on piped API front ends like piped.video
If I use my regular device without a VPN the alt front ends work fine.
Yea, been having this BIGTIME. Even occurs on grayjay, and pipe apps (newpipe, etc.) Its aggravating. Can’t even download vids either, and the ones u have downloaded are held ransom until u turn it off too 😂 at least in my case. Fuck google.
the stupidest thing about this is that I literally am signed into youtube (yeah yeah, I know), and I still get this shit!
This is the result of them blocking invidious. They targeted large Datacenter nodes and check for the number of requests from those datacenters that aren’t logged in, and block them until that number meets a certain threshold. This also causes people with VPNs to get this message. The solution is to connect to smaller self-hosted invidious instances or using proxies hosted on normal residential ips.
Been seeing that a fair bit too lately. Freetube, Grayjay, and Newpipe seem so sometimes get around it, even if the error is in the browser the video will sometimes load in those apps from the same IP. If you get lucky and find a working invidious/piped instance that might work too.
Otherwise, turning on a VPN and switching between servers will usually eventually lead to a working one. That, and if you’re up for it, check to see if your favorite creators are on places like Peertube, Odysee, or Rumble that don’t block IPs like YouTube does.
Oh that’s how they broke invidious
Have you considered trying out NewPipe or its fork Tubular (with SponsorBlocck built in)?
Tubular works like a charm like 98% of the time (which is way more than YouTube apps, LOL).
Yeah when google breaks something newpipe and its forks usually get updated within a day or two. I really gotta donate to them again.
Unfortunately NewPipe will not help with that. I get this message in a browser and in NewPipe.
Have you tried if yt-dlp works? Cuz if that also doesnt, then maybe they actually temporarily blocked your IP?
I have never gotten this message on yt so cant test it.
Here’s the log from yt-dlp:
[youtube] Extracting URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kR1buRTIKhk
[youtube] kR1buRTIKhk: Downloading webpage
[youtube] kR1buRTIKhk: Downloading ios player API JSON
[youtube] kR1buRTIKhk: Downloading mweb player API JSON
ERROR: [youtube] kR1buRTIKhk: Sign in to confirm you’re not a bot. This helps protect our community. Learn more
Are you on a commercial VPN connection?
No, it’s when I connect with my ISP at home. If I use Mullvad VPN or if I actually login into YouTube web app, everything works fine.
That is so odd. Can you manually reroll your home networks external IP address? Maybe reconnect your router. I dont know how they would be able to reidentify you otherwise.
“Protecting our community” isn’t even a good excuse, you can’t leave comments without an account…
Protecting our
communityprofits
Sometimes I get that prompt while on vpn. After refreshing the page, I’m able to see the video.
Yeah. Our work endpoint is in AWS. YouTube hates that. So does reddit.
As much as it isn’t preferred, I can usually bypass the sign in shenanigans by going directly to the website to watch something without signing in. I usually only get the login prompt when going through my browser or a search engine.
I get it on reddit :/
Redlib is a handy accountless frontend for reddit that still works
Redlib
Thanks will be very handy when I get reddit llink in search result and can not open it
That’s what I mean though, trying to watch any YT video embedded anywhere without being signed in will yield that error, but I usually don’t have that problem on YT’s direct website, even without login. Still ridiculous, but so is Google
I got it on an embedded video for a news site. VPN on of course.
Try Freetube, it still works well, even with videos that are age limited.
Bots can’t watch videos anymore? Anti-droid discrimination
YouTube doesn’t like VPNs. Harder to track you (and sell/monetize your data) if they can’t tell who you are.
deleted by creator
I desperately want a viable alternative to come along. There’s a lot of great content on YouTube, but the platform is increasingly being enshitified.
It’s a gigantic money sink, it’s going to be extremely hard to come up with a profitable (or break even) alternative.
Third party app without an account maybe? Freetube on the desktop and newpipe on the phone is what I like to use. There’s stuff like grayjay, tubearchivist, and pinchflat as well. Or just go straight yt-dlp.
Pornhub.
They have the technology and many of the features in place.
Now if only you could hide the pornographic stuff to not accidentally see disgusting nudity.
There’s nothing “disgusting” about nudity. You should shake off those preconceived cultural biases, you’ll be a better person.
I don’t feel anything abut nudity being posted somewhere and people enjoying it… I just don’t want to see it myself because it’s disgusting for me)
Youtube does a ton of evil stuff, but this one is more tame. I suspect the VPN was used to bot and got banned, so the sign-in is required to better target where the traffic is allowed to go, instead of blanket banning everybody using the service.
So what they can bot with VPN without signing in?
Bot can automate views. It’s why Youtube keeps trying to move towards “engagement”. Comments, likes, etc, all require an account, which is an extra hurdle for bots.
Then I will they just doing half the work. They can just get the site account walled for that goal, not a half patch work of blocking VPN users.
I suspect the VPN was used to bot
There are plenty of sources, including even in this thread, indicating that that this is not the problem. Quit making excuses for them.
uhhh… what?
It’s not just you. I’m tired of the whole team of people who are always standing by to bring out similar excuses any time someone decides that in their quest to stop invidious from existing — or whatever google is actually aiming at — it’s acceptable to just mass-block all the VPN users as collateral damage.
It’s not an excuse though. It’s right there in the error message.
Where are people getting the impression I think google is some kind of saint who can do no wrong? I don’t even see the “proof” that is being used to say I’m coming to google’s defense. Just a few anecdotal theories… just like I provided.
Ah, so it’s not you coming up with the stupid excuse that they have legit reasons to think the user might be a nefarious “bot”, you’re just passing along the stupid excuse as you interpret it from the meaningless message direct from Google. That explains where you got the idea that “viewbots” had anything to do with it, I guess.
I agree. We just haven’t gotten to the point quite yet. Where the creators revolt. But that stage should appear somewhat shortly.
There’s platforms like Nebula that noticed the decline and also wanted to give creators the freedom to create without needing to deal with an ever changing algorithm
LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP $300
I’m inclined to buy that just because it exists. I hate subscription services so, so much!
This is the best option if you think you’ll use Nebula for more than 5 years.
I’m still on the 30$ plan, 300$ makes more sense when it’s 60$/y (which it is now)
I’ve considered Nebula a few times. That could absolutely be the alternative I’m looking for if they keep adding creators and topics and variety.
They seemingly are adding more creators. At least the ones I’ve followed. I recently just started contacting creators to ask if they’ve even heard of it and willing to contact so ppl can support them that way.
Patreon is cool but I don’t want to have a subscription for every creator I like and decide on the amount.
None of the creators I follow have LiberaPay or crypto as an option either. I don’t want to pay on a proprietary platform.
I think patreon recently add an option for creators to make a free tier. Which on one hand could work, but on the other - we’d be constantly bombarded with “to see this video upgrade to the $10 or more tier” which would personally bum me out
Thanks for doing the legwork, I appreciate the initiative :) I’m guessing that I’ll end up with a Nebula subscription, I just haven’t pulled the trigger yet.
If you want, I can give you a guest pass (one week for free). Just DM me an email address
Thanks for the offer, but I’ll support them from day one when I decide to subscribe :) I already know that several creators on Nebula make good content.
I go the other way. My youtube account is used across my family. My recommendation is a fucking mess.
My wife and I have our own. We use hers for the kid and mine for the dog. So, hers is beauty gurus and baby shark, and mine is Sarah Boone coverage, old computers, and 10 hour videos of squirrels.
So, the home page includes Peppa pig videos alongside with gruesome skateboarding accident compilations. Something for everyone!