YouTube won't let me watch this video with my VPN on. Is this a new thing?
Proton + Ghostery wombo combo should still work for now for ad blocking and VPN.
this post was submitted on 06 Mar 2025
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Privacy
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Only criminals use VPNs. Well known fact.
Fuck YouTube. I deleted it. I can search for videos individually if I want to.
FreeTube running over Tor is working for me.
can you actually load hd videos through tor these days?
Yes. Ive managed to watch 4K 60fps HDR content from YouTube over Tor without hiccups.
FreeTube my beloved!!
Does freetube work on Android TVs?
Probably not, but I’d try LibreTube
I can't see why an android app isn't feasible. I got the last pipe bender working in my tv. But it's not quite as polished as free tube
Just use one of the FOSS front-ends: https://github.com/mendel5/alternative-front-ends?tab=readme-ov-file#youtube
I find if I use my VPN and I'm not logged in, it says I can't watch unless I log in. If I turn it off, it works. I think if you're logged in, they can track you and monetize you. If you're behind a VPN and they also don't know who you are, they want to push you into telling them who you are.
What I've found as a workaround is to search videos using Duck Duck Go. It has a way you can watch YouTube stuff through DDG without being logged in. I imagine they'll eventually figure out a way to patch that.
Ya so users like say @[email protected] and surely MANY others who don’t get nagged…
Wondered “what if some of us are browser fingerprinted so good they/their advertisers know we’re us, not bots, and pretend to let us stay anonymous” :(
It's ok, YouTube, I don't need the best content, just give me the okay content, it's fine.
Just an obligatory Grayjay plug.
Grayjay is great but I wish it was fully open source
I think its better to leave it Closed Source, otherwise, YouTube team will be able to see how it works and how they circumvent their efforts on blocking 3rd party clients.
Alternatively they could decompile it
Yeah. Agreed, however in this landscape, I’m not in a hurry to make an enemy of good.
They're killing third-party client access, limiting adblockers, blocking VPNs, and forcing sign in more and more. I sincerely hate it but this was inevitable. They have their monopoly, this is just the "abuse that position and enshittify for more data and money" stage. I hope an alternative takes off because I refuse to play by their rules.
The day the finally kill adblockers and third party clients I'll stop watching and I started to think I won't miss it at all after barely open it in a week.
Agreed. I hate the direction this is going towards but I'll just find other avenues.
Try a less popular VPN server by your provider. Sometimes I have to use Uzbekistan to get Reddit and other sites to allow me on
Wow, this is sad!
I use MullvadVPN and i have never encountered this issue before. Hopefully won't need to either.
I'll tell you another weird detail I found out today.. A lot if my coworkers had their uBlock terminated by the chrome browser. I use Ubuntu with chromium because reasons and somehow, my uBlock is still active and working o.o it has not been terminated and I still get rid of those nasty YouTube ads.
I use Mullvad but get a "confirm you're not a bot by signing in" message occasionally. All I do is switch servers and clear all history/cookies/etc. It works 95% of the time.
I use MullvadVPN and I almost always encounter this issue.
It probably depends on which server(s) you're using.
It does, I've found Albania, Estonia and Nigeria skip the issue at least. If anyone else got server recommendations that work feel free to drop! I should probably clarify that my Mullvad connection is a barebones Wireguard one running on top of Tailscale
Sometimes the more commonly used servers like UK start working for a few hours/days but that never lasts. The 3 listed are basically bulletproof in my experience though
And yea, using a frontend will not bypass this. Unless that frontend is an online downloader like Cobalt.tools or amp4.cc. Or Invidious I guess but that... Has its own issues
This maybe affects Mullvad so strongly cause they never bother hididng/swapping their server IPs and don't have a particularly large plethora of them unlike competitors?
Switzerland as an exit Node!
Yes, definitely a new thing. I see a different message but it is along the lines of I have to sign in so that they know that I am not a bot. A bunch of other websites were already doing this where they work without signing in if you are not on VPN but want you to sign in if you are on VPN.
Dude my van has been breaking a ton of websites lately. I had to turn it off to check the tracking on a package from USPS yesterday. Any time a website is sending me to a broken page, I turn off my vpn and it works immediately.
I was going to ask because I’m somewhat new to vpns, but I just assumed it was one hassle for privacy. Is this a new occurrence?
There always have been some sites blocking VPN traffic but it became widespread last 2-3 years.
Ooh, of all the possibilities I didn't have that one on my bingo sheet. I guess we'll be Torrenting YouTubers sooner than later.
No torrent needed, yt-dlp has you covered.
If you happen to be on an IP address Google likes.
YT-dlp is about an inch away from being wiped out by them. All you need is the gaze of sauron. Forced logon and remove cookies in lieu of browser storage would set us back ages.
At some point they're just going to embed the commercials in the video stream or worse yet picture in picture them like broadcast TV did.
It's a relatively new thing. i was watching YT for years with Mullvad with no issues then late last year started getting blocked. Right now I can only watch on either NewPipe or on the official web client while logged in.
I understand using VPN to circumvent region blocking. But for Youtube?
Aah, for that situation with some US-providers selling user data?
there are no ads if you tunnel through albania.
Some regions do have Youtube blocked tho
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