Did YouTube finally kill adblocking apps like SmartTube? - Tons of unusual 403 / forbidden errors

[trash cat]

Tried yt-dlp a few different videos always 403'ed. Maybe I'm retarded and missing something vital. None were age restricted.

Okay thanks, that's good to know.

Hopefully this isn't a region by region rollout. No problems with yt-dlp in North America so far.

@Null fyi

Update:

The various YouTube http 403 problems continue to persist in third-party apps that have not made codebase updates.

• SmartTube- was broken, now fixed for most users with version 22.38 or later
  • The following is true for the v22.38 fix...
  • Can't play vids above 1080p !
  • Only the avc (h264) codec is available
  • VP9 and AV1 codecs are mysteriously gone
  • Why would purging visitor cookie(s) to fix a 403 error... deactivate two video codecs?
• NewPipe- still broken and no update has been pushed as of this writing
  • True for version 0.27.0 on Android
• ReVanced
  • continues to work properly
• Invidious
  • continues to work properly
• Browser adblocking (Brave, uBlock, etc)
  • continues to work properly
• yt-dlp
  • continues to work properly
  • There are some users with sporadic 403 issues that are possibly region or ip specific
  • Some people think YouTube is doing a region specific rollout of yt-dlp blocking, but I am a little skeptical of that
  • If you have 403 issues, upgrade to the latest version and make sure the vid is not age restricted.
  • Try a different VPN endpoint because YouTube may be blocking your VPN exit IP
  • If problems persist please post here and @ me

As mentioned above, SmartTube has been updated and appears to work now, but it seems like its original 403 errors may somehow be related to one or more tracking cookies.

It's possible YouTube are using these visitor tracking cookie(s) to identify and freeze out third-party application users under the cover of deprecating poorly documented parts of the YouTube API. Or I suppose it could just be a big misunderstanding with the 'family' out in Mountain View.

The VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE cookie is one possible suspect, and officially it "may enable personalized recommendations on YouTube based on past views and searches". This cookie (or a similar cookie) might be involved in the 403 problem. Purging the app visitor cookies upon receipt of the 403 seemed to fix the problem.

That's all for now

 

[Fastest Hand In The East]

Let me remind you that this is what they are aiming for with their ads:

I keep forgetting that this is real, that it was a real thing thy wanted to add. Out of curiosity I even went to CuckSnoops to read their cope, but no, even those fags agree.

 

[Sam Losco's Wife]

You're gonna pay for featuring me Johm Potter!! Google is an upstanding company just trying to provide a service at fair market value. This is an attack on not just freedom of speech and government overreach, but also capitalism!

 

[Pierre D'Olnique]

Glad to see more people woke up to Grayjay. It's a better piece of software overall, even if I do miss NewPipe's on-the-fly speed/pitch changing.

 

[Thé au lait]

I mean for fuck sake I can’t even pump my gas anymore without a little tv blaring commercials at me from the pump

PSA: One of the buttons next to the screen (usually right side, second from bottom) will mute these

 

[Dieter Laser]

YouTube and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race. From failed dating site to failing media site, it’s doomed from the start.

 

[DeutschfagAufAbwegen]

Does this also effect the ViolentMonkey plugin that is used to get around age verification? It had several hickups the last week with it working on and off

 

[Counterfeit Obol]

As long as

1. Revanced still works
2. There are alternatives that still work in the event Revanced does get fucked

I'll be fine. This is troubling news either way.

 

[Flaming Dumpster]

My Piped instance is getting rate limited so hard the last couple of weeks and I wonder if it's related to all of this. I closed off access after I found Russians abusing it but still having to use the Invidious IPv6 rotator every couple of days due to random 403 errors with just me as the user.

Running a big instance must be a huge pain in the ass.

 

[Fastest Hand In The East]

This isn't feature worthy.

Who the hell do you think you are? You’re any kind of comedian? Anybody know who you are? Maybe everybody else wants to enjoy the sneed'n'shitposting. This is one of the most important places in lower case I Internter and who are you? Who are you? You miserable presumptious no talent. You’re no sneeder. A sneeder respects the other people postings, they serve the foundation of creativity. You obviously don’t have the talent. You don’t have enough respect for yourself or other people, or know what it means to respect yourself. In shitposting, sneeding or any form of creativity.

Spoiler

Regards, Josh

 

[Male Idiot]

Ublock is working fine for me last night.

How do you put smartube on your phone for a boomer like me?

 

[Near]

Making the Internet an uninhavitable ad hellscape just before WW3 kicks off.

Very thoughtful of Pajeet Mohan to motivate people to draft themselves to the front lines out of boredom and desperation just because everything else will be so bafflingly shit

 

[IdiotPlusPlus]

Primarily the power is in selling you something you already want

The industry scum on The Gruen Transfer pointed out that most of the time when you want something you already know exists, you will only remember 2-3 brands you are considering buying from, and in most cases the point is to spam you so that A. you know the product exists, and B. you think of that particular brand in your list of potential buying options.

That and, from memory, some case studies have pointed out 'targeted advertising' is a scam/conspiracy by tech to pretend it actually works, as it's no better than regular TV style ads(often worse considering the industrial amount of clickfraud, without including Adnauseum), and worse than contextual ads where the ad is directly related to the content/situation.

 

[Casshern]

It is wild that, in Canada, you can just run commercials that tell you to gamble on your smartphone. "Hey, that thing you have in your pocket? Yeah, use it to spend your life savings!"

80% of the ads I see on TV are selling porn, addictive unnecessary drugs, and gambling. Also shitting in a box. Like literal tiktok thots selling “blue pills” and Pfizer shilling some new totally necessary billion dollar a pill drug while some homeless man goes on about winning gazillions via this totally legit and not Chinese scam crossword game on his phone. I haven’t seen what‘s on children’s channels in decades but I assume it’s all the exact same but with random flashing colors inbetween. And all of the ads are made with the most disgusting “people“ imaginable. If only we still had attractive white people in commercials.

That and, from memory, some case studies have pointed out 'targeted advertising' is a scam/conspiracy by tech to pretend it actually works, as it's no better than regular TV style ads(often worse considering the industrial amount of clickfraud, without including Adnauseum), and worse than contextual ads where the ad is directly related to the content/situation.

It’s scam artists all the way down. Ad distributors like Google are lying to advertisers about reach, advertisers are lying to companies about efficacy, and companies are lying to investors about profits earned from advertising.

 

[Calvin Gabriel]

https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipeExtractor/pull/1191

NewPipe devs found a workaround. If you need access sooner rather than later, you can use the debug build linked in the first post of the above PR.

 

[TrainWreckWatcher]

Company spends millions trying to program a stop to adblockers / ways to halt them.
Only for pissed off volunteers to route them within 30 minutes to an hour.
Rinse repeat watch google flounder until they almost get sued again for doing illegal shit.

 

[Dude Snakes]

Brave's adblock still works... for now.

 

[IamnottheNSA]

If Google kills YouTube adblocking what will you do?​

Where's the option "I'll download the videos and watch them offline after surgically removing the ads"? Hell, i'll screen record them if (and that's a big if) all the downloading options get fucked as well.
They cannot win this. #DLTIW

Company spends millions trying to program a stop to adblockers / ways to halt them.
Only for pissed off volunteers to route them within 30 minutes to an hour.
Rinse repeat watch google flounder until they almost get sued again for doing illegal shit.

Jewgle getting felted is inevitable. Saw it a hundred times.

 

[Dude Snakes]

Where's the option "I'll download the videos and watch them offline after surgically removing the ads"? Hell, i'll screen record them if (and that's a big if) all the downloading options get fucked as well.
They cannot win this. #DLTIW

Jewgle getting felted is inevitable. Saw it a hundred times.

I like your additude, Josh needs to be more possitive.

 

[Avenue]

I receive unwanted ads trough my door, I dispose of it.
I receive unwanted ads trough my browser, I dispose of it.
I should be allowed to do so as in both scenarios the ads have entered my domain
simple as.