YouTube doesn't let me watch without turning off my VPN?

I like how they make up a phony benefit to try to make it seem like you'll get something out of it.

The corporations always do at the moment

Try the Freetube or Grayjay client, they work for me with VPN.

Depends in the VPN. I’m having to use multi-hop now with Freetube but with that turned on it is working consistently for me again.
- I spun up my own invidious container and that has made my connection far more consistent.

If you are using a Free VPN, the would be A LOT of users using that server, so it looks like a denial of service attack from the server's POV.

Even when I used a paid VPN, I still have to try many servers before there is one that works.

When I used ProtonVPN, it was like 50/50 if it worked or not.

When I switched to Mullvad and now to IVPN, who have much less servers to choose from, I have to try like 7 servers before I found a working one, and so far it's been working fine for like the past week.

Its not a new thing. I've noticed it since last year (when I started using VPNs).

I've been paying for Proton VPN for a couple years now and I've never been blocked by YouTube.

I'm also using uBlock Origin and Firefox as a browser. YouTube takes like 5-10 seconds to load videos, thanks to their built-in delay timer when ads can't play, but otherwise it works fine.

Honestly, I'd gladly wait 30 seconds staring at a black screen than watch a 10-second ad. So their delay timer is pointless.
Proton always works for me. I use it to get around geo blocking.
I use windscribe and I never really have issues.
- But I had little issues with windscribe,
  Proton is better

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.

I watch YouTube all the time over Mullvad. It doesn't let me watch on the website without signing in tho.

If your going to sign in you might aswell turn off the vpn
- Yeah, that's why I don't sign in. 😂 I mostly just use Freetube.
I got a sign in prompt over my proton vpn the other day. Refreshed and it was gone
- Huh, I literally can't use YouTube because it always wants me to sign in.
it's an absolute pain in the ass with mullvad. only a few servers like ireland, greece and nigeria work.
- Huh, I'll keep that in mind. Usually I just say fuck YouTube and go about my business. 😂
I got that same prompt in my house ip now, can't use youtube on my TV or anything, I guess it detected my plex server downloading videos since I usually watch from there
- Lmao, sounds about right. YouTube is cancer, but unfortunately they have a monopoly.
Proton VPN has much more servers... and you are much less likely to get flagged... but there is the CEO controversy... so... 🤷‍♂️

Pick your poison... 👀
- I use Proton for email. Don't love the CEOs opinions, so not really interesting in expanding their services. Sticking with the email for now, but we'll see what the future holds.

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.

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!

I dont understand why this happens to people along with "adblocker detected" and i've never had any of these issues on VPN with adblocks.. is this something proper to the US or something ?

Don't have this issue in the US. I blame crappy adblockers/VPNs. UBlock Origin and Mullvad are what you need. Adguard DNS for apps that don't have extension support.
- A few months back I got adblocker notifications while using UBlock Origin. I did the update and refresh and it would work again.
I get this all the time, especially with Reddit. Using Mullvad.
What?

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.

They do this at times (depends on content) with my paid vpn (proton)

It's ok, YouTube, I don't need the best content, just give me the okay content, it's fine.

Only criminals use VPNs. Well known fact.

Makes sense for a corpo like Google, ditch it and use Odysee or use another client like FreeTube or Piped. Piped doesn’t like my connecting via Tor but’s that’s alright I guess.

Watching YouTube via tor is kinds dick move lol
- True, contribute! I usually just use MullvadVPN+Mullvad Browser for that. I always recommend running a Tor node if you use Tor at all, but eh.

All you have to do is change severs sometimes a few and refresh. Then it can flag your browser. It's a pain because people get severs blacklisted that and Modern sites like Google and YouTube and others use AI to detect unusual traffic patterns.

Sucks but once you find a good server remember the number and use it until it's burned takes some time months even then move on again. They are trying really hard to dox all users and make it hard for privacy minded folk.

FreeTube my beloved!!

Does freetube work on Android TVs?
- Probably not, but I’d try LibreTube

Likely depends on your VPN. I use Proton and it’s fine.

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

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.

What VPN? Haven't seen that yet with Proton

I get the "sign in to confirm you're not a bot" message on Proton
Mullvad. It seems like changing the server fixed it.
I did get that when I was using Proton, but its much less common on Proton

It could be some AB testing

Fuck YouTube. I deleted it. I can search for videos individually if I want to.

Wow, this is sad!

FreeTube running over Tor is working for me.

I keep getting errors on FreeTube on Linux.
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.

swap proxies I have this problem from time to time with mullvad.

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.

Try different locations.

Freetube plus socksv5 proxies on mullvad work the best for me.

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.

Proton + Ghostery wombo combo should still work for now for ad blocking and VPN.

Just use one of the FOSS front-ends: https://github.com/mendel5/alternative-front-ends?tab=readme-ov-file#youtube

I've had a different but similar issue. I have a VPN I log into so I can remotely access my work computer. If the VPN is on, YouTube won't show me specific content that I know is usually there. It doesn't tell me I can't watch anything or tell me to turn it off, but some content is just missing 🤷

Where does the "learn more" go to?

Straight to Google Re-Education virtual classroom

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.
- Yeah. Agreed, however in this landscape, I’m not in a hurry to make an enemy of good.

Are you on Chrome?

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