will be "fixed" by #9553 ( 😢 ). yt doesn't want us to have nice things

will be "fixed" by #9553 ( 😢 ). yt doesn't want us to have nice things

I'm pretty sure YouTube adding that has nothing to do with yt-dlp and is entirely because of ReVanced and yt-dlp is just collateral damage. As ReVanced modifies the official YouTube app (unlike NewPipe which is a separate app written from scratch), it's no longer enough for YouTube to just check if you are using the Android app, they now need to check if you are using a modded version of it.

To maintainers: Don't close the issue till release. From experience, keeping issue open seems to reduce number of duplicates

I can confirm this happening in New Zealand also (no VPN, native IPv4/IPv6):

[youtube] Extracting URL: https://youtu.be/luXZz9AqBbQ
[youtube] luXZz9AqBbQ: Downloading webpage
[youtube] luXZz9AqBbQ: Downloading ios player API JSON
[youtube] luXZz9AqBbQ: Downloading android player API JSON
WARNING: [youtube] Skipping player responses from android clients (got player responses for video "aQvGIIdgFDM" instead of "luXZz9AqBbQ")
[youtube] luXZz9AqBbQ: Downloading m3u8 information
[info] luXZz9AqBbQ: Downloading 1 format(s): 18
[download] Destination: r⧸AskOuija where they talk one LETTER at a time [luXZz9AqBbQ].mp4
[download] 100% of 10.50MiB in 00:00:02 at 4.20MiB/s
[Metadata] Adding metadata to "r⧸AskOuija where they talk one LETTER at a time [luXZz9AqBbQ].mp4"
`
Downloading the "aQvGIIdgFDM" video gives a file titled "Video Not Available [aQvGIIdgFDM].mp4", length of 5 minutes, black background, circled exclamation point on left, "The following content is not available in this app. Watch this content on the latest version of YouTube" on the right.

Whatever kind of black magic is YT trying to pull on us now, and why it is happening to Android client APIs specifically is currently a mystery to me. Why is this not happening on the iOS one as well?

UPDATE: Tested on the 'https://youtu.be/BaW_jenozKc' video as well, failed to replicate on that video:

[youtube] Extracting URL: https://youtu.be/BaW_jenozKc
[youtube] BaW_jenozKc: Downloading webpage
[youtube] BaW_jenozKc: Downloading ios player API JSON
[youtube] BaW_jenozKc: Downloading android player API JSON
[youtube] BaW_jenozKc: Downloading m3u8 information
[info] BaW_jenozKc: Downloading 1 format(s): 18
[download] Destination: youtube-dl test video ＂'⧸⧹ä↭𝕐 [BaW_jenozKc].mp4
[download] 100% of 184.94KiB in 00:00:02 at 73.93KiB/s
[Metadata] Adding metadata to "youtube-dl test video ＂'⧸⧹ä↭𝕐 [BaW_jenozKc].mp4"

Possible A/B testing perhaps? Knowing YT's shady testing behaviour, it's certainly could be...

will be "fixed" by #9553

For an end-user is there any significant difference between that fix and simply using "--extractor-args youtube:player_client=ios,web" in your config?

The docs mention that

By default, ios,android,web is used, but tv_embedded and creator variants are added as required for age-gated videos.

and I'm not sure if explicitly specifying player clients overrides that behavior (and are those variants ever needed anyway if you're using cookies for a logged in youtube account?)

From experience, keeping issue open seems to reduce number of duplicates

That's probably because people like me tend to come here only when they have an issue themselves and don't realize that closed issues are hidden by default, and so think no one has posted about their issue yet.

From experience, keeping issue open seems to reduce number of duplicates

That's probably because people like me tend to come here only when they have an issue themselves and don't realize that closed issues are hidden by default, and so think no one has posted about their issue yet.

I know. We specifically ask to search closed issues, but many don't. It's what it is... Not trying to blame anyone. I was just passing the wisdom onto other maintainers since they are the ones handling most issues nowadays

• I've searched known issues and the bugtracker for similar issues including closed ones. DO NOT post duplicates

For an end-user is there any significant difference between that fix and simply using "--extractor-args youtube:player_client=ios,web" in your config?

By default, ios,android,web is used, but tv_embedded and creator variants are added as required for age-gated videos.

and I'm not sure if explicitly specifying player clients overrides that behavior

No. The age-gate clients are still added when required. You could also simply ignore the warning.

(and are those variants ever needed anyway if you're using cookies for a logged in youtube account?)

It is not. If your account can directly access the video, we don't need any bypass

Whatever kind of black magic is YT trying to pull on us now, and why it is happening to Android client APIs specifically is currently a mystery to me.

Youtube is using Safetynet's AndroidGuard to validate that the requests are coming from their app; possibly in an effort to block revanced, though they have already implemented a bypass.

Possible A/B testing perhaps?

Yes, it happens randomly, though expect it to be completely blocked in few days

Fixed, but leaving open till release

This is happening in Venezuela also

@SantiiRepair try running yt-dlp --update-to master, and if it still keeps happening, add --verbose to your command and send the output

@SantiiRepair try running yt-dlp --update-to master, and if it still keeps happening, add --verbose to your command and send the output

Thanks for response, but I got this:

Current version: stable@2024.03.10 from yt-dlp/yt-dlp
Latest version: master@2024.04.08.232116 from yt-dlp/yt-dlp-master-builds

Looks like GitHub master branch needs to be updated?
Thx

That is not a complete verbose log

Closing since release is out

Reopening this, since it's happening again. Note that as of today, it happens very infrequently. Presumably, this is due to some sort of A/B testing and the problem will become more prevalent eventually. It's likely that the new android player params' end-of-life date is near. This issue will be "fixed" by #9553

removing the android params seems work

@kclauhk the stream URL expires after 1 minute resulting in a 403 error during download if the params are removed

ok

how is this "{1: {1: 1}}" converted to "CgIIAQ=="?

how is this "{1: {1: 1}}" converted to "CgIIAQ=="?

It's protobuf. If you want to experiment with the params you could use https://github.com/Grub4K/qpb

For a temporary fix you can install the fix from this PR #9553:

python3 -m pip install -U pip hatchling wheel
python3 -m pip install --force-reinstall "yt-dlp[default] @ https://github.com/coletdjnz/yt-dlp-dev/archive/fix/youtube/remove-android-as-default.tar.gz"