YouTube won't let me watch this video with my VPN on. Is this a new thing?
Only criminals use VPNs. Well known fact.
this post was submitted on 06 Mar 2025
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Privacy
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Likely depends on your VPN. I use Proton and it’s fine.
Fuck YouTube. I deleted it. I can search for videos individually if I want to.
Proton + Ghostery wombo combo should still work for now for ad blocking and VPN.
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.
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.
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
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.
It's ok, YouTube, I don't need the best content, just give me the okay content, it's fine.
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?
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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
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.
I use windscribe and I never really have issues.
But I had little issues with windscribe,
Proton is better
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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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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They do this at times (depends on content) with my paid vpn (proton)
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 ?
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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.
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.
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Just use one of the FOSS front-ends: https://github.com/mendel5/alternative-front-ends?tab=readme-ov-file#youtube
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
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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.
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