I’ve been having some weird issues over the last few days with not being able to search for things in YouTube when I’m logged in via SmartTube account.

So I decided to try accessing it directly. Well guess what? It looks like YouTube now requires age verification in AU.

Sorry Google… I’m not uploading my passport, drivers licence or govt id to watch your shit. I am however now very incentivized to use Tube archivist and Jellyfin, plus cron job to scrape your shit with gleeful abandon.

EDIT: Rather than bitching about it, I did something and made Smarttube work without a google account. If that floats your boat, have at it. It supports direct import of your saved playlists via Google Takeout ZIP file, subscriptions etc without needing a youtube account.

Also, remember the excellent TubeArchivist exists if you want even more control.

  • muhyb@programming.dev
    15·
    1 day ago

    Here it’s not that bad but it started to ask me to prove I’m not a bot by signing-in. Usually it was passable by when the IP changes by retstarting the modem but it’s not for a couple days now.

    Edit: This means the embedded videos are not public anymore. They finally did it. Great news for many sites! /s

      • muhyb@programming.dev
        2·
        14 hours ago

        Yeah, even embedded videos are asking me to prove I’m not a bot. Newpipe, Freetube, Grayjay, yt-dlp none of them works for some time too. They really locked down this time it seems.

        • SuspiciousCarrot78@aussie.zoneOP
          2·
          13 hours ago

          Odd. Newpipe and Smarttube (the one I just cooked) all seem to work here. I wonder if they’re doing IP range blocking now in certain geos.

          When you say “prove you’re not a bot” - do you mean they force you to sign in or is it just a CAPTCHA?

          Hmm. Can anyone else confirm similar issue to @muhyb@programming.dev

          • muhyb@programming.dev
            2·
            13 hours ago

            I guess that’s possible. Well, in the household only I have this problem because others have a Google account login. However every device asking the same if they logout. I wonder if this time it’s country-level since IP change don’t work anymore.

          • muhyb@programming.dev
            1·
            13 hours ago

            Just noticed the edit:

            It’s forcing me to login. I might go creating a dummy account using old Android devices just so I can download via yt-dlp if this doesn’t go soon.