Youtube let the other shoe drop in their end-stage enshittification this week. Last month, they required you to turn on Youtube History to view the feed of youtube videos recommendations. That seems reasonable, so I did it. But I delete my history every 1 week instead of every 3 months. So they don't get much from my choices. It still did a pretty good job of showing me stuff I was interested in watching.
Then on Oct 1, they threw up a "You're using an Ad Blocker" overlay on videos. I'd use my trusty Overlay Remover plugin to remove the annoying javascript graphic and watch what I wanted. I didn't have to click the X to dismiss the obnoxious page.
Last week, they started placing a timer with the X so you had to wait 5 seconds for the X to appear so you could dismiss blocking graphic.
Today, there was a new graphic. It allowed you to view three videos before you had to turn off your Ad Blocker. I viewed a video 3 times just to see what happens.
Now all I see is this.
Google has out and out made it a violation of their ToS to have an ad blocker to view Youtube. Or you can pay them $$$.
I ban such sites from my systems by replacing their DNS name in my hosts file routed to 127.0.0.1 which means I can't view the site. I have quite a few banned sites now.
If you're on PC use Firefox with uBlock Origin.
For Android, Im personally using Libretube but using mobile Firefox with uBlock Origin also works.
I just tried libretube but it crashes every time I click on a video :(
It's such a shame because I used to use newpipe all the time and I absolutely loved that, until it also stopped working
Did you install it from fdroid? There is a problem in fdroid version that crashes app when trying to play video. Its already fixed on github but fdroid is slow to update.
Thank you!! Now it works perfectly :)
Its also available on IzzyOnDroid repo
Revanced not an option?
I think you need to update NewPipe.
If you just installed the app from an apk file, try installing it from the F-Droid app instead, to keep on receiving new updates.
Alternatively, you could add it to the Obtainium app (use the search bar when adding), since it supports GitHub, F-Droid and many more repositories.
That'll keep you updated!