YouTube won't let me watch this video with my VPN on. Is this a new thing?
I like how they make up a phony benefit to try to make it seem like you'll get something out of it.
this post was submitted on 06 Mar 2025
375 points (99.2% liked)
Privacy
37671 readers
1626 users here now
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
- Don't promote proprietary software
- Try to keep things on topic
- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
Related communities
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
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.
load more comments
(2 replies)
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.
load more comments
(1 replies)
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.
it's an absolute pain in the ass with mullvad. only a few servers like ireland, greece and nigeria work.
load more comments
(1 replies)
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.
load more comments
(3 replies)
load more comments
(4 replies)
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.
load more comments
(1 replies)
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?
load more comments
(1 replies)
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 ?
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.
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(2 replies)
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.
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.
load more comments
(2 replies)
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.
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.
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
It could be some AB testing
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.
Fuck YouTube. I deleted it. I can search for videos individually if I want to.
What VPN? Haven't seen that yet with Proton
I get the "sign in to confirm you're not a bot" message on Proton
load more comments
(2 replies)
Wow, this is sad!
swap proxies I have this problem from time to time with mullvad.
Proton + Ghostery wombo combo should still work for now for ad blocking and VPN.
Try different locations.
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.
load more comments
(3 replies)
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.
Freetube plus socksv5 proxies on mullvad work the best for me.
view more: next ›