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Newpipe remains one of the best solutions for background playback. They do tend to move pretty quickly to patch "fixes" that YouTube throw in now and again. It'

Newpipe remains one of the best solutions for background playback. They do tend to move pretty quickly to patch "fixes" that YouTube throw in now and again. It's also useful for video backups if you need to preserve them for any reason.

LoveMortuus 8mo ago
For me it's Grayjay, NewPipe doesn't want to load videos whenever I try it, but Grayjay has been the most reliable out of any alternatives that I've tried.
Pooge 9mo ago
yt-dlp is great if on desktop.
- deafpolygon 9mo ago
  I do this, then send it to VLC on mobile.
  - jraph 9mo ago
    Note that there are great UIs around yt-dlp on mobile, for instance Seal, if it can be of any help. https://f-droid.org/packages/com.junkfood.seal/ https://f-droid.org/packages/com.junkfood.seal/
- manwithaplan 9mo ago
  It works perfectly fine under Termux, too.
ErenayDev 9mo ago
I am using Tubular, a NewPipe fork that has built-in SponsorBlock and ReturnYouTubeDislike features.
- stevenhuang 9mo ago
  Tubular is great. Though they sometimes take a while to fix playback issues, like the one where videos only played for 10 seconds. That caused a bunch of forks to come out and I used those for a period of time. Lately I discovered Firefox with background play and sponsor block extensions still work. If this stops working hopefully tubular will be a good backup.
happymellon 9mo ago
Why install additional software? Firefox hasn't broken for me only the Chrome clones.
- Pooge 9mo ago
  Because modern websites are unusable on mobile; it's a feature and not a bug.
  - ssl-3 9mo ago
    We're only discussing one particular website, though, aren't we? Except for on the TV (where I use SmartTube), all of my Youtube activity is done with web browsers. Otherwise: On both big computers and with my pocket supercomputer alike, that means Firefox and uBlock Origin. It works quite well for navigating Youtube's website and watching videos. An old iPad that I have suffers from Apple's deliberately baked-in lack of choice, but it does handle Youtube's website very well with Safari and AdBlock. It has been a very long time since I've used Youtube's app on any device at all.
  - hrnnnnnn 9mo ago
    I've been using Firefox on android for over a decade, including for YouTube, and maybe once a year I encounter a problem where I need to use Chrome for a specific website.
    - eudamoniac 9mo ago
      Seconded, except instead of once a year it's literally never
mhitza 9mo ago
I'm a NewPipe user as well, unfortunately the experience is getting worse there too. Might be because I also use a VPN, but after every couple of videos I have to cooldown my usage until the IP block is reset. This started happening for me a few weeks ago.
- deleted 9mo ago
  [deleted]
scns 9mo ago
> It's also useful for video backups if you need to preserve them for any reason. You can download only the soundpart as mp4 or opus too.
keepamovin 9mo ago
I released a browserbox variant many years ago that could ensure background playback on YouTube. Despite multiple posts here and on PH, it never gained any traction. It seemed people were simply not interested in overcoming no background playback for free on every platform (including mobile). Same time, one can appreciate the YouTube business: once you give something away for free, people absolutely loose their fucking minds if you make it paid. Once you set the bar to zero for payment, people will murder in the streets and despise you if you reasonably charge for what could have been a paid product all along. So there's a psychological blocker to switching on payment that people are ready to go to war for. It's the same blocker that cripples "open source" sustainability. People quickly develop an entitlement-callous, and feel cheated if you require payment instead of just continuing to surrender value to them. It reminds of how a group of primates will kill a handler who gives cake to one, but not the group. This "free / paid" tension triggers some kind of deep-rooted human fairness wiring that is really tricky to extinguish once activated. That's why you should never open source your code and never give stuff away for free, if you plan to posslby make money from it somehow or make it paid in future. Because if you ever withhold the siphon of value related to ads or other 'you as a product' models, they will launch a jihad against you. I think it's interesting how the human fairness reflex, often correct, breaks down in the context of "provider / consumer" dynamics. Even if the provider is not some "evil mega corp" but simply a solo software creator, people will still feel you are attempting to rob them of all dignity and debase their honor if you require payment for what was previously gratis. Oh well. Live and learn, YouTube.
- learingsci 9mo ago
  It’s called “opportunity cost.” If you marry somebody and they suddenly become a totally different person and try to extort you a common reaction is to feel deceived and unhappy. They have cheated you in a sense of the opportunity cost of being able to marry someone else. That people might not understand that tells you something about them.
  - keepamovin 9mo ago
    Yeah, that marriage situation can be totally tough. If you're going through that, I feel for you. I can relate, but then who of us has ever really picked the "right" person to marry the first time around? Sure, some get lucky. But often our wapred childhoood expecdtatiosn contaminate the idea of a perfect match with something that feels familiar but is actually wrong for us, or worse, just abusive. Anyway, in this case I think the analogy is a little overblown because the stakes are so different, but is revealing. You can way more easily divest of a software product than a marriage (presumably, tho that may differ locally). But, as in marriage, there's a interesting nuance: the stories we tell ourselves about what went wrong are so often one-sided, which lacks empathy for how the other person is probably just doing their best. A similar empahty mismatch with the entitlement of consumers who don't comprehend that the value they expect a person to provide them for free, should actually be compensated. As in, a free exchange. That someone might confuse those could tell you 'something about them.' Or it could just be an honest mistake, on their part. That we're all likely to make. Still the trigger to ape-brained fairness-wiring seems similar, and embodies that same one way empathy. Free and fair exchange, in commerce and relationships, should be based on more of a mutual empahty. Thanks for bringing it up!
GvS 9mo ago
I recommend PipePipe: https://github.com/InfinityLoop1308/PipePipe https://github.com/InfinityLoop1308/PipePipe

LoveMortuus 8mo ago

For me it's Grayjay, NewPipe doesn't want to load videos whenever I try it, but Grayjay has been the most reliable out of any alternatives that I've tried.

Pooge 9mo ago

yt-dlp is great if on desktop.

deafpolygon 9mo ago
I do this, then send it to VLC on mobile.
- jraph 9mo ago
  Note that there are great UIs around yt-dlp on mobile, for instance Seal, if it can be of any help. https://f-droid.org/packages/com.junkfood.seal/ https://f-droid.org/packages/com.junkfood.seal/
manwithaplan 9mo ago
It works perfectly fine under Termux, too.

ErenayDev 9mo ago

I am using Tubular, a NewPipe fork that has built-in SponsorBlock and ReturnYouTubeDislike features.

stevenhuang 9mo ago
Tubular is great. Though they sometimes take a while to fix playback issues, like the one where videos only played for 10 seconds. That caused a bunch of forks to come out and I used those for a period of time. Lately I discovered Firefox with background play and sponsor block extensions still work. If this stops working hopefully tubular will be a good backup.

happymellon 9mo ago

Why install additional software? Firefox hasn't broken for me only the Chrome clones.

Pooge 9mo ago
Because modern websites are unusable on mobile; it's a feature and not a bug.
- ssl-3 9mo ago
  We're only discussing one particular website, though, aren't we? Except for on the TV (where I use SmartTube), all of my Youtube activity is done with web browsers. Otherwise: On both big computers and with my pocket supercomputer alike, that means Firefox and uBlock Origin. It works quite well for navigating Youtube's website and watching videos. An old iPad that I have suffers from Apple's deliberately baked-in lack of choice, but it does handle Youtube's website very well with Safari and AdBlock. It has been a very long time since I've used Youtube's app on any device at all.
- hrnnnnnn 9mo ago
  I've been using Firefox on android for over a decade, including for YouTube, and maybe once a year I encounter a problem where I need to use Chrome for a specific website.
  - eudamoniac 9mo ago
    Seconded, except instead of once a year it's literally never

mhitza 9mo ago

I'm a NewPipe user as well, unfortunately the experience is getting worse there too. Might be because I also use a VPN, but after every couple of videos I have to cooldown my usage until the IP block is reset. This started happening for me a few weeks ago.

deleted 9mo ago
[deleted]

scns 9mo ago

> It's also useful for video backups if you need to preserve them for any reason. You can download only the soundpart as mp4 or opus too.

keepamovin 9mo ago

I released a browserbox variant many years ago that could ensure background playback on YouTube. Despite multiple posts here and on PH, it never gained any traction. It seemed people were simply not interested in overcoming no background playback for free on every platform (including mobile). Same time, one can appreciate the YouTube business: once you give something away for free, people absolutely loose their fucking minds if you make it paid. Once you set the bar to zero for payment, people will murder in the streets and despise you if you reasonably charge for what could have been a paid product all along. So there's a psychological blocker to switching on payment that people are ready to go to war for. It's the same blocker that cripples "open source" sustainability. People quickly develop an entitlement-callous, and feel cheated if you require payment instead of just continuing to surrender value to them. It reminds of how a group of primates will kill a handler who gives cake to one, but not the group. This "free / paid" tension triggers some kind of deep-rooted human fairness wiring that is really tricky to extinguish once activated. That's why you should never open source your code and never give stuff away for free, if you plan to posslby make money from it somehow or make it paid in future. Because if you ever withhold the siphon of value related to ads or other 'you as a product' models, they will launch a jihad against you. I think it's interesting how the human fairness reflex, often correct, breaks down in the context of "provider / consumer" dynamics. Even if the provider is not some "evil mega corp" but simply a solo software creator, people will still feel you are attempting to rob them of all dignity and debase their honor if you require payment for what was previously gratis. Oh well. Live and learn, YouTube.

learingsci 9mo ago
It’s called “opportunity cost.” If you marry somebody and they suddenly become a totally different person and try to extort you a common reaction is to feel deceived and unhappy. They have cheated you in a sense of the opportunity cost of being able to marry someone else. That people might not understand that tells you something about them.
- keepamovin 9mo ago
  Yeah, that marriage situation can be totally tough. If you're going through that, I feel for you. I can relate, but then who of us has ever really picked the "right" person to marry the first time around? Sure, some get lucky. But often our wapred childhoood expecdtatiosn contaminate the idea of a perfect match with something that feels familiar but is actually wrong for us, or worse, just abusive. Anyway, in this case I think the analogy is a little overblown because the stakes are so different, but is revealing. You can way more easily divest of a software product than a marriage (presumably, tho that may differ locally). But, as in marriage, there's a interesting nuance: the stories we tell ourselves about what went wrong are so often one-sided, which lacks empathy for how the other person is probably just doing their best. A similar empahty mismatch with the entitlement of consumers who don't comprehend that the value they expect a person to provide them for free, should actually be compensated. As in, a free exchange. That someone might confuse those could tell you 'something about them.' Or it could just be an honest mistake, on their part. That we're all likely to make. Still the trigger to ape-brained fairness-wiring seems similar, and embodies that same one way empathy. Free and fair exchange, in commerce and relationships, should be based on more of a mutual empahty. Thanks for bringing it up!

GvS 9mo ago

I recommend PipePipe: https://github.com/InfinityLoop1308/PipePipe https://github.com/InfinityLoop1308/PipePipe