Some videos stop playing partway

[PVTejas]

Checklist

• I am able to reproduce the bug with the latest version given here: CLICK THIS LINK.
• I made sure that there are no existing issues - open or closed - which I could contribute my information to.
• I have read the FAQ and my problem isn't listed.
• I have taken the time to fill in all the required details. I understand that the bug report will be dismissed otherwise.
• This issue contains only one bug.
• I have read and understood the contribution guidelines.
• I have read and understood the AI policy. The content of this bug report is not generated by AI.

Affected version

0.28.3

Steps to reproduce the bug

1. Play this video (issue is potentially based on IP address)
2. Seek to 11:40
3. Let it play for a while
4. Stream crashes
5. Start the stream again, and seek to 12:30
6. Stream continues playing normally

Expected behavior

The video should play without crashing

Actual behavior

The stream stops at 11:48 with an error 500

Screenshots/Screen recordings

No response

Logs

Exception

• User Action: play stream
• Request: Player error[type=ERROR_CODE_IO_BAD_HTTP_STATUS] occurred while playing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJiwX8b30bQ
• Content Country: IN
• Content Language: en-IN
• App Language: en_IN_#u-fw-sat-ms-ussystem-mu-celsius
• Service: YouTube
• Timestamp: 2026-02-26T08:57:08.67+05:30
• Package: org.schabi.newpipe
• Service: YouTube
• Version: 0.28.3
• OS: Linux Android 16 - 36

Crash log

com.google.android.exoplayer2.ExoPlaybackException: Source error
	at com.google.android.exoplayer2.ExoPlayerImplInternal.handleIoException(ExoPlayerImplInternal.java:684)
	at com.google.android.exoplayer2.ExoPlayerImplInternal.handleMessage(ExoPlayerImplInternal.java:656)
	at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:128)
	at android.os.Looper.dispatchMessage(Looper.java:333)
	at android.os.Looper.loopOnce(Looper.java:263)
	at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:367)
	at android.os.HandlerThread.run(HandlerThread.java:139)
Caused by: com.google.android.exoplayer2.upstream.HttpDataSource$InvalidResponseCodeException: Response code: 500
	at org.schabi.newpipe.player.datasource.YoutubeHttpDataSource.open(YoutubeHttpDataSource.java:423)
	at com.google.android.exoplayer2.upstream.DefaultDataSource.open(DefaultDataSource.java:269)
	at com.google.android.exoplayer2.upstream.TeeDataSource.open(TeeDataSource.java:60)
	at com.google.android.exoplayer2.upstream.cache.CacheDataSource.openNextSource(CacheDataSource.java:802)
	at com.google.android.exoplayer2.upstream.cache.CacheDataSource.open(CacheDataSource.java:615)
	at com.google.android.exoplayer2.upstream.StatsDataSource.open(StatsDataSource.java:90)
	at com.google.android.exoplayer2.source.chunk.ContainerMediaChunk.load(ContainerMediaChunk.java:132)
	at com.google.android.exoplayer2.upstream.Loader$LoadTask.run(Loader.java:420)
	at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1154)
	at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:652)
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:1563)

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Affected Android/Custom ROM version

LineageOS 23.2-20260126

Affected device model

Samsung Galaxy Tab 6 2022

Additional information

The issue persists after clearing Newpipe cache.

The issue also occurs with Tubular 0.28.2 (based on Newpipe 0.28.2) running on a GrapheneOS 2026021201 on a Google Pixel 8a. However, watching a video in the browser does not have this issue.

Switching from WiFi to mobile data causes the issue to vanish (did not test with other videos on mobile data though) - so the issue is potentially based on IP address?

[PVTejas]

Additional info: switching the video quality also fixes the issue. I suspect some cached video chunks are corrupted? Or at least, modified in a way that newpipe cannot handle but the youtube website can?

If it's a cache issue, though, I got this specific instance of the error (stream crashing at 11:48 on this specific video) 8 hours apart.

[AudricV]

Switching from WiFi to mobile data causes the issue to vanish (did not test with other videos on mobile data though) - so the issue is potentially based on IP address?

It feels more a Google CDN issue than something else. Anyway there is nothing we can do, the stream is corrupt on YouTube's side. Closing as can't fix.