Wrong Error Message

[SavSanta]

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

28.X

Steps to reproduce the bug

Set Location to United Kingdom IP address via a friend, VPN, or proxy.

Go to a Youtube Link (ie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSvvvrKhx0w) in a Web Browser. The vid aont play and the reason will display "That has Been Blocked Due To a Defamation Claim"

Open the same link in the app. the reason will display "YouTube refused to provide data, asking for a login to confirm the requester is not a bot. Your IP might have been temporarily banned by YouTube, you can wait some time or switch to a different IP (for example by turning on/off a VPN, or by switching from WiFi to mobile data)."

Realize the error message differences

Expected behavior

An exception error or error class that reflects the error content of the actual message from youtube which is "This content is not available on this country domain due to a defamation complaint."

Actual behavior

incorrect error message and type

Screenshots/Screen recordings

Logs

incorrect error message and type

{"user_action":"requested stream","request":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSvvvrKhx0w","content_language":"en-US","content_country":"US","app_language":"en_US","service":"YouTube","package":"org.schabi.newpipe","version":"0.28.4","os":"Linux Android 16 - 36","time":"2026-03-10T20:12:04.501-04:00","exceptions":["org.schabi.newpipe.extractor.exceptions.SignInConfirmNotBotException: YouTube probably temporarily blocked anonymous watch access with this IP , got error LOGIN_REQUIRED: \"Sign in to confirm that you're not a bot\"\n\tat org.schabi.newpipe.extractor.services.youtube.extractors.YoutubeStreamExtractor.onFetchPage(r8-map-id-ce0307bac2c3f16e8dc2f832773b0599f307ee51c82b5550b73911d8a6d3ce37:380)\n\tat org.schabi.newpipe.extractor.ListExtractor.fetchPage(r8-map-id-ce0307bac2c3f16e8dc2f832773b0599f307ee51c82b5550b73911d8a6d3ce37:8)\n\tat org.schabi.newpipe.util.ExtractorHelper$$ExternalSyntheticLambda3.call(r8-map-id-ce0307bac2c3f16e8dc2f832773b0599f307ee51c82b5550b73911d8a6d3ce37:138)\n\tat io.reactivex.rxjava3.internal.operators.single.SingleAmb.subscribeActual(r8-map-id-ce0307bac2c3f16e8dc2f832773b0599f307ee51c82b5550b73911d8a6d3ce37:38)\n\tat io.reactivex.rxjava3.core.Single.subscribe(r8-map-id-ce0307bac2c3f16e8dc2f832773b0599f307ee51c82b5550b73911d8a6d3ce37:1)\n\tat io.reactivex.rxjava3.internal.operators.single.SingleDoOnEvent.subscribeActual(r8-map-id-ce0307bac2c3f16e8dc2f832773b0599f307ee51c82b5550b73911d8a6d3ce37:18)\n\tat io.reactivex.rxjava3.core.Single.subscribe(r8-map-id-ce0307bac2c3f16e8dc2f832773b0599f307ee51c82b5550b73911d8a6d3ce37:1)\n\tat io.reactivex.rxjava3.internal.operators.maybe.MaybeDefer.subscribeActual(r8-map-id-ce0307bac2c3f16e8dc2f832773b0599f307ee51c82b5550b73911d8a6d3ce37:16)\n\tat io.reactivex.rxjava3.core.Maybe.subscribe(r8-map-id-ce0307bac2c3f16e8dc2f832773b0599f307ee51c82b5550b73911d8a6d3ce37:6)\n\tat io.reactivex.rxjava3.internal.operators.maybe.MaybeConcatArray$ConcatMaybeObserver.drain(r8-map-id-ce0307bac2c3f16e8dc2f832773b0599f307ee51c82b5550b73911d8a6d3ce37:87)\n\tat io.reactivex.rxjava3.internal.operators.maybe.MaybeConcatArray$ConcatMaybeObserver.request(r8-map-id-ce0307bac2c3f16e8dc2f832773b0599f307ee51c82b5550b73911d8a6d3ce37:12)\n\tat io.reactivex.rxjava3.internal.operators.flowable.FlowableElementAtMaybe$ElementAtSubscriber.onSubscribe(r8-map-id-ce0307bac2c3f16e8dc2f832773b0599f307ee51c82b5550b73911d8a6d3ce37:48)\n\tat io.reactivex.rxjava3.internal.operators.maybe.MaybeConcatArray.subscribeActual(r8-map-id-ce0307bac2c3f16e8dc2f832773b0599f307ee51c82b5550b73911d8a6d3ce37:126)\n\tat io.reactivex.rxjava3.core.Flowable.subscribe(r8-map-id-ce0307bac2c3f16e8dc2f832773b0599f307ee51c82b5550b73911d8a6d3ce37:6)\n\tat io.reactivex.rxjava3.internal.operators.flowable.FlowableElementAtMaybe.subscribeActual(r8-map-id-ce0307bac2c3f16e8dc2f832773b0599f307ee51c82b5550b73911d8a6d3ce37:9)\n\tat io.reactivex.rxjava3.core.Maybe.subscribe(r8-map-id-ce0307bac2c3f16e8dc2f832773b0599f307ee51c82b5550b73911d8a6d3ce37:6)\n\tat io.reactivex.rxjava3.internal.operators.maybe.MaybeToSingle.subscribeActual(r8-map-id-ce0307bac2c3f16e8dc2f832773b0599f307ee51c82b5550b73911d8a6d3ce37:9)\n\tat io.reactivex.rxjava3.core.Single.subscribe(r8-map-id-ce0307bac2c3f16e8dc2f832773b0599f307ee51c82b5550b73911d8a6d3ce37:1)\n\tat io.reactivex.rxjava3.internal.operators.single.SingleSubscribeOn$SubscribeOnObserver.run(r8-map-id-ce0307bac2c3f16e8dc2f832773b0599f307ee51c82b5550b73911d8a6d3ce37:5)\n\tat io.reactivex.rxjava3.core.Scheduler$DisposeTask.run(r8-map-id-ce0307bac2c3f16e8dc2f832773b0599f307ee51c82b5550b73911d8a6d3ce37:10)\n\tat io.reactivex.rxjava3.internal.schedulers.ScheduledRunnable.run(r8-map-id-ce0307bac2c3f16e8dc2f832773b0599f307ee51c82b5550b73911d8a6d3ce37:22)\n\tat io.reactivex.rxjava3.internal.schedulers.ScheduledRunnable.call(r8-map-id-ce0307bac2c3f16e8dc2f832773b0599f307ee51c82b5550b73911d8a6d3ce37:1)\n\tat java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:317)\n\tat java.util.concurrent.ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor$ScheduledFutureTask.run(ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor.java:348)\n\tat java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1154)\n\tat java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:652)\n\tat java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:1563)\n"],"user_comment":""}

Affected Android/Custom ROM version

No response

Affected device model

No response

Additional information

No response

[AudricV]

Are you logged in in your browser? If so, then you will not get the anti-bot message. Otherwise, try opening the video in a private window, you may have cookies that Google may trust in your normal browsing session.

[SavSanta]

No. I dont login.
Only thing is I set my location to a United Kingdom IP.
Open in the browser without login.
See the proper error message as mentioned

[hollownights]

I don't think there is anything out of the ordinary here. They are two different errors that happen at different times during page retrieval:

1. YouTube checks if the client/user agent has the right to access the video;
2. YouTube checks if the video is available to the user's location/IP address.

NewPipe fails at 1, watching in browser fails at 2, reason for the different errors.

[SavSanta]

OK. if that is the issue that the actual fail flow error logic is a that disparate point between them for error retrieval. ans everybody is cool with the incongruency in errors and it won't trip up a user, then please do close it out. just thought id report as i noticed. Cheers.

[absurdlylongusername]

@hollownights Okay so I've done some testing and I don't think this is the case at all.

The IP error shows up if YT has decided you can't use the website at all due to your IP; all other errors show up after that.

Or so I thought, but no. I've confirmed that if I access YT in browser using a banned UK IP to watch that video, I get the defamation error and not the IP error. But if I watch a different video I get the IP error.

However, YouTube's mechanisms for blocking access are not based on IP alone. I've tested several IP addresses that work on the browser, but do not work in NewPipe (I used emulator on same device to ensure same IP and also checked same IP on whatismyipaddress.com)

So YouTube is definitely checking not just IP address but other factors that result in NewPipe users being "IP blocked" when in actuality it's something else.

Given this, we cannot confirm that the "Wrong error message" is actually a wrong error message, because it could just be the case that that is the only error message NewPipe ends up getting.

I get the defamation error a lot faster than I get the IP error, so whatever checks result in the defamation error must be way before the IP error. But this may just be a nuance of YT's browser client code compared to NP.

The extractor code only throws the IP error here if the reason field contains a bot, and for no other reason:

if (reason.contains("a bot")) {
    throw new SignInConfirmNotBotException(
            "YouTube probably temporarily blocked anonymous watch access with this"
                    + " IP , got error " + status + ": \"" + reason + "\"");
}

From a code perspective, it doesn't really make sense for this error to be thrown at all if your IP has not been banned, because the expectation is that the error message only contains "a bot" when the error is "Sign it to confirm you're not a bot".

And this behaviour should be identical on every client.

All that being said: I don't think this is due to any failure in NewPipe's error handling, but rather nuances of how YouTube restricts clients from using their service.

I tried both on Firefox and Brave and was able to access YouTube videos, but couldn't on NewPipe: all on the same IP.

So it's almost certainly due to the difference in how NewPipe extracts videos vs the browser that is resulting in restrictions.

As it stands, until I see proof the contrary, I think this issue should be closed as a "not a bug", but not before we open another issue to investigate ways to further mitigate YouTube's restrictions when not logged in, because clearly browser users are fairing better than NewPipe users.

#11139 is pretty fat and not sure I'd like to continue discussion there, which is why I suggest making a new issue.

@AudricV thoughts?

[hollownights]

@absurdlylongusername Hi! That's interesting... YouTube does have some quirks (or at least had some quirks) when it comes to geo-blocking. Some time ago it would (at least here in my country) have a video blocked due to a court order, but if you just changed your location on YouTube the blocking would go away! No IP from another country needed. I even b1tched about this (no other way of saying it, really) on FreeTube once (and got banned from there). Not only that, but if a channel was geo-blocked and you couldn't open it in-browser, FreeTube was not able to open it either... but NewPipe would open it!

Could you run some silly tests using some IP addresses from the UK to try and see if the video open if you just change the location in YouTube? Like

1. UK IP address, clean browser session, open YouTube, change the location, and try opening the video. I don't think it works anymore, but...

(I was about to ask you to also try with the embed URLs, but they are not working for me anymore, just showing an error 153 instead) (Oh, wait, they do work, but the "origin" can't be youtube.com)

2. UK IP address, clean browser session, try opening that video's embed URL with and without a "gl" parameter: Without gl, with gl (I added the other two parameters after gl to be sure all the parameters were being used, something that is proving to be the exception, because I only got the player to autoload the captions once in a bunch of tries)

[hollownights]

I tried both on Firefox and Brave and was able to access YouTube videos, but couldn't on NewPipe: all on the same IP.

So it's almost certainly due to the difference in how NewPipe extracts videos vs the browser that is resulting in restrictions.

On this matter, and already accounting for any effects due to #13332, I ask: shouldn't NewPipe's default user-agent (#12472) be the same as the one used to get poTokens (#11955)? Could this difference be the reason for (some of) the "IP blocks"?