Play YT content via Kodi not working

[DudeOnInternet]

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.

Affected version

n/a

Steps to reproduce the bug

See discussion: #10269

In short:
Whenever I want to watch a video when being in my living room, I use the "Play with Kodi" feature.
This will first activate the Kore Kodi remote control app on my phone.
This normally than automatically start the YT app on kodi, and then I can watch the selected video on my large screen television.
This used to work till lately, in the mean time say 6 months ago, now nothing happens anymore on Kodi.
When I now press "Play with Kodi" this still activates the Kodi remote control app on my phone, and than nothing happens any more on Kodi.
I have tried Kodi on my RPI4 and Raspbian OS, and I have tried Kodi on an Odroid N2+ using CoreELEC, and on both it is failing.

Not sure whether this is a real NewPipe issue, I suspect it to be a youtube API issue, hence my initial question whether there perhaps are alternatives for circumventing the YT API, but after some back and forth communication on the subject opusforlife2 gave the advise to create new issue for it, which I did now.

When additional info is needed please let me know, more than happy to provide this!!

Expected behavior

Play video in Kodi when button "Play with Kodi" is pressed

Actual behavior

No video is played

Screenshots/Screen recordings

No response

Logs

No response

Affected Android/Custom ROM version

No response

Affected device model

No response

Additional information

No response

[woheller69]

for me that works well with v0.25.2

[DudeOnInternet]

for me that works well with v0.25.2

Good to hear it is working for you!!

I'm also on v0.25.2, and have just tested it with no luck. I get the YT message that the content is not available on this app.
I've tried several video's, all fail.

Can I ask you how you configured the YT app on kodi?
Did you make a personal API, or do you use an YT account, or did you do some other clever tricks?
And what version of kodi/YT app are you using?

[DudeOnInternet]

Suggestion for the developers.
I found an app which is able to play YT content on Kodi.
It uses the DLNA/UPnP protocol.
No YT app (with all the API problems) is needed, it plays the content directly.
The app is called Tubio.
The app is not ideal, a lot of commercials despite add blocking enabled, and without account/YT login no favorites etc. can be saved.
I really prefer your NewPipe app, but sadly id does not work entirely for me ....yet;-)
Perhaps you can have a look at the DLNA/UPnP protocol, whether this can be implemented in your app as well.
This would really improve your app and make it compatible with a lot more devices, beside kodi, devices which also support DLNA/UPnP.

[woheller69]

for me that works well with v0.25.2

Good to hear it is working for you!!

I'm also on v0.25.2, and have just tested it with no luck. I get the YT message that the content is not available on this app. I've tried several video's, all fail.

Can I ask you how you configured the YT app on kodi? Did you make a personal API, or do you use an YT account, or did you do some other clever tricks? And what version of kodi/YT app are you using?

At the moment I have youtube plugin 6.8.18, kodi 18.2
Personal youtube API

[DudeOnInternet]

Thank you for letting me know you are using a personal API!!
So this than sort a less confirms my initial thought that the issue is YT API related, not so much the NewPipe app.
As I do not have a personal API, this prevents me from viewing content on YT.
This has worked for me for a very long time, but I guess YT is becoming stricter and closing all gaps.

Than my suggestion to New Pipe developers,

• create a YT player using the API technology as is used in the NewPipe app, which allows anomalously YT content viewing,
• or implement the DLNA/UPnP protocol to stream videos to kodi.

And for the time being till there is a permanent solution; is there someone or does anybody know someone who has an API workaround which can be shared?

For completeness I'm using the following configurations:
Kodi 19.4; YT plugin 6.8.25
OpenELEC/Kodi 20.2 ; YT plugin 7.0.1

[sudoMakeThisSecure]

I was having the same issue.
Figured it out.
If you go into kore's settings, right down the bottom, deselect the 'prefer sendtokodi addon'

[DudeOnInternet]

Hello Asdf1qaz,

I've managed to circumvented the login or API key by using a VPN for a while, but that trick is not working anymore.
From what I can see from Piped and Invidious, YouTube is really making it more and more restricted to access the content.
Also the NewPipe app itself is not able to play all content anymore.
Not a good thing, I really hope the programmers in the open source and privacy community still know how to find ways to tackle this.

I've installed Yatze as you suggested before you have edited your post.
Yatse is also not working for me, it also uses the same Youtube app on kodi, as NewPipe/Kore does.
When I use the share content via yatsee the YouTube app still asks me to "Sign in to confirm you're (I'm) not a bot".
As I do not have a YouTube login this route is not going to work.

I've also checked whether I deselected the 'prefer sendtokodi addon', which it was so that is also not going to fix it.

Very interested to know if and how you'd successfully circumvented the login or API key, or do you happen to have a YT account/API key? If you can not answer this publicly, and DM is also highly appreciated;-)

[sudoMakeThisSecure]

Hay mate, sorry for the late reply.
Just checked my setup, and its working fine still.

Follow this post and you should be good:
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=356934&pid=3228486#pid3228486

By the way, I do have a google account setup for this.
Just an anon' one that I don't use for anything else.
All you need for it (from memory) is another email account.
I used a fake Proton mail for that as they are free and take 2 mins to setup.

[sudoMakeThisSecure]

Also, the youtube app that kodi has in its repo is outdated by quite a bit. You need to uninstall it and install the latest one.

ATM its:
https://github.com/anxdpanic/plugin.video.youtube/releases/download/v7.2.0.1/plugin.video.youtube-7.2.0.1.zip

[DudeOnInternet]

Hey Mate, thanks for the response!!

So you went trough the route of setting up a "fake" google account, that is indeed a way to get an API key.
I'm only not too sure how anon it is and stays.
Google aka big brother is really good at de-anonymising.
When the fake account is for example using the same IP to access the YT API as perhaps your android phone, then your real google account (if you happen to have one) it is easily coupled to the fake one.
And there are multiple ways in how google can de-anonymise people, as is often explained by Rob Braxman on YT.

I really want do without generating my own API licence key, to eliminate that risk.
I can not imagine I'm the only one on this world not willing to generate an API key, so there must be a solution to circumvent the API, but how? I guess due to the cat and mouse nature of the game between YT and the privacy minded community, this will not be openly discussed on a forum:-)
It would be really great if TeamNewPipe could make a YT app for kodi using their methods to access YT content privately, as they do for their app.

Also thanks for pointing out and sending the latest version of the YT kodi app!!!