I’ve been having some weird issues over the last few days with not being able to search for things in YouTube when I’m logged in via SmartTube account.

So I decided to try accessing it directly. Well guess what? It looks like YouTube now requires age verification in AU.

Sorry Google… I’m not uploading my passport, drivers licence or govt id to watch your shit. I am however now very incentivized to use Tube archivist and Jellyfin, plus cron job to scrape your shit with gleeful abandon.
EDIT: Rather than removed about it, I did something and made Smarttube work without a google account. If that floats your boat, have at it. It supports direct import of your saved playlists via Google Takeout ZIP file, subscriptions etc without needing a youtube account.
Also, remember the excellent TubeArchivist exists if you want even more control.
What’s to stop a kid from grabbing his dad’s credit card to sign in?
What day did you fuck your mom.
1 Monday?
2 Tuesday?
3 Wednesday?
4…
Yeah I always hate how companies push you into making a (bad) choice by putting it into a dilemma. There are more possibilities than this.

There’s not much on YouTube anymore. Feels like it’s dying.
Do be careful about TubeArchivist. If you just go to town on it, there’s a good chance they’ll just block your IP. I don’t get why some get blocked and others don’t. The cell phone tower at my kids school has been blocked, you have to log in when coming from that ip, Waiting outside to pick him up, I have to can and bring my own content :)
That happens to me when I use FreeTube. After a few videos, I get an error that my IP address has been blocked.
The blocked my IP some time ago after a binge of yt-dlp. I unplugged my fiber ONT over the weekend and got a new ip, i’ve been more careful with that one :)
How many gigabytes was the binge, out of curiosity? I’m trying to figure out what the download threshold is.
I’ve rebooted my modem to get a new IP, though I have to wait a while before restarting or I’d get the same one. Usually if I just wait a while (a few hours?), YT unblocks me again. But it’s irritating.
I feel ya, still better than watching 30% ads tho :)
Yep, that’s a good point. I actually have a battle plan in place (if it comes to that) using a mixture of 540-720p videos (to reduce download sizes) and then AI upscaling as needed using an NVIDIA shield or on site compute.
They really, really don’t like it when you don’t log in, huh? 🤣
Fun game of cat and mouse aside, if it all ever goes to shit…I’ll miss niche YT channels but there are other alternatives.
Would be cook if tube archivist was decentralized, so when one person downloaded the video, others could do a peer-tube style p2p on it.
That sounds like PeerTube with extra steps :) I’m down for it.
I’ll probably end up using Pinchflat over Tube Archivist myself (a bit lighter to keep running as always on service on my Raspberry pi) but p2p seeding should work just the same.
Would be cook if tube archivist was decentralized, so when one person downloaded the video, others could do a peer-tube style p2p on it.
that isn’t far in the future where we will literally pirate youtube video to escape youtube’s paywall / login wall
Yeah, if the ad-block gets hard enough, people will use chinese HDMI splitters, stream recorders and a comskip project :)
Everyone here shitting on YouTube, but the AU government is to blame here really. I’m really scared that we are next on this stupid privacy killing trend (we -> Europe). Without privacy there is no democracy.
I wish some hacker activitist would make their life goal to dox the christofascist associations’ members and supporting politicians. And publish every fucking detail of them, so they would get to know what risks they are exposing people to on their own skin.

Here you go.
I…don’t know who that is. Should I be insulted, bemused or … scaroused?
Just someone who’s job is to fuck shit up and make a big fucking mess. (Viscera Cleanup Detail—game on steam). But he’s a old wrestler lol
Is that Sergeant Slaughter?
Yep lol
Damn… I haven’t thought about that guy in 25+ years. Thanks for the flashbacks!
peertube
Everybody needs to keep in mind: YouTube can’t kill themselves solely with this.
acenterforants.gif
I just went through this with ebay. No. Fuck you.
You OP are a saint
Cheers big ears!
PS: I updated the fork overnight, so now you can download your Google Takeout data as a ZIP, import it, wait about 5 minutes, and voila - all your playlists are available locally. You can add to them locally, obviously, but those changes won’t sync back to YouTube. “Likes” and “Comments” obviously don’t work either.
Sorry, I couldn’t figure out how to do local avatars or progress indicator bar for the import (well, I mean, I could…I just couldn’t be arsed to spend another 4-5hrs doing it, then testing it etc etc).
Enjoy your pirate youtubez, yarr!
There’s a way to solve this, just look for “delete my account”
Probably have to verify yourself to reach that button.
Hard to find, you usually have to find an external link to it.
You at least have a reason to start considering deleting your account.
Can’t you use something like Freetube? Yeah you can’t comment on videos, but haven’t signed into my account in years
What about peertube?
I use Freetube and I consider not being able to comment (and comments being hidden by default) as a bonus feature.
“Ahí no se nos perdió nada” --Puerto Rican saying Nothing of value was lost there. – rough translation.
Switch to NewPipe/WizeStream or FreeTube. Freetube allows for better subscription organization.
Buy frankly, I’m interested in moving to Peertube altogether
Rather than bitching about it, I did something and made Smarttube work without a google account. If that floats your boat, have at it.
To those of you advocating VPN…eat while the eating is good. .








