Videos are not loading

[jon-daemon]

After an update videos are not loading. I don't even get the loading circle. I see only the player buttons and video is not loading including its information (duration, description e.t.c)

I tried different versions to check when it broke:

Stable 16.58 is working
Stable 16.70 is NOT working

Beta 16.60 is working
Beta 16.69 is NOT working

Is this a known issue?
My device is a generic chinese box (TX3mini).

[ghost]

It's like that on my TCL tv - 16.70 played fine everything, 16.93 fails to load many videos with exactly the same symptoms. Could be that google changed something around 16.93 release - I'll try and go back to previous stable release to check if it helps.

Interestingly - I'm using an app/Safari plugin called Vinegar on iOS which also replaces the default YT player and it has problems playing the same videos, whereas they play just fine on the original player.

ED: OK, going back to previous version changes nothing - some videos still don't load (it's always the same ones though).

Seems like google is trying hard to force us into premium.

[balunair]

I have been facing the same issues for the past 5 days. Tried different versions of stable and beta SmartTube. The thumbnails load with delay. None of the videos play. Some gets frozen as an image.

Device - a generic android box running version 8 or 9

Edited Feb 1, 2023:
@jon-daemon or @ZeroOnions The live streams like some of the news channels works fine. Have you noticed this difference? Also have you tested IPV6 connectivity for the device (box or tv)? You can test using a browser on the device -- https://test-ipv6.com/ or https://ipv6-test.com/

[DallasBelt]

Are you signed in to your G account? I had the same bug (probably related to an issue that affected Android devices with MicroG). I signed out and the videos loaded normally.

[ghost]

For the last two days all the videos I tried to watch loaded without issues.
I didn't try signing out earlier, as it's super inconvenient to use youtube without your subscribed channels list etc ;) will try that next time I encounter this issue

[jon-daemon]

@DallasBelt I'm not sure but I think it's happening also without signing in.
@balunair I think the issue exists on live streams too. I don't have IPv6 address.

[DallasBelt]

I'm not sure but I think it's happening also without signing in.

Let me check, I'll report back. Although I must say that the problem has not happened lately. When it did happen, I signed out and tested: videos loaded fine. Then I signed in and tested: success. Since then it has been working okay.

EDIT: You were right @jon-daemon. It happened without signing in. The video pauses (not buffers) after 1 or 2 seconds. If you hit the play button it does the same. After waiting for 5 minutes it played until the end.

[yashptel]

Setting > Video Player > Network Stack. Changing it from Default to Cronet solved it for me

[Pitax125]

So for some of the cases it looks like the player cannot play the video if you violate the RFC with any of your router setting in case you change something. In my case it was caused by setting up the MTU values when I wanted to overwrite the LCP negotiation. Everything worked for me except that the Smart Tube didn't :)
If you're using PfSense it should be in "Interfaces->Assignments->PPP->YourPPPoE Connection->Advanced->Force MTU value to a known higher value (you have to set this to OFF)"

The general issues might come from your router settings that violates the RFC, with VPN everything works just fine.