Google seems to be blocking API access for Piped video servers
Piped not playing videos · Issue #2809 · TeamPiped/Piped
Most servers are not able to access the Google API.
Invidious report of the same(ish) problem: https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/issues/4045#issuecomment-1674373088
It's time LibreTube moved on from Pipe Backend too. Too many times the app just doesn't work leading to server hopping and more.
I could use NewPipe but the app has a really terrible UI.
LibreTube existence is built upon Piped as far as I know. Even the developer wants you to donate to Piped instead of LibreTube as far as I remember.
Isn't Piped the only way to easily mask YouTube history with Google? So I think we should be very thankful of the existence of Piped
Yes, it does help to mask your IP address, but often I have faced issues with Video not loading.
I have found LibreTube to break more often than NewPipe due to this. There were instances where I was forced to use the Browser to watch the videos as Piped servers were having issues.
I honestly love all the efforts made by the devs of both to make YouTube so much privacy friendly and ad-free, but from POV of reliability, it just sucks for me.
NewPipe has been having a lot of issues as well. Videos crash a minute in and the only way to solve it is to clear cache which only works for one video.
It's not that bad i think. Better than having to endure adds..
You can tell it not to use Piped for fetching the video, but then that leads to Google knowing what you watches.
It's important to know know that by this google still can't run their own fingerprinting scripts or fingerprinting stylesheets, nor set cookies, so while not ideal, it's not that bad.
I would suggest that (except when you watch something more private) until this gets somewhat more sorted, turning off video proxying is probably not a huge tradeoff. Also don't forget that FreeTube and NewPipe don't do proxying (FT can be set to do that, though)
Newpipe is not that bad. I have been using it for many years now and I find it a bit more reliable than libretube.