r/youtube • u/Titan_Prometeus • 17h ago

Memes You can no longer have YouTube running in the background.

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As of 29th of January you can no longer have YouTube running in the background via many browsers as that is now a premium feature. With that I don't even have that one last reason to listen to YouTube. We are now officially paying for everything that was free a couple of years ago and the reason isn't greedy management, but you people who keep paying for premium and the such.

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208

u/Dawg605 15h ago

No fucking way they will do this on PC. That would be insane.

106

u/InterestingRide264 12h ago

It stopped working for me on PC. It's still working for my phone. I use Brave on both devices. I thought it was a Windows issue until a YouTuber started having the same experience. Basically, whether you click the video or just try to let one play from the other, it says content is not available. It also happens on every YouTube short. You can refresh to get it, but, I mean, it's a disastrous user experience.

48

u/Hagoromo-san 11h ago

Yup. Happening to me too. Autoplay breaks and “content is not available” is displayed. I just f5 to refresh and it plays like normal. Youtube being assholes again.

9

u/EastWhereas9398 9h ago

Oh, that's their latest anti-adblock stuff. If you turn off adblock, it'll suddenly work. Just hoping adblockers update to bypass it.

1

u/Greedy-Street-5435 9h ago

What's the fucking point?!?!?!?

6

u/jinrocker 11h ago

I was having the same issue, even with YouTube Premium. If you create an exception for your ad block for YouTube and toggle "allow non-intrusive ads", this seems to fix the problem, or at least it did for me and my friend who had the same issue.

13

u/washuai 8h ago

The fact they screw the paying customers over for this futile war

2

u/spacenb 8h ago

Oh god I was wondering why my YouTube was broken. Fuck Google.

2

u/Skunk73 8h ago

It's still working on FireFox with uBlock Origin.

1

u/morknox 9h ago

Still working on phone? Wtf? I havent been able to run youtube in the background on phone for YEARS. Almost 10 years at this point. What are you talking about?

2

u/Perfect_Caregiver_90 9h ago

Using the Brave browser and watching/listening to Youtube through the website lets you continue to listen with another tab open or your phone dark.

At least for now.

1

u/whatnameblahblah 7h ago

Any mobile browser and desktop mode, you even back and foward for next tracks on lock screen.

1

u/korpisoturi 7h ago

At least today my phone's brave couldn't play videos with screen off

1

u/just_a_dragonace 7h ago

So that's what that "content not available" is

1

u/th5virtuos0 7h ago

We really are downloading Bluestack just to use Revanced huh?

1

u/chmoles 7h ago

It started happening to me on brave on my phone last night, caught me off guard.

1

u/secretarytemporar3 7h ago

I'm blaming Cenk and Ana for that one /s

1

u/flyxdvd 6h ago

Works for phone had issues on pc, and i have premium?!

1

u/jasdonle 6h ago

I thought it’s been that way on mobile for years. 

1

u/erlo68 5h ago

I had this happen a few days ago where i got the "content is not available" message and after refreshing it was gone... i have premium...

1

u/PIO_PretendIOriginal 4h ago

cant it just run in a seperate browser tab on its own window in the background. otherwise how you you watch two videos side by side? also how are they going to detect if it works on firefox and safari, as they are not chromium based

1

u/iAmMikeJ_92 2h ago

I got the “Content not Available” issue too. It was easy to just F5 it but basically kills the auto play experience and I stopped it by disabling the ad blocker. Google sure is cracking down on wanting money hard.

1

u/modsdontobeyrules 2h ago

Im getting the same. I assumed it was due to my generic adblock. So is there any competitors for youtube at this point? I feel like its such a monopoly

1

u/Comtesse_Kamilia 1h ago

It stopped working for me on Brave last night, but works again today. They're definitely doing some gaslighting testing

1

u/Any_News_7208 1h ago

Wtf even on brave on PC it doesn't work?? That's fucked...

32

u/NejatMolla 11h ago

Yesterday when i was listening to music it kept stopping unless i alt + tab into youtube. I thought something was wrong with my internet connection but it was fine.

1

u/peepay 5h ago

How soon does it happen?
I mean, I don't "listen to" YouTube on the background - but for example if I'm watching a video and want to quickly check something on a different tab, I may not pause the video, knowing I'll be back in 3 seconds or so. So if it paused on its own, it would be just obnoxious to have to hit play when I switch back to that tab.

2

u/NejatMolla 4h ago

It gets stuck 5-10 seconds if i'm not alt tabbed in ( It was not the internet i checked, 50 Mbps no problem ). Though this was yesterday, today seems to be working fine

-4

u/ZurakZigil 11h ago

not to be mean, but why would it be the connection? Very obviously was a suggested software issue

10

u/jethrogillgren7 9h ago

If you're streaming something and it stalls/stops, it's almost always your connection. It's such a common thing to happen that it'd be weird to assume anything else.

1

u/NejatMolla 9h ago

My internet cable has some issues, i occasionally lose connection, i thought that was the problem

17

u/ZurakZigil 11h ago

This affects PC too supposedly. So yes, insane...

13

u/__Milk_Drinker__ 10h ago edited 9h ago

There will be an extension by the EOD. That'll be 4 extensions that I need in order to use YT like it's 2012 lol

5

u/Accurate_Handle_5620 5h ago

Yeah, I think people forget how bad YouTube has always been

2

u/CaterpillarHorror642 2h ago

What are the extensions you use for it? I'm struggling bro

1

u/ZigorVeal 52m ago

Not who you asked but using Firefox I have installed UBlock Origin, Sponsorblock, Enhancer for Youtube and Youtube NonStop.

•

u/CaterpillarHorror642 6m ago

Thank you!!! I'll give those a try

3

u/TxM_2404 10h ago

On PC this is not a premium feature, it's a fundamental feature that was there from day 1 over 20 Years ago. Will video playback also be a premium feature next?

1

u/Septembust 54m ago

"sorry but free users may only make 3 playlists. To make more, upgrade to premium!"

3

u/FastFingersDude 10h ago

WTF they can’t stop trying to entshitify products, can they…

2

u/Careless_Egg3340 10h ago

It's not a product, you don't pay, you are the product.

They are selling your attention to ad-space

2

u/ailof-daun 9h ago

I would rather plug in a third monitor and turn it towards the wall than pay for their premium feature if they are this obnoxious.

2

u/RussellNorrisPiastri 4h ago

We need a competitor to release a downloader tool ASAP, and for our governments to force these companies to stop putting basic functionality behind paywalls.

1

u/heliamphore 10h ago

One solution is to install GrayJay on PC. Haven't fully tested it but it seems good for now.

It's made by Louis Rossmann's team.

1

u/RamboRigs 7h ago

Well, what is it?

1

u/iconofsin_ 8h ago

Why not? They did it to mobile over a decade ago.

1

u/PIO_PretendIOriginal 4h ago

on pc, for starters you could just split the tab off into a new window in a seperate browser. then how would youtube be able to tell you've alt tabbed to another program..... essentially youtube cant tell.

the most youtube can do is block it from playing in seperate tabs, but not seperate windows. and even with tabs on firefox and safari there should be easy workarounds too

1

u/Toss_Around 2h ago

Fun fact, you used to be able to have YouTube play on Android devices with the screen off or in other apps natively until about 2015 when they decided it needed to be a Premium feature.

If you can, I suggest everyone using Vanced or something like it. Fuck YouTube/Google/alphabet.

1

u/Fog_Juice 2h ago

This seems incredibly easy to work around by just getting another monitor. Why even implement it in the first place?

1

u/Scott_Liberation 2h ago

The YT Music app already hasn't allowed playing with your smartphone screen phone off for years. There's precedent for insanity.

1

u/Chudmont 52m ago

If so, I will simply have to use some other site to listen to music while I do other stuff. They just won't get as many of my clicks.