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Youtube has started to artificially slow down video load times if you use Firefox

Youtube has started to artificially slow down video load times if you use Firefox. Spoofing Chrome magically makes this problem go away.

https://old.reddit.com/r/youtube/comments/17z8hsz/youtube_has_started_to_artificially_slow_down/

Posted in r/youtube by u/vk6_ • 4,164 points and 371 comments

Youtube has started to artificially slow down video load times if you use Firefox. Spoofing Chrome magically makes this problem go away.

Spoofing Chrome magically makes this problem go away. The slow down is 5 secs according to the video.

Update 1: Safari faces the same treatment

Update 2: Google confirms 5 sec delays for ad-block user

73 comments

undeadfoodsnob

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I dont believe this will have the desired affect Google thinks it will. I, personally, will never buy Premium or switch to Chrome without an AD block. If anything, I will just download via linux or just not watch Youtube anymore.

penquin

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That's the fucking spirit. Here, I'm joining you. Fuck Google.

doink

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I have been a premium user for years. Mostly because I was using Google music before. With all this crap they are pulling, I cancelled. I cannot support this anymore.

illi

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Ever since I discovered Piped and LibreTube, I never looked back.And I used premium for years.

DuskyRo

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If only there was an easy way to selfhost piped or viewtube...

I swear there would be more instances if they made an easy step by step guide but I guess that's life when you choose FOSS...

Flying_Hellfish

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I'm not sure if this post was /s or not, but ViewTube is actually pretty easy to self host if you have a docker host in your current environment. They even provide a docker compose example on the wiki.

Nelots

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Piped is just too inconsistent for me. I gave it a solid month or two, but half the time I open it up none of the instances are loading any videos. Eventually I gave up and looked into other options, ended up using FreeTube.

Holzkohlen

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Freetube on desktop, Newpipe on android. This is the way.

MaggiWuerze

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Revanced would like to know your location

b0gl

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This is what I do as well

illi

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It does have it's issues, can't deny that. Can use LibreTube as Android app and 99.9% of my youtube viewing is on mobile

Aermis

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How does libretube compare with revanced?

dan

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Libretube is a totally different app whereas Revanced is just some patches on top of the official YouTube app, so the feature sets are going to vary a lot between the two. Libretube doesn't let you log in to a Google account at all (but it does support importing a subscription list).

ElectricTrombone

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Any method for blocking ads / patching chromecast? My kids and I do the majority of our YT surfing from the couch.

dan

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Not that I know of, sorry! It looks like third-party apps like Newpipe don't support Chromecast :/

Bernie_Sandals

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Could someone please give me a rundown of how these work/if they have mobile apps? I've been paying for premium pretty much since Vanced was killed (and also before I found Vanced) and really the only thing that's stopped me from using a YouTube mirror is the lack of good mobile applications.

illi

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I found this is good explanation: https://lemm.ee/comment/4966310

LibreTube is on F-Droid for an Android app, pretty sure there is something for iOS as well but not sure. It hs its issues but I manage. Set up low tier patreon for some content creators from my "premium budget" too.

Bernie_Sandals

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That's actually quite interesting, thank you, I'll definitely have to look into that more

b0gl

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Try newpipe through f-droid

kubica

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It's possibly dedicated to messing around for people testing firefox after the news.

henfredemars

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To be clear, is this delay skipped for subscribers?

zzzz

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*effect

But, yes, me too.

ultratiem

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I watch interesting vids people link back on occasion but have left it as a service I would browse and engage with and let me tell you, life got a lot better.

Carobu

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I'm pretty sure this is going to directly violate Internet neutrality laws when the FCC votes them back into effect.

iturnedintoanewt

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And the EU laws.

Flyswat

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And my axe.

Fungah

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Well played.

Legolution

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Cries in UK.

Neve8028

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Net neutrality is about ISPs though.

Carobu

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https://fiber.google.com/

Neve8028

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Google isn't an ISP when it comes to youtube. Yes, they are an ISP in the context of Google fiber but this is completely different. It would be a violation of net neutrality if they slowed certain sites to fiber users.

KnowledgeableNip

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Didn't similar shit get Microsoft hit with antitrust lawsuits?

const_void

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Yeah but that was back when we had a mostly functional government. Times have changed.

skozzii

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Disfunctional goverment benefits the rich almost exclusively. Sad days ahead.

Hjalamanger

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Maybe... Hope someone sues YT :)

magnetosphere

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Yes… many years later, and while those lawsuits were slowly being resolved, Microsoft was busy laying the groundwork for other bullshit that was unethical but not technically illegal.

If you actually expect a solution in a reasonable amount of time, either invent time travel or spoof Chrome.

Nindelofocho

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Ive been noticing this recently too also buffering occasionally on random videos from time to time when im having 0 connectivity issues. This isint going to make the average person think firefox is bad but rather that youtube is garbage

MooseLad

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I'm one of 5 people who have premium (I use YouTube Music) and they're still slowing down videos for me. Also maybe it's in my head, but I think the Google search has been taking longer too. I've noticed some extra loading time that doesn't show up in Microsoft edge, or if I use duckduckgo/bing from Firefox.

EddieTee77

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I have had random freezing on the mobile Firefox for months now. I typically search in a private tab with a bunch of trackers disabled. If I do the same search in Chrome, Edge, Samsung Internet (in their incognito tabs) the searches load. This seems like a block on Firefox itself

Yeldarb12

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I would have thought the exact same thing. I like having videos play in the background so I wouldn't have looked into it anyway.

Metal_Zealot

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Gonna keep talking about Peertube until it starts to take off.

Seriously, how great would it be for your fave youtubers to have their own Peertube instance, and know that your donations go DIRECTLY to support them and maintain their server? With NO advertisements or possibility of Google shutting you down just cuz they dont like you

jack

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Your fav youtubers might host their own peertube someday, but there is still a lot of value in the other content that you don't consume regularly like tutorials or random interesting stuff. Peertube is not the ultimate solution

ImpossibilityBox

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I'm in full agreement here. I will always try to support the things I follow the most but probably my favorite thing about current media is finding a random person who does something incredibly niche and watching/listening a vid/song or two of theirs. I'll come every couple of months or so but I'm not consuming their content regularly. Tutorials as you mentioned are a great example of this.

I did the math a year or two that if I paid a single dollar to every YouTuber I watch and musician I listen to on Spotify I would be paying around $400 a month. In an idyllic world I would have a stable job with enough expendable income to make that happen. In this reality I don't see that as a possibility.

konalt

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I was wondering what that was for a few days. I thought it was just uBlock Origin doing its work.

BarterClub

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This should not be legal.

wischi

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It's probably not, and now?

netchami

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Fuck Google

Use Invidious or Piped to bypass the ads, tracking as well as the slow down. You can combine it with LibRedirect to automatically redirect all YouTube links to Invidious or Piped. Works like a dream. Another option is FreeTube, it's a desktop client for YouTube that can also use the Invidious API.

badbytes

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Yeah, user agent switcher set to chrome, made vids load immediately. Shitty move google.

netchami

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Just use Invidious with LibRedirect. If everyone spoofs their user-agent to Firefox, Google will say 'No one uses Firefox'

pepsison52895

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Is this only in certain areas? YouTube is still working fine for me on FireFox.

Mixel

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I think I have some slowdowns FF with unlock Origin in Germany so maybe

floral_toxicity

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I'm in America and I haven't noticed any YT slowdowns.

dnnybrks

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I use https://piped.video/trending as an alternative to YouTube.

agent_flounder

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US DOJ has an anti-trust complaint page... Easy to find via search...

dan1101

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Begun, the Chrome spoof wars have.

netchami

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Just use Invidious with LibRedirect. If everyone spoofs their user-agent to Firefox, Google will say 'No one uses Firefox'

dan

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If everyone spoofs the Chrome user agent, they're going to think that fewer and fewer people are using Firefox on YouTube, which is not ideal :(

Oha

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Fuck Google, Fuck Youtube, Fuck Alphabet, Honestly just fuck everyone who does this shit

archchan

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I am not spoofing my user agent and I'm going to continue using FOSS front-ends to access YouTube until an alternative takes off. Fuck you Google.

violetraven

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I've noticed this happening on Firefox, but not with LibreWolf for some reason

Flaky

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Does Librewolf present itself differently or use a different user agent altogether? I could see Librewolf presenting itself as Chromium as a privacy measure and people are saying changing the user agent fixes the issue.

EDIT: I've seen this happen on Safari for macOS. Someone at Apple is certainly snitching to their higher-ups, lol.