The VideoLAN Forums

Is it just me, or did VLC lose the ability to play YouTube videos, regardless of whether it's updated to the latest version?

https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=164777
https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=164806

Thanks.
Don't see any solutions there.

Is there anyone whose VLC is currently able to play YouTube videos?

Don't see any solutions there.

Because you haven't read careful enough.
The solution is to update the LUA script when a new version will be available.

The solution is to update the LUA script when a new version will be available.

Right, and currently no fixed version is available. Hence my question if every VLC user has this issue.

Yes, of course.

Is this the longest stretch of time that VLC has not update their LUA after YouTube streaming stopped working?

I don't think so, but I am pretty sure that nobody kept track of that going all the way back to GoogleVideo.

So will VLC update itself to correct this, or is this the end of YouTube streaming on VLC?

So will VLC update itself to correct this

No. You will need to manually update the LUA script as explained here:
https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.ph ... 26#p483226

You can check for a new version of the LUA script here:
https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc/ ... type=heads

and there:
https://github.com/videolan/vlc/blob/ma ... outube.lua

No. You will need to manually update the LUA script as explained here:
https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.ph ... 26#p483226

You can check for a new version of the LUA script here:
https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc/ ... type=heads

and there:
https://github.com/videolan/vlc/blob/ma ... outube.lua

Isn't this the download link?
https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc/ ... line=false

Yes, it's the direct download link but it doesn't show in any way the date of the latest update.

And it still doesn't work.

It clearly says that the last update was on August 11, 2023, so no surprises there.

So that's almost a year. Has VLC ever not updated the LUA for a year before?

Just to keep this thread on top, I too can't access and download from youtube beginning about 2 months ago. It was very clunky but the currently dated 4/2023 youtube.lua managed to connect and record but in real time. Worked up to Spring. Now it's completely dead.

Request: I hope the keepers of the github repository or author of youtube.lua can update it. It's beyond my capabilities.

Thanks in advance.

So does ANYONE have any idea what's going on?

YouTube updated their site and nobody has provided a patch to refresh the VLC Lua script. That's what's going on.

That's probably not what you want to hear but I'm not sure what answer you expect, TBH.

Are there any other safe media players that are currently still able to stream YouTube videos?

You can use the YT-DLP batch file as a workaround:
https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.ph ... 15#p495615

Where of course, you have to replace youtube-dl.exe with yt-dlp.exe and to set the correct path to VLC.exe.

Are there any other safe media players that are currently still able to stream YouTube videos?

Try to use MPC-BE: https://sourceforge.net/projects/mpcbe/files/

I have the same problem and I am trying to file a bug report

There is no bug to report, just READ the thread. Carefully.

Please don't open duplicate bug reports. The issue is well-known : https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc/-/issues/27227 just needs somebody to actually bother to do the fixing. Patch welcome.

The issue is well-known : https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc/-/issues/27227

This is not the same as the issue discussed in this thread (which started about a month or so ago).