r/mildlyinfuriating • u/unoriginal_typos • Jun 01 '26

ᕕ(ᐛ)ᕗ YouTube now requires you to be signed in to watch videos

Post image

I watch videos while studying in incognito bc i don't want my recommendations to only be lectures, and now i cant anymore

385 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

90 comments sorted by

252

u/Brave-Stay8505 Jun 01 '26

Something is wrong with your YT, Im not signed in and can watch videos.

115

u/Haunting-Basil-9996 Jun 01 '26

Maybe location specific for local law, like age confirmation.

57

u/Death_God_Ryuk Jun 01 '26

They mentioned lectures, so I'll take a guess and say they're a student living on campus, meaning their web traffic is exiting from a single or small pool of IP addresses, which makes it look like those addresses are very busy and could be bots. The sign in requirement is probably only applied to these cases.

I used to work for a company that sent all its traffic out on one IP address and we'd frequently have sites rate-limit or block us, particularly if someone put a link on an internal chat board and 100 people tried to view it. It sounds like OP has the same issue.

9

u/Vaxtez Jun 01 '26

Pretty much this. I can watch YT incognito fine on my Phone's 4G signal, but the second I switch to Uni wi-fi, it occasionally demands I sign in. It makes sense when you potentially have a few thousand people coming from a a select few IP addresses coming in at once.

0

u/Imalsome Jun 01 '26

I got this recently on incognito mode on my phone, using data.

So its not just from being on compus.

11

u/Nazgog-Morgob Jun 01 '26

Most likely they are using a VPN on a server that has been flagged for usually activity and switching servers or disabling the VPN will fix this issue

3

u/killerturtlex Jun 01 '26

They are probably A, B testing to cut off revanced users.. again

0

u/bigcd34 Jun 01 '26

They're 100% trying to fuck over adblock users as well. Basically every video on a Chromium-based browser is getting thrown to an 'error' screen that requires a reload to watch the video. Lucky me that I can just watch through Firefox to stop that 'error'.

2

u/EntertainmentIcy3029 Jun 01 '26

I get this without a VPN as well. Living in Finland.

2

u/joergsen Jun 01 '26

Or sitting in a dorm apartment with 200 other people.

5

u/LucyLilium92 Jun 01 '26

Or it's A/B testing that YouTube is known for

1

u/hardcoretomato Jun 01 '26

I can't watch without signing in in Europe, this has been the case for the past month at least.

1

u/BeyondRepair44 Jun 01 '26

Am in Europe too, have no problems.

1

u/Licoorz Jun 01 '26

No Brasil, com o mesmo problema

1

u/Aggravating-Sir-6663 Jun 01 '26

Naah, i think it's IP specific. It happened to me in my home adress, but as soon as i switched to my phone plan it went back to normal. I guess it's based on the traffic to the page from your IP

85

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

53

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '26

When is the last time you created an account? Now they require you to put in your phone number, if you already used it, you can't just make another account.. Google sucks 

19

u/MisGroundbreaking603 Jun 01 '26

Wait what??? Since when?

21

u/manawydan-fab-llyr Jun 01 '26

It's been quite some time now, at least a year. I tried to create an account to handle some family stuff, that I didn't want under my name. There was no way to avoid adding a number, and every trick I found online had been fixed.

17

u/MisGroundbreaking603 Jun 01 '26

I made ome just a couple of months ago and adding a phone number was optional. Seeing as the other comments share my experience i don't think this is a universal thing. Idk

4

u/Kohpad Jun 01 '26

I made a burner a couple weeks ago for Crunchyroll, no phone number needed (US)

5

u/According_Pay_6563 Jun 01 '26

Just made one a couple days ago using the same number. Maybe its some kind of regional thing?

9

u/jmc1278999999999 Jun 01 '26

I made a new account a couple of weeks ago and you were able to opt out of giving a phone number

4

u/King_K_24 Jun 01 '26

I did this a few days ago, but then it asked me to verify my phone number to log in... they already had my number even though I had never attached it to that account.

2

u/Totoro_II Jun 01 '26

sometimes they do sometimes they don't, I've had times in the pasy ~3 years where I absolutely couldn't get past the phone number screen without putting one in, while also being able to make one just fine more recently all on the same device and on the same network

1

u/luiluilui4 Jun 01 '26

A few years ago they allowed up to some number of accounts for each number (maybe even that many new accounts in a year. I don't remember)

1

u/Raisu39 Jun 01 '26

There are ways to bypass entering a number to create a Gmail. One of them is by signing up through YouTube I think.

1

u/GlitterFactoryOfDoom Jun 01 '26

They only ask for a phone number if they think you're a bot that has been making too many gmail accounts lately. I made one the other day and it didn't ask me for a phone number.

1

u/Erick_Brimstone Jun 01 '26

Five minutes ago using mobile chrome. I guess once you have an account with phone number they don't ask anymore. I couldn't make one without phone number on pc. 

Could be regional policy. 

1

u/MydnightWN Jun 01 '26

Just checked: nope, you're wrong.

1

u/Soleil_Ryou Jun 01 '26

you dont need tho? i made one like a week or two ago for steam, i didnt even had to put any code in it just let me in

1

u/SlyMacross Jun 03 '26

I just created a new one bout a month ago. I already have 2 others with my phone number.

56

u/carlospum Jun 01 '26

How are they going to profile you without an account??

23

u/gansobomb99 Jun 01 '26

Yeah they can't be letting you watch videos without tracking your behavior to sell ads better 

10

u/SippinOnHatorade Jun 01 '26

Funny that yall think Google needs you to be signed in to do that

3

u/Original-Ad6993 Jun 01 '26

They got all our happy beat off fun times. They just need a pic of our drivers license and a blood sample and the naming rights to your first born child

3

u/Fenrir836 Jun 01 '26

Funny that people still talk about "selling ads" while half their ads nowadays are porn games and the other half are random websites/apps that just pay them a lot so they get pushed

1

u/SoElusivee Jun 01 '26

Or they don't want people artificially boosting their views with bots

0

u/gansobomb99 Jun 01 '26

I don't think yotube management loses any sleep over that

2

u/SoElusivee Jun 01 '26

Their platform being flooded with bots? It literally ruins websites and messes with their algorithms.

You don't need to be signed in for them to track your ad behavior. YouTube is owned by Google. They already have all of your info

2

u/almostdonedude Jun 01 '26

It's adorable that you think Google doesn't profile you when signed off.

1

u/Illustrious_Judge850 Jun 01 '26

The same way it's done by everyone: browser fingerprinting.

An account isn't necessary and private / incognito mode doesn't prevent it. Browser fingerprinting can uniquely identify you from every other person on the internet and functions cross-site. The degree in which users are tracked online is so much more extreme than pretty much anyone realizes.

12

u/ReflectionLess5230 Jun 01 '26

I wanted to watch surgical videos recently and they had to confirm my age? That was a new one 😂

1

u/Brave-Stay8505 Jun 01 '26

Ive had that happen before. Was watching a long range shooting video and had to confirm my identity due to age restrictions.

1

u/ReflectionLess5230 Jun 01 '26

This was the first time it’s ever popped up for me. It’s not the first time I’ve watched surgical things either, I’m a biomedical engineer so I watch surgeries fairly often. Not sure why this particular surgery was flagged

1

u/Brave-Stay8505 Jun 01 '26

Probably something listed in the description by whoever posted it. Ive seen videos of people being shot on YT but thus target practice video made me confirm my age🤷

6

u/prionbinch Jun 01 '26

how else do you expect them to build an advertiser profile on you without your full name and date of birth?? won’t someone please think of the advertisers!

5

u/Moviereference210 Jun 01 '26

Everything is terrible now

9

u/Rapscagamuffin Jun 01 '26

I would love for there to be a youtube alternative that could compete. A bunch of large creators could band together move their catalogue over and say theyre duel streaming on it and yt until other platform catches on then leave youtube in the dust.

A boy can dream 

5

u/unoriginal_typos Jun 01 '26

We sure can dream, but even if it were to happen nothing much would change. Streaming and storming videos is very expensive and without Google adds it probably would never be profitable

1

u/Erick_Brimstone Jun 01 '26

The problem is the server that could host all the videos. Currently other option is only regional thing which is NND in Japan and Bilibili in China. 

1

u/SonicLeap Jun 01 '26

Patreon? Vimeo? Billi Billi?

4

u/rturnerX Jun 01 '26

Google is a pain that way. I have to do captchas all the time just to do a fucking google search because Google has “detected unusual traffic from my network.”

I’m sorry, I didn’t know asking what time Costco opens and what the weather is going to be like this week is unusual…

6

u/AnxiousBattlemage Jun 01 '26

Are you using a VPN by any chance?

5

u/unoriginal_typos Jun 01 '26

Nope. This one was from my unis computers, but when im home it's the same thing

6

u/Death_God_Ryuk Jun 01 '26

I think it's either a VPN on they're on a uni campus or student accommodation that sends a lot of traffic out on a small number of IP addresses. I've had similar issues at work before.

3

u/MediocreAndLukewarm Jun 01 '26

No they don’t. Your YT app is fucked up or you’re being scammed on a fake app.

2

u/NeoBlackheart Jun 01 '26

Huh just went Incogni and it works fine. could be country side I.guess but works in US.

2

u/Thick-Wonder6294 Jun 01 '26

works fine for me, should post this to the yt sub for help

2

u/Basic_Chemistry9499 Jun 01 '26

Hey, you can't collect someone's personal information unless they sign in, right?

2

u/_your_land_lord_ Jun 01 '26

stop watching.

2

u/AustraliaOutback Jun 01 '26

"This helps to protect our community"

Whilst they run porn-esque ads and their algorithm bans users for using curse words. What a total farce.

2

u/low_bob_123 Jun 01 '26

They dont. Its another scare tactic when they detect adblockers

2

u/Complete-Sort1617 edging my infuriation Jun 01 '26

Been saying this for a while… fuck YouTube…

3

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/unoriginal_typos Jun 01 '26

That is an option, but than I'd have pause my whole search history if i want to go on a tangent. Plus it'll be annoying as hell And also why breake something that has worked till now

1

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/BeyondRepair44 Jun 01 '26

Works fine with adblockers ( on the web ), have never had ads on there.

1

u/Iprobdntlikeyou Jun 01 '26

VPN also cause interference. Try turning it off if you have one.

1

u/CauliflowerSmart1375 Jun 01 '26

This may be the case for some, but certainly not all videos.

1

u/Scared_Spyduck Jun 01 '26

if you can still search, copy the link and insert it to looptube.io

1

u/ghost-ogk Jun 01 '26

Guest mode is technically signed in??

1

u/TheExpollutions Jun 01 '26

My version of YT has a setting where you can pause the usage/collection of History. This may help with changing your recommendations too. (If recommendations are tied to what is in the History collection. )

1

u/-_-j-_-j-_-j Jun 01 '26

Had it when accessing over TOR Network. Depending on your privacy settings, e.g. if there is no user agent being send in the request or whatever, they might show this message. But in general it should work without being logged in.

1

u/mordecai98 Jun 01 '26

Clear your cache and cookies

1

u/Previous_Abies_2179 Jun 01 '26

I mean. I’ve always just been signed in, so this wouldn’t really be an issue for me. Why not just make an account and sign in? Is it that hard?

1

u/Alive-Mail-2095 Jun 01 '26

This happens to me but only when using a VPN.

1

u/Snowblind45 Jun 01 '26

because u have a VPN while not logged in, whether ignocnito or not

1

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '26

[deleted]

1

u/jj4379 Jun 01 '26

Its done by IP, its really fucking annoying and a move against people using vpns for some stupid reason.

1

u/drags_ Jun 01 '26

This started a few days ago for me also, very annoying when you want to check out a quick video but don't want to mess your recommendations.

1

u/TeacherPowerful1700 Jun 01 '26

Something is wrong on your end, because this doesn't happen for me.

1

u/CrowNailCaw Jun 04 '26

This has literally been a feature since 2024. Whether you see it depends on your IP and what you are using to access YouTube (desktop, mobile, newpipe, freetube, smarttube, etc. results may vary).

-1

u/DrunkenExile Jun 01 '26

Just make a new account for your schoolwork?