YouTube videos fail to load frequently!
CMajor7
Starting with the 28th of March, I'm receiving very frequent reports of users that YouTube videos fail to load in my world. After some testing I concluded that it's other worlds too. To quantify this problem I ran some data and visualized it. Since the 28th, the Error rate of videos in my world increased to around 20%, meaning every 5th video fails to load. This also exactly lines up with when VRChat had the yt-dlp resolver updated for the last time.
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WubTheCaptain
It's very unusual how VRChat's yt-dlp 2026.02.04 had
android_vr
formats available from the command line, and android_vr
formats were downloadable outside of VRChat with this version, but those were not playable in the VRChat client on Windows. web
formats were broken due to player_js_variant
in 2026.02.04, and thus AVPro and Unity Video players in VRChat could not find any media formats to play in VRChat.Once VRChat updated to yt-dlp 2026.03.03 today,
web
formats became playable in VRChat again (due to player_js_variant=20514@9f4cc5e4
) in VRChat on Windows as expected. This immediately resolved playback issues in VRChat, but the question remains why android_vr
was not playable.This may hint
--extractor-args "youtube:player_client=web"
may be forced somehow deep within VRChat's client or yt-dlp, and if so, this change should be undone. (Possible cause: https://feedback.vrchat.com/bug-reports/p/yt-dlp-argument-change-required-to-restore-1080p-yt)Fizz_Howler
It's funny how it's still not working lol
WubTheCaptain
Fizz_Howler Any developers who want to help solve this current issue should see yt-dlp/ejs#51.
WubTheCaptain
yt-dlp/ejs#51 closed as complete 4 minutes ago: https://github.com/yt-dlp/ejs/commit/41ff68e6f8dbebb5dfc9e7fee2bde2964609588c
WubTheCaptain
VRChat pushed out yt-dlp 2026.03.03 today, you should be able to play non-age restricted YouTube videos for now (yt-dlp-ejs 0.5.0).
For improved YouTube playback compatibility, which relies less on a player downgrade hack and uses the latest player JS variants from YouTube (yt-dlp-ejs 0.7.0), I've also submitted a new feature request today: Update to yt-dlp 2026.03.13 / yt-dlp-ejs 0.7.0 to improve YouTube playback compatibility
StormRel
Merged in a post:
[BUG] One of the most essential functions of VRChat is failing. VIDEOPLAYERS
RÆLIUM
It appears YouTube changed references in YT-DLP.
This has caused many players to lose access to the Twitch and YouTube streaming servers.
This is one of the most significant errors; many people simply logged in to spend time watching content with friends, but now those activities have stopped.
I already tried installing and reinstalling. nothing is working.
- Open VRChat
- Go to any map
- Add a YouTube link
- Wait indefinitely for it to work
- It doesn't work
- Frustration (Music events stopped, karaoke stopped, quality time with friends on YouTube stopped)
StormRel
Merged in a post:
YouTube links not working
SapphireEevee
I see you’ve gotten this a lot, but YouTube links just straight up are not working at all right now. I got one video to work, but that’s it. Nothing else. Can you PLEASE fix this?
°sky
curious to if a fix in underway or not. would like to hear someone official let us know, as its a little annoying not being able to watch youtube videos 🙁
WubTheCaptain
RÆLIUM I would've noted to include output logs, but this is a duplicate issue.
Duplicate, can be merged with:
- https://feedback.vrchat.com/bug-reports/p/youtube-links-not-working
- https://feedback.vrchat.com/bug-reports/p/video-player-unity-software-and-udon-error
- https://feedback.vrchat.com/bug-reports/p/youtube-videos-fail-to-load-frequently
The responsibility of the unresolved bug / issue is said to lie upstream at yt-dlp and not in VRChat's porting or modification of yt-dlp.
WubTheCaptain
YouTube's A/B testing is rolling out to more users (including myself), so yt-dlp 2026.03.03 or later will be needed to play YouTube videos in VRChat. (I'll create a feature request to update yt-dlp to 2026.03.03 soon.)
WubTheCaptain
Pending on yt-dlp-ejs changes, see https://ask.vrchat.com/t/video-players-not-working/47971/6 & Recent players failing on all variants · Issue #51 · yt-dlp/ejs.
WubTheCaptain
SapphireEevee Can you reproduce with output logs attached?
Not helpful: "I can't play a video, can you PLEASE fix this?" - no steps to reproduce your issue and to be helped, it reads like a complaint or a support requests which requests something unspecific to be fixed on a public bug report forum and doesn't signal what's wrong.
Helpful: "I tried playing URL https://example.com/ in several worlds ([list of worlds]) using both AVPro and Unity Video players and I received error XYZ with [AVPro/Unity Video/both]. Output logs are attached. My yt-dlp version is [version]. I [can/can't] download the video using yt-dlp [version number of the latest release] from the upstream project." - triage, steps to reproduce.
There's also a feature request, yet to be implemented by VRChat: Update yt-dlp to 2026.02.21 to resolve YouTube playback issues
WubTheCaptain
I'm also unable to reproduce OP's issue. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnDdmJNmHrM plays fine in world Icolated by Shinyflvres, using AVPro and VRChat's yt-dlp 2026.02.04.
WubTheCaptain
YouTube made some changes, which may result in incompatible/broken sig extraction with older clients. yt-dlp 2026.02.21 and yt-dlp-ejs 0.5.0 have been released to address this.
Feature request: Update yt-dlp to 2026.02.21 to resolve YouTube playback issues
Ericbazinga
WubTheCaptain VRchat needs to be way more on the ball about updating yt-dlp in a timely fashion.
WubTheCaptain
Ericbazinga VRChat is often updating yt-dlp timely, and your frustration may be misdirected. This isn't about VRChat.
----
Previously when VRChat was using some former yt-dlp version older than 2025.11.12 and YouTube playback was broken for weeks in VRChat, the delay on new yt-dlp release with YouTube playback fixes was on the upstream yt-dlp project. There was a two week gap between October 31, 2025 (when PRs #14157 & #14843 were merged to yt-dlp) and November 12, 2025 (when yt-dlp 2025.11.12 was released) to fix YouTube playback in VRChat.
----
January 20, 2026 came around and users were reporting issues with YouTube playback in VRChat again. It took ~9 days for a new yt-dlp 2026.01.29 release to become available at upstream.
When yt-dlp 2026.01.29 was released to resolve YouTube playback issues, the new yt-dlp 2026.01.29 release was announced in this Canny topic on January 30, 2026. This "feature request" to update was completed timely by VRChat on February 1, 2026. It also clearly resolved YouTube playback issues for users on VRChat Ask forum:
- https://ask.vrchat.com/t/video-player-not-working-still/47722/4
- https://ask.vrchat.com/t/video-players-not-working-anymore-quest-3/47645/5
----
After yt-dlp 2026.02.04 was released, I made a feature request to update yt-dlp to 2026.02.04 on February 6, 2026, and it was implemented silently on February 12, 2026.
It's not clear to me if this yt-dlp 2026.02.04 update addressed any YouTube playback issues for anyone in VRChat.
----
Recent changes made by YouTube and resolved by yt-dlp 2026.02.21 also didn't affect all users, but YouTube's changes in March 2026 affected many more - and continue to do so.
There's no buttons to press currently to resolve YouTube playback issues when the upstream yt-dlp-ejs is having an issue (Recent players failing on all variants · Issue #51 · yt-dlp/ejs · GitHub). Player javascript version
9f4cc5e4
used by yt-dlp 2026.03.03 may also be broken at this time, so updating to yt-dlp 2026.03.03 in VRChat may not solve the issue according to yt-dlp-ejs issue #51 comment #4012181664.WubTheCaptain
Ericbazinga You're invited to investigate and contribute a patch upstream to the yt-dlp-ejs project to fix and update yt-dlp in a timely fashion for the current YouTube playback issue in VRChat.
I'm keeping an eye on the yt-dlp-ejs issue and yt-dlp releases, before submitting a feature request to VRChat to update yt-dlp.
WubTheCaptain
yt-dlp 2026.02.04 and yt-dlp 2026.01.31 have been released.
A feature request which may help avoid YouTube's latest bot detection affecting some users: Update yt-dlp to 2026.02.04 to resolve YouTube playback issues
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