Constant buffering every 2-3 seconds.

[Boogeymane]

SmartTube 15.62

Android 10, Onn4k tv streaming box.

Connection is great yet, All of a sudden I am getting buffering every 2-3 seconds making the app unusable. Changing buffer in playback settings (low, medium, high) yields no result at all.

[IntergalacticQuasar]

I've got exactly the same problem.

STN Beta 15.67 Android 10, mecool K5 box

It was working great. I finished with the 30 minutes long video, and the problem started since the start of the next video. Tried everything. Network is great with no issue at all. It is just STN that seems to be struggling.

[Localhorst86]

I can confirm this, the same videos play perfectly fine on the same device using the official YouTube app. Possibly YouTube intentionall throtleing the bandwidth on their end? STN 15.62 Android 9 MiBox 3

[kuro68k]

Same issue, plays fine in YouTube app but buffers in Smart Tube.

15.62 on a 2019 Nvidia Shield Pro.

[Danavans]

Same issue for me since today 😢 Used to work like a charm.

STN Beta 15.76 on Sony BRAVIA 4k VH2 Android TV 10

[Boogeymane]

This morning trying the app again. I first cleared data and cache. Then relogged in. Worked per normal for a few hours. I tried the same videos as the night prior. Then moved onto other videos. No buffering. Could it have been that simple? Nope. After a few hours it started up again with buffering every 2 seconds. Cleared cache, data, relogged in. This time it did not fix the problem. Can we just take away live chat features and go back to a working product.?!? Reading further back up to a month ago a few others have had this same problem. Maybe there are not enough tickets opened about the issue to gain attention. While the app is like this it is unusable.

[Spaceboy60]

Same issue here, , was working fine and then it offered to update which I did did and it's not worked since. Running latest beta

[rig9919]

I have the same problem on Google TV device, smart tube next version 15.62

[BimDub]

Same issue here just started happening after updating to 15.76 on Sony Bravia

[murph71]

STN Beta 15.76 on Amazon Fire Stick 4k.

Updated just now and buffering every few seconds. Never had a problem before today.

Updated to 15.79. Working like a charm again. Many thanks to the Dev/s for the very quick fix.

[martinhoyer]

Here too..Nvidia Shield 2019 both latest stable and beta

[jonas-meyer]

I can confirm that it doesn't buffer for me if I'm logged out.

[thenerdymr]

had same problem on 4k fire stick, worked after in the default vanilla app cleared data and cash and resigned in. smart tube started working again. hope this helps

[Maeldor]

Same here on 15.76 on a Shield TV Pro (2019). Can't watch any videos currently 😭

[Boogeymane]

See above. This worked for me the first time but within hours was back to the same issue. Clearing cache and data did not fix the second time.

-if it does start happening again with you follow the exact same fix and report back. Use vanilla. Clean cache and data.
When I tried clearing cache the second time I did NOT try using vanilla YT as I did last night. . That may be a simple idea that could be not so great fix but atleast it's a work around.

[KalChoedan]

I've just tried clearing cache and data for both native YT and ST, then signing back in to each, and the problem is immediately back. Seems like the googs are doing something to mess with ST.

[Cereal-Lain]

Have the same issue using fire tv cube gen 2 and app version 15.62.

[adityachandelgit]

Same problem here on Nvidia shield pro. Looks like youtube is messing up the third party clients.

[Neosid996]

I can confirm this issue only occurs when you try to watch a video whilst signed in with your Youtube Account (in my case at least). Try the same video not signed in ('Select account (none)' in the 'Accounts' menu) and it works fine?

Fire Stick TV Lite

[perknite]

Same issue. Version 15.62 on Chromecast w/ Google TV (Android TV OS version 10). I've cleared cache and tested with same issue. I logged out and cleared data and there is no issue. Once I logged back in the issue returned in a matter of minutes.

[Maeldor]

I can confirm this issue only occurs when you try to watch a video whilst signed in with your Youtube Account. Try the same video not signed in ('Select account (none)' in the 'Accounts' menu) and it works fine?

Makes no difference for me, unfortunately. Videos won't play whether I'm signed in or not.

[Cereal-Lain]

I can confirm this issue only occurs when you try to watch a video whilst signed in with your Youtube Account. Try the same video not signed in ('Select account (none)' in the 'Accounts' menu) and it works fine?

Yeah it does, but kinda ruins the experience. Pretty sure that it isn’t anything to do with the app itself. I didn’t update for a while and it just started happening now.

[Errorv0]

I can confirm this issue only occurs when you try to watch a video whilst signed in with your Youtube Account. Try the same video not signed in ('Select account (none)' in the 'Accounts' menu) and it works fine?

This worked for me once I signed out videos are playing fine

I am on a Shield 2015

[Neosid996]

I can confirm this issue only occurs when you try to watch a video whilst signed in with your Youtube Account. Try the same video not signed in ('Select account (none)' in the 'Accounts' menu) and it works fine?

Makes no difference for me, unfortunately. Videos won't play whether I'm signed in or not.

Apologies. 😢 Hope the issue gets fixed for you soon!

[who-is-matt]

Same here on SmartTube 15.62, nVidia Shield Pro. Everything was fine last night, but today every video buffers constantly. I tried the logout and clear data method described above with no effect whatsoever.

Lowering the video format to SD (480fps, 30fps) reduced the buffering, and lowering it to 360p eliminated it almost entirely. Since this seems to be affecting people on different devices and different versions of SmartTube, my guess is that Google is throttling streams of they detect the user isn't using the official app.

[Cereal-Lain]

I can confirm this issue only occurs when you try to watch a video whilst signed in with your Youtube Account. Try the same video not signed in ('Select account (none)' in the 'Accounts' menu) and it works fine?

Yeah it does, but kinda ruins the experience. Pretty sure that it isn’t anything to do with the app itself. I didn’t update for a while and it just started happening now.

Okay I take it back. Being logged out doesn’t work anymore. I’m just confused now.

[Boogeymane]

Same here on SmartTube 15.62, nVidia Shield Pro. Everything was fine last night, but today every video buffers constantly. I tried the logout and clear data method described above with no effect whatsoever.

Lowering the video format to SD (480fps, 30fps) reduced the buffering, and lowering it to 360p eliminated it almost entirely. Since this seems to be affecting people on different devices and different versions of SmartTube, my guess is that Google is throttling streams of they detect the user isn't using the official app.

Makes me wonder what causes that snag. As I was able to clear cache and data, re-login and worked fine for a little while.

[Maeldor]

Some random combination of signing out, clearing cache, and signing back in actually has it working for me again. No clue for how long.

[kuro68k]

Same here on SmartTube 15.62, nVidia Shield Pro. Everything was fine last night, but today every video buffers constantly. I tried the logout and clear data method described above with no effect whatsoever.

Lowering the video format to SD (480fps, 30fps) reduced the buffering, and lowering it to 360p eliminated it almost entirely. Since this seems to be affecting people on different devices and different versions of SmartTube, my guess is that Google is throttling streams of they detect the user isn't using the official app.

YouTube Vanced still works, so it's not all unofficial apps.

[koffeedude]

A temporary fix for me on my firecube was to downgrade to a previous install.. I turned off auto updates (until a fix is in) and I am able to log into my yt account and watch all my subscribed videos no problem. No buffering and no pausing. Once I know it has been fixed I will get the latest install.

[metalfoxdev]

I have the same problem on smarttube 15.62 on a Sony XR-55 A80J, i bet google is behind this

[metalfoxdev]

Same here on SmartTube 15.62, nVidia Shield Pro. Everything was fine last night, but today every video buffers constantly. I tried the logout and clear data method described above with no effect whatsoever. Lowering the video format to SD (480fps, 30fps) reduced the buffering, and lowering it to 360p eliminated it almost entirely. Since this seems to be affecting people on different devices and different versions of SmartTube, my guess is that Google is throttling streams of they detect the user isn't using the official app.

YouTube Vanced still works, so it's not all unofficial apps.

NewPipe is ok and the yt extraction engine is NewPipeExtractor. So what extractor does SmartTube use?

[Nehemoth]

Same here.

[Maeldor]

Some random combination of signing out, clearing cache, and signing back in actually has it working for me again. No clue for how long.

And it stopped working again. I managed a whole two videos!

[Cereal-Lain]

A temporary fix for me on my firecube was to downgrade to a previous install.. I turned off auto updates (until a fix is in) and I am able to log into my yt account and watch all my subscribed videos no problem. No buffering and no pausing. Once I know it has been fixed I will get the latest install.

Are you sure? What version did you downgrade to? I just tried downgrading to last stable v14.82 and it didn’t help at all.

[Mcforwin]

Same issue with buffering only when logged in. Current workaround is to select no account, and then use other device to link to TV and play selected videos as queues. This will then ensure the video buffer at full speed with no throttling and still keep your subscriptions.

Alternate method is to create a playback queue while logged in with the exception of the first video (let's call it a dump video) and then put the current video onto background playback. Following that, select none on the account and then goes back to the video playback and go to the next video which will then continue to play at full speed thereafter.

[CoreyB3730]

I've been having buffering off and on for weeks now on my Toshiba Fire TV running Fire OS 6.2.9.1. Every time it starts happening I end up clearing the cache and restarting the TV, and almost every time I go to load back in there's an update for the beta version of the app. So I update, and then videos play normal for a day or two. Well today it's utterly unuseable. Every video takes almost a minute to start playing, then only plays for about a second before buffering.

[Muegic]

I’m having the same buffering issue since today evening on version 14.something. Upgrade to 15.62 didn’t help, but logging out worked for me (so far). (ShieldTV Pro)

[steewbsd]

I'm also seeing this problem as of today, working fine until now.

[Spaceboy60]

Same issue with the beta, however it only started buffering when I signed in!

Never had the issue with a previous Beta at all

[max-4711]

~Today i noticed recent comments below several YT videos with users complaining about error messages like 'No stream'. As i'm also experiencing the mentioned issues with STN and don't see any error messages, there may be some issues on the YT side, not related to and not limited to STN?~

Edit: Nevermind. Did some research; this seems to be not related to STN and occur sometimes when recently uploaded videos are accessed before they were fully processed.

[Mcforwin]

Today i noticed recent comments below several YT videos with users complaining about error messages like 'No stream'. As i'm also experiencing the mentioned issues with STN and don't see any error messages, there may be some issues on the YT side, not related to and not limited to STN?

Nope, have tried several music video and as soon as its playing while logged in or selected to be played while logged in, you will get the same error or issues. Can confirm that the limitation is fully removed when video is selected to be played when logged out.

[ChrisCollett]

Same with me. v15.62 on 2019 Shield running 9.1. Logging out is the only workaround atm, which is pretty crappy.

[Spaceboy60]

Yep, and switching to 480p while logged in makes no difference, only logging out helps which sucks

[Ranfire]

Looks like Google is fighting back. Hope this doesn't go the same way as vanced.

[Boogeymane]

Looks like Google is fighting back. Hope this doesn't go the same way as vanced.

I'm not sure if that is this but I feel as if something will come down those lines one day. Especially since now there is a stand alone website.

[koffeedude]

A temporary fix for me on my firecube was to downgrade to a previous install.. I turned off auto updates (until a fix is in) and I am able to log into my yt account and watch all my subscribed videos no problem. No buffering and no pausing. Once I know it has been fixed I will get the latest install.

Are you sure? What version did you downgrade to? I just tried downgrading to last stable v14.82 and it didn’t help at all.

I went back to Beta 14.96 on Firecube

[burt-ie]

Same thing for me. I'm on a shield TV wired 1Gbps connection

[FrankRietman]

Same for me on 15.62 on a mi box 4. I hope SmartTube can get around this throttle limit from google otherwise rip SmartTube

[YoRyugekiken]

A temporary fix for me on my firecube was to downgrade to a previous install.. I turned off auto updates (until a fix is in) and I am able to log into my yt account and watch all my subscribed videos no problem. No buffering and no pausing. Once I know it has been fixed I will get the latest install.

Are you sure? What version did you downgrade to? I just tried downgrading to last stable v14.82 and it didn’t help at all.

I went back to Beta 14.96 on Firecube

I just tested with beta 14.96 and I have the same problem. The videos are working while being logged out and buffering while being logged in

[koffeedude]

A temporary fix for me on my firecube was to downgrade to a previous install.. I turned off auto updates (until a fix is in) and I am able to log into my yt account and watch all my subscribed videos no problem. No buffering and no pausing. Once I know it has been fixed I will get the latest install.

Are you sure? What version did you downgrade to? I just tried downgrading to last stable v14.82 and it didn’t help at all.

I went back to Beta 14.96 on Firecube

I just tested with beta 14.96 and I have the same problem. The videos are working while being logged out and buffering while being logged in

It is a strange problem. I am not sure why it works for me. I hope they get it fixed soon.