[Bug]: (PiHole misconfiguration) Videos not playing, Error: Error invoking remote method 'generate-po-token': Error: Failed to fetch

[AndyShade]

Maintainer edit

If you are getting this error make sure your PiHole isn't erroneously blocking YouTube's integrity check domain jnn-pa.googleapis.com.

Guidelines

• I have encountered this bug in the latest release of FreeTube.
• I have encountered this bug in the official downloads of FreeTube.
• I have searched the issue tracker for open and closed issues that are similar to the bug report I want to file, without success.
• I have searched the documentation for information that matches the description of the bug I want to file, without success.
• This issue contains only one bug.

Describe the bug

1. Open freetube
2. Try to play a video
3. Video will not play
4. Presented with a popup error
5. Error: Error invoking remote method 'generate-po-token': Error: Failed to fetch

Console output

Details

renderer.js:2 using static file for invidious instances
fetchInvidiousInstances @ renderer.js:2
renderer.js:2 Local API, poToken generation failed Error: Error invoking remote method 'generate-po-token': Error: Failed to fetch
at IpcRenderer.invoke (node:electron/js2c/renderer_init:2:7076)
at async ZY (renderer.js:2:1826697)
at async r.getVideoInformationLocal (renderer.js:2:2290381)
ZY @ renderer.js:2
renderer.js:2 Error: Error invoking remote method 'generate-po-token': Error: Failed to fetch
at IpcRenderer.invoke (node:electron/js2c/renderer_init:2:7076)
at async ZY (renderer.js:2:1826697)
at async r.getVideoInformationLocal (renderer.js:2:2290381)
getVideoInformationLocal @ renderer.js:2
renderer.js:2 MediaImage src can only be of http/https/data/blob scheme: app://bundle/index.html
mounted @ renderer.js:2
renderer.js:2 Player Error (category and code explainations here: https://shaka-player-demo.appspot.com/docs/api/shaka.util.Error.html)
Video ID: "hfgllf1L9_4"
FreeTube player context: "loading dash/audio manifest and setting default quality in mounted"

Severity: CRITICAL (2)
Category: NETWORK (1)
Code: UNSUPPORTED_SCHEME (1000)
Stack trace:
Error: Shaka Error 1000
at new Ee (app://bundle/renderer.js:2:24640)
at la (app://bundle/renderer.js:2:97084)
at app://bundle/renderer.js:2:101205
at app://bundle/renderer.js:2:99035
at app://bundle/renderer.js:2:99276

shaka-player Data: Array(1)
VQ @ renderer.js:2
renderer.js:2 Unable to play DASH formats. Reverting to legacy formats...
handlePlayerError @ renderer.js:2
9Chrome is moving towards a new experience that allows users to choose to browse without third-party cookies.

example link: https://youtu.be/hfgllf1L9_4

Expected Behavior

Open freetube and play a video without issues.

Issue Labels

API issue

FreeTube Version

v0.23.1 Beta

Operating System Version

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19045.4046]

Installation Method

.zip / .7z

Issue occurs for:

Local API
Invidious API

Issue occurs for:

Proxy Videos Through Invidious off
Proxy Videos Through Invidious on

Last Known Working FreeTube Version (If Any)

v0.22.0 Beta Portable is the last known working version

Additional Information

No response

Nightly Build

I have encountered this bug in the latest [nightly build]

[CharAznableLoNZ]

I am also seeing this. For me it seems to be every video. Some example videos that do not play.
https://youtu.be/JAxzbk7CrkQ
https://youtu.be/JgkJ4e6C9QI
I have tried this on two different machines, one a Fedora 41 system and the other a W10 22H2 system. Both display the same errors.

[ErikSchulp]

I am also seeing this, these are all the popups I am getting:

Error: Error invoking remote method 'generate-po-token': Error: Failed to fetch
Falling back to Invidious API
SyntaxError: Unexpected token '<', "<!DOCTYPE "... is not valid JSON
Legacy formats are not available for this video

I have removed the installed version (0.22.1), downloaded the latest .deb from the website, and have the same issue still.

Freetube version: v0.23.1 Beta
OS: Zorin OS 17.2 (Ubuntu Debian)
Connection: Direct

I am running Adguard Home on a Raspberry Pi as my DNS server, up until this error first popped up (overnight, the night before no problems) everything ran fine.

[Lucky00Snake]

For me that problem was started from 0.22.1 nightly build 5364.
Freetube 0.22.1 nightly build 5363 is working fine.

FreeTube linux portable x64
OS: Debian 12.9

[absidue]

@Lucky00Snake Yes that is expected to be that commit, as that is what added the potokens to fix the 403 errors. The more interesting question is why only a small subset of users, such as yourself, are getting these errors while it it working fine for everyone else.

Can you please confirm if you are connecting to YouTube directly or using a VPN, proxy or tor? It would also be good to know if you have some kind of ad or tracker blocker in your VPN or on your network (e.g. a PiHole).

[CharAznableLoNZ]

Local API
Proxy Videos Through Invidious OFF
Format Dash

No proxy, VPN, or tor in use.

I do have a pihole and I did see this request blocked when clicking a video. When I whitelist this domain on my pihole the video does play.

Feb 1 09:37:41: gravity blocked jnn-pa.googleapis.com is 0.0.0.0

It appears on this list.
Match found in https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jdlingyu/ad-wars/master/hosts:
jnn-pa.googleapis.com

This does appear to be the cause.

Small update, on my fedora machine, after whitelisting this all videos played. On my HTPC, W10, I received the 403 error the first time then went back and forward then the video played.

[absidue]

Yep, that it Google's BotGuard domain needed for the integrity checks, there is no reason for that to be on a block list unless someone was just blocking everything possible without checking whether it impacted functionality.

[ErikSchulp]

This was the issue for me too, whitelisting jnn-pa.googleapis.com solved it.

[rehashedsalt]

Match found in https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jdlingyu/ad-wars/master/hosts:

Seems there's an issue against his repo for this. It's gone unanswered, and both the repo and its maintainer haven't had contributions/contributed in years. Dead bad blocklist is dead and bad.

If the domain's in any other blocklists, it should probably be reported to their maintainers.

[absidue]

As the cause for most people seems to be broken PiHole configurations, we can leave this issue open for a while just for information but we can't fix problems caused by external software on the FreeTube side.