Youtube keeps freezing and NordVPN wont connect over cellular data

Site Feedback
1

so i started with lineageOS with microG. got my new phone all up and running, and noticed that EVERY youtube video would pause near the 1 min mark, and my youtube downloads never finished… If i force stop MicroG, youtube downloads would continue for another few minutes… and id have to force stop microG again… i also noticed that NordVPN would only work if i was on WiFi… outside of wifi it just attempts to connect indefinitely…

so i figured i would try CalyXOS, i have the same exact issues… nordvpn only works on wifi and youtube sucks…(im a heavy youtube user, listen to downloads all day at work. so this is a big deal).

wondering if there was actually something wrong with the phone, i re flashed stock android, and everything works fine…

any suggestions? I reallly dont want a stock rom, i hate all the bloatware, malware, spyware, tracking… etc… which is why a VPN is important to me…
thanks!

2

Not sure if it’s relevant, but have you tried patching YouTube with ReVanced or using NewPipe’s app? Also, does YouTube behave the same in the browser as the app? It might help determine if it’s the YouTube connection itself or the app…

You might also try a different VPN to determine if it’s an Android setting or something with the Nord app itself (e.g., Proton and Cloudflare Warp have free versions with no sign-in required).

3

I have the same YT issue since the beginning as well, however nordvpn always worked fine for me (Dutch network)

4

this could be a DNS issue where the Youtube app relies on 8.8.8.8 as DNS and that is being blocked by CalyxOS. Just guessing.

Aside from that, try using youtube in Brave browser, log in to your account, have all your channels and subscriptions, but a lot less commercials.

If you really want to make use of a privacy oriented phone, use Grayjay. It even has Sponsorblock!

5

If you have premium you can just download videos before watching them but if you (understandably) dont wanna pay then just use the web version of youtube or download newpipe or some other alternative youtube app

6

I tried newpipe, and it works great, zero issues… But the interface isn’t as good and I don’t have all my recommended video’s…(I understand the irony here, of me wanting the google algoryhthm in this case LOL)
I’ve heard of revanced… Haven’t read too much into it. But might check it out more… Seems like there is little information about it on the web… When I have the time next weekend, I’ll dig into a little more.

7

Try newpipe I haven’t had any issues at all with LOS+MicroG

8

Interesting, it seem MicroG is the issue… Or atleast has some issues.

9

Grayjay looks really cool. Always nice to find new apps to add to the privacy arsenal! :star::+1:

10

Sweet, never heard of grayjay. I’ll check it out.

And right on, I’ll check DNS issues, but I’m pretty sure Firefox is set to googles DNS by default and my Firefox works just fine. But I’ll dig more into it, thanks.

11

I do have premium, and that’s what I did. Recently, after an update, I enabled all the microG features and YouTube now works properly. But nordvpn is still broken

12

Glad to hear NewPipe at least works :slightly_smiling_face: If you’re curious about ReVanced, they have a guide on their Reddit forum.

Also was thinking, if YouTube gives issues on Nord, you could always try split-tunneling the YouTube app to see if it makes a difference (not necessarily a solution, but it might give clues for r/nordvpn to chime in).

13

Its not that I specifically get issue with YouTube on nord, its that NEITHER work correctly at all unfortunately…

14

Huh, this has me stumped, honestly. Ironically, I always had issues on stock with different VPNs constantly stopping after a few hours (even with “always on” setting enabled), but it hasn’t been an issue on Calyx (currently using Proton)…never did figure out what was the problem on stock, but it was an issue ever since 14 was released.

It might be worth posting a question on r/nordvpn and seeing if anyone there has had similar issues to yours on any custom Roms. :thinking: Very curious what’s causing it!