Are you behind a proxy/VPN? I had no issue with yt-dlp downloading from youtube.
Update:
When I copy the youtube address to use for yt-dlp from freetube it errors out however If I go to youtube itself or use the invidious address it works as expected. Very strange.
Even without the proxy I am getting this: Native nsig extraction failed
However, after installing phantomjs, it tries again with that and it works.
For me both mpv and yt-dlp works fine. Both with vpn connection. 
This whole situation is becoming quite bizarre. Where are we going to end up?
Yt-dlp and mpv work well for me too, it’s just Freetube not working, though sometimes it works, it’s a bit weird. Eventually they will patch it and fix it, but then the fix will only last for a few days, it’s a cat and mouse game at this point and it’s very frustrating that you have to go this far to have a lightweight/private/etc experience.
for me it only works when the content is Live streaming other than that It just keeps giving me the same error. MPV works fine with it. yt-dlp works fine however sometimes the youtube address from the freetube app will error but if I try again it will go through. so maybe nothing to do with any of the freetube issues as far as that goes. I suspect we are going to continue to have issues until Google gets what they want or they are made to break up which the later I really doubt will happen in today’s world.
every word here is my current experience ^^^
Question for anybody: why does this go around in a constant circle? Is it as simple as a developer figured a way to get around restrictions? Then a few days later Youtube sews up the loophole? Like that? edit/typo
Pretty much Yes. Google is at war with ad-blockers and those who use them despite the FBI encouraging people to install ad-blockers.
I believe youtube often rolls out changes incrementally. It is possible that a change has been made that only impacts certain users or regions.
I am almost at the point of installing Windows with Microsoft account, install Chrome, log into the browser, say goodbye to anything called blocker etc, and live miserably ever after 
my reply is torn between 
or 
I understand. My feeling about the whole thing is towards this 
end of the spectrum 
On The Android side, things seem to be working fine for me, for now (knock, knock, knocking on the wooden floor 
).
Using Tubular (a fork of Newpipe) + VPN
Freetube is an HTML parser if I’m not wrong. To not have to follow the Youtube TOS, it doesn’t use its web API, instead relying solely on HTML parsing to retrieve all the information. Any change from Youtube’s side can break Freetube because of this, and I’m pretty sure many of these changes are on purpose
We are watching the drama being unfolded in real time
Upstream patched version is released.
In general it’s pretty simple to write a script using yt-dlp, fzf and mpv that pretty much acts as a youtube search program and player. If you don’t mind the terminal and missing preview images, to me this is the best approach of using YouTube.
Just downloaded it also myself. . . . . . . my fingers are crossed. . .
Rich
