[BUG]: black screen doesn't play

[allnamesaretakennow]

Checklist

• I made sure that there are no existing issues - open or closed - which I could contribute my information to.
• I have read the FAQ and my problem isn't listed.
• I have taken the time to fill in all the required details. I understand that the bug report will be dismissed otherwise.
• This issue contains only one bug.

Affected version

24.89

Device Type

Smart TV/Box

Affected Android

Android tv 12

Steps to reproduce the bug

Can't start any video, screen is just black.

Actual behavior

When I press play the screen is just black.

Additional information

It's on a Nokia tv box.

The problem occured yesterday when it stopped working.

It has been working before fine so it's not the problem of the box.

[iiNekoMattyii]

i have the same issue on my firestick running latest version of both smarttube and fireos

[astraetech]

Same problem, latest gen 4k max firestick with updated logged-in smarttube and fireos. Videos don't play just the OSD appears and pressing play doesn't do anything. Restarting firestick did not help.

[brhv098]

Same happened to me too on my G1 tv box

[yusuo1]

Same issue here, infinite loading screen when video selected, I'm on a Shield Pro, have reinstall app and restarted shield but still nothing

[Keiyuu]

Same here on Sony Android TV. Can't watch any videos, just black screen.

[bubuleur]

Same problem here on an Nvidia Shield TV Pro I emptied the cache stopped the application and I put on the latest beta version it still doesn't work impossible to play any video
Thanks

[khan-belal]

Same issue on my Sony TV using v25.01.

Infinite black loading screen when attempting to play videos

[j3lte]

Same issue on my Nvidia Shield. This logcat might be useful (don't know for sure):

12-06 17:38:40.089 15797 15870 W System.err: java.lang.IllegalStateException: NSigExtractor: Can't obtain NSig code for https://www.youtube.com/s/player/3bb1f723/tv-player-es6.vflset/tv-player-es6.js...
12-06 17:38:40.093 15797 15870 W System.err: 	at com.liskovsoft.youtubeapi.app.nsig.NSigExtractor.<init>(NSigExtractor.kt:63)
12-06 17:38:40.093 15797 15870 W System.err: 	at com.liskovsoft.youtubeapi.app.AppService.updatePlayerData(AppService.java:350)
12-06 17:38:40.093 15797 15870 W System.err: 	at com.liskovsoft.youtubeapi.app.AppService.getClientPlaybackNonceFunction(AppService.java:297)
12-06 17:38:40.093 15797 15870 W System.err: 	at com.liskovsoft.youtubeapi.app.AppService.getClientPlaybackNonce(AppService.java:150)
12-06 17:38:40.093 15797 15870 W System.err: 	at com.liskovsoft.youtubeapi.videoinfo.V2.VideoInfoApiHelper.createCheckedQuery(VideoInfoApiHelper.java:64)
12-06 17:38:40.093 15797 15870 W System.err: 	at com.liskovsoft.youtubeapi.videoinfo.V2.VideoInfoApiHelper.createCheckedQuery(VideoInfoApiHelper.java:60)
12-06 17:38:40.093 15797 15870 W System.err: 	at com.liskovsoft.youtubeapi.videoinfo.V2.VideoInfoApiHelper.getVideoInfoQuery(VideoInfoApiHelper.java:36)
12-06 17:38:40.093 15797 15870 W System.err: 	at com.liskovsoft.youtubeapi.videoinfo.V2.VideoInfoService.getVideoInfo(VideoInfoService.java:192)
12-06 17:38:40.093 15797 15870 W System.err: 	at com.liskovsoft.youtubeapi.videoinfo.V2.VideoInfoService.getVideoInfo(VideoInfoService.java:133)
12-06 17:38:40.093 15797 15870 W System.err: 	at com.liskovsoft.youtubeapi.videoinfo.V2.VideoInfoService.getRootVideoInfo(VideoInfoService.java:116)
12-06 17:38:40.093 15797 15870 W System.err: 	at com.liskovsoft.youtubeapi.videoinfo.V2.VideoInfoService.getVideoInfo(VideoInfoService.java:62)
12-06 17:38:40.093 15797 15870 W System.err: 	at com.liskovsoft.youtubeapi.service.YouTubeMediaItemService.getFormatInfo(YouTubeMediaItemService.java:85)
12-06 17:38:40.094 15797 15870 W System.err: 	at com.liskovsoft.youtubeapi.service.YouTubeMediaItemService.getFormatInfo(YouTubeMediaItemService.java:74)
12-06 17:38:40.094 15797 15870 W System.err: 	at com.liskovsoft.youtubeapi.service.YouTubeMediaItemService.lambda$getFormatInfoObserve$1$YouTubeMediaItemService(YouTubeMediaItemService.java:101)
12-06 17:38:40.094 15797 15870 W System.err: 	at com.liskovsoft.youtubeapi.service.-$$Lambda$YouTubeMediaItemService$HynjQsP9RJphTinqqpFAiqdV5tA.call(Unknown Source:4)
12-06 17:38:40.094 15797 15870 W System.err: 	at com.liskovsoft.sharedutils.rx.RxHelper.lambda$fromNullable$13(RxHelper.java:249)
12-06 17:38:40.094 15797 15870 W System.err: 	at com.liskovsoft.sharedutils.rx.-$$Lambda$RxHelper$iC1Gyv_JFKl5A2iXhGyPMp4GAVk.subscribe(Unknown Source:2)
12-06 17:38:40.094 15797 15870 W System.err: 	at io.reactivex.internal.operators.observable.ObservableCreate.subscribeActual(ObservableCreate.java:40)
12-06 17:38:40.094 15797 15870 W System.err: 	at io.reactivex.Observable.subscribe(Observable.java:12284)
12-06 17:38:40.094 15797 15870 W System.err: 	at io.reactivex.internal.operators.observable.ObservableSubscribeOn$SubscribeTask.run(ObservableSubscribeOn.java:96)
12-06 17:38:40.094 15797 15870 W System.err: 	at io.reactivex.Scheduler$DisposeTask.run(Scheduler.java:608)
12-06 17:38:40.094 15797 15870 W System.err: 	at io.reactivex.internal.schedulers.ScheduledRunnable.run(ScheduledRunnable.java:66)
12-06 17:38:40.094 15797 15870 W System.err: 	at io.reactivex.internal.schedulers.ScheduledRunnable.call(ScheduledRunnable.java:57)
12-06 17:38:40.094 15797 15870 W System.err: 	at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266)
12-06 17:38:40.094 15797 15870 W System.err: 	at java.util.concurrent.ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor$ScheduledFutureTask.run(ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor.java:301)
12-06 17:38:40.094 15797 15870 W System.err: 	at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1167)
12-06 17:38:40.094 15797 15870 W System.err: 	at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:641)
12-06 17:38:40.094 15797 15870 W System.err: 	at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:923)

[bubuleur]

Now it's back with version 24.89 the video works again, I don't know why did it go wrong

[RomanoR18]

Not working for me now as well. I have the latest update

[V4ler1an]

Now it's back with version 24.89 the video works again, I don't know why did it go wrong

That version doesn't work for me. It's the one i've been on since it stopped working yesterday. Could it be that updating fixed it for you?

[clienthax]

started working for me too without updating

[V4ler1an]

started working for me too without updating

No dice here still. Some kind of regional issue or blocking maybe?

[bubuleur]

Now it's back with version 24.89 the video works again, I don't know why did it go wrong

That version doesn't work for me. It's the one i've been on since it stopped working yesterday. Could it be that updating fixed it for you?

No I don't think the beta version I installed and uninstalled right after and changed something
I think it's regional it depends where you are located

[j3lte]

Somehow it started working for me again (Europe, Netherlands), using SmartTube Beta 25.02. This one had the black screen issue the whole day. The release version (SmartTube 24.89) didn't have issues.

[dberthia]

I'm in the US on the release version, and continue to see the issue. Usually if I wait for the spinner long enough (like 5 minutes), the video will play eventually.

[dberthia]

I'm in the US on the release version, and continue to see the issue. Usually if I wait for the spinner long enough (like 5 minutes), the video will play eventually.

[mcrypt]

In Europe on a shield pro same issue v 25.02

[flashground]

US. Somehow it started working for me. I didn't do anything.

[miroan81]

Europe, 24.89 version, no updates available. Black screen since yesterday

edit: as another user suggested the block seems to be connected with microG or something in between, watching videos in guest mode works
#4183

[wieli99]

Guest mode does not work here. 24.89 - Central Europe

[V4ler1an]

When I log out of my YT account, I can play videos. Log back in, black screen again. Account related again it seems?

Edit: Just tested on my other TV and it works normally but it's pre 24.89 because it's prompting me to update to it.

[IndefiniteBen]

Fixed for me in the latest beta 25.03

[Conundroy]

I found a fix on 24.89, just force stop and clear cache and playback should work again for signed in sessions. Hope this works for you.

[dberthia]

Force Stop and Clear Cache on 24.89 did NOT help in my case (US- Nvidia Shield Pro 2019)

[henrylai]

Google Chromecast HD here. On 24.89
Force stop and clear cache did not work.
I suspect this is some type of blocking on Google's end...

[apgeshev]

Fixed by

1. Force stopping the app
2. Clear cache data
3. Clear app data

Afterwards, I had to login again into my Google account and everything was working as expected

[aamkoivu]

I had same problem on Sony TV, got it working on latest stable version by changing setting:

Settings -> video player -> developer settings -> check use IPv4 DNS

(Or something similar, menu naming might a little bit differently due to translation from finnish.)

[henrylai]

Google Chromecast HD here. On 24.89 Force stop and clear cache did not work. I suspect this is some type of blocking on Google's end...

Update: didn't do anything, but it's fixed now

[dberthia]

What fixed it for me was routing SmartTube app traffic through my VPN. Disabling the VPN re-introduced the problem. My ISP in the US is Xfinity.

[V4ler1an]

What fixed it for me was routing SmartTube app traffic through my VPN. Disabling the VPN re-introduced the problem. My ISP in the US is Xfinity.

My whole network is on a vpn, I still had the issue until I cleared the cache. Changed servers, changed countries, tried bypassing the VPN. Nothing worked. Before clearing the cache, what DID work, was logging my YT account out of the app. I could fix and recreated the problem back and forth just by logging out and back in. I believe the issue was something account related that was stored in the cache. So both logging out or clearing the cache resolved it for me. This also is the second time in recent memory that logging out my account has resolved an issue. Seems to be something to check early on.

[ardoin]

This also just started happening to me this morning (watching Gukesh v Ding livestream) - force closing app / clearing cache did not help. On version 24.89 also.

[SorakaMafaka]

Same issue started happening today, version 25.04.
Force close/clear cache/reinstall doesn't solve the issue.
UK, no VPN.

[V4ler1an]

Same issue started happening today, version 25.04. Force close/clear cache/reinstall doesn't solve the issue. UK, no VPN.

There are two options, 'clear cache' but also above it 'clear data' (which also clears the cache). I used clear data after a force stop and it worked for me.

[SorakaMafaka]

Same issue started happening today, version 25.04. Force close/clear cache/reinstall doesn't solve the issue. UK, no VPN.

There are two options, 'clear cache' but also above it 'clear data' (which also clears the cache). I used clear data after a force stop and it worked for me.

Thanks, I've tried clear data and signing back in as well, no joy I'm afraid.

[V4ler1an]

Same issue started happening today, version 25.04. Force close/clear cache/reinstall doesn't solve the issue. UK, no VPN.

There are two options, 'clear cache' but also above it 'clear data' (which also clears the cache). I used clear data after a force stop and it worked for me.

Thanks, I've tried clear data and signing back in as well, no joy I'm afraid.

I'm curious to know if this is an app bug or something Google is up to trying to block the client once it can identify them. My guess is the latter. If you have a VPN try it along with the data clear. If you're on fibre, reboot your router to get a new IP.

[TonyHoyle]

It was working this morning... this afternoon dead. Even tried a full uninstall and reinstall, no dice. Since the version hadn't changed from this morning I expect it's something that google has changed at their end.

[Phantomx2]

Was working yesterday, not this morning.
Rest cache and everything didn't help.
24.89 on shield tv pro, from Canada

[mcrypt]

Started working last night, now completly dead again.

[farpinellc]

all black here

[jackL999]

Everything was fine last night, but it stopped working this morning. None of the proposed solutions given in this thread worked. The videos are listed, they just won't play.

[TheColdOne]

This just started happening for me within the last hour (was fine earlier this morning).

[gcogger]

Same for me, just started in the last hour. Never had the issue before.
This is using the original 'Chromecast with Google TV' (or whatever it's called!).
Forgot to say that I'm using v25.04, and the issue started without updating the software.

[vilm725]

Same for me, v24.89 on mi tv 3 (mssp3). Yesterday, everythink work fine but today, no way ... Do you think Google or the application is blocking it?

[clasenpickle]

I usually have videos playing overnight and everything was perfectly fine until an hour and a half ago when my videos were playing on my phone but not the tv. I’ve tried everything under the sun and it’s still not working. I’m using a google tv on the stable version

Edit: I’ve tried everything that is currently on this thread and will continue to and nothing has worked. Switching ip’s, clearing cache, even changing YouTube accounts won’t work

[susloparovdenis]

"clear data" didn't help in my case

[vmail]

reboot, force close, clear cache, signout/signin did not work, using the stable version, native android TV app works ok.
rebooting the the router to get a new IP after all of the above worked now

[jgawarecki]

I'm on v24.89, the network seems very finicky, sometimes the list of videos will load but not always. I'm having trouble signing back in. I haven't been able to get any videos to load.
I've tried to
Force stop
clear cache
Clear data
Check ipv4 box in setting -> player --> developer
Reset router

All to no avail. I love this app, please fix it nerds!

[V4ler1an]

reboot, force close, clear cache, signout/signin did not work, using the stable version, native android TV app works ok. rebooting the the router to get a new IP after all of the above worked now

Knew it ! Change of IP needed as well.

[gcogger]

I tried switching to a fixed IP address, so it's different from before, but to no avail.

[jgawarecki]

Knew it ! Change of IP needed as well.

You seem to have a grip on the problem since you could recreate it. Do you think there is a proper order to do things? Maybe i need to log out, clear cache, switch up ip address (by rebooting router for 10+ seconds) and then logging back in.. got any idea what to try? As someone who doesn't have a network wide VPN set up :p

[V4ler1an]

On two different occasions when the app stopped working I found logging out got videos playing again. Total guess: might indicate your account is being blocked or something by google for that client. Try switching to a different YT account perhaps? (Along with clear data etc).

-Log out
-Switch up your IP (if you can)
-Force stop
-Clear data
-Login with the other YT account

If all else fails, send in the smiling assassin ? I can't go back to the regular YT client it's like being sent back to the stone age. Seriously, this is a human rights issue now.

[bubuleur]

the problem is back the videos no longer work
YouTube wants SmartTube's skin

[jgawarecki]

Thanks for all the advice, I've tried it all now in multiple ways and it's still not working. On the bright side my phone app (NewPipe) still works so the problem must have a solution right?

[sgh2415]

Same here. Firestick and tried all the fixes others mentioned

[Vindtr]

Just loaded my sony bravia. Worked fine this morning, but by the evening- same black screen everyone is reporting. I even installed the update the smarttube app provided

[dberthia]

New 25.08 stable fixes the issue