youtube-nocookie domain has problems in Firefox, but not in Google Chrome
THis problem just started a few days ago. This problem shows up in embedded videos that have been working for months, at least.
I use YouTube's iframe method of embedding. When I use youtube-nocookie domain which is an option that YouTube itself offers to me, when I try to play the embedded video I get the message "An error occured, please try again later. <a target="_blank" href="https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/3037019?p=player_error1&rd=1">Learn More</a>".
The Learn More is a link to https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/3037019?p=player_error1&rd=1 This link is of no help.
I am using Firefox 36.0.1. There is no trouble with the same embedded video in Google Chrome. My Google search on this problem never took me to an item on the Mozilla support page, but I think I will look there next.
Here is a link to a post where I see the problem.
http://ssgreenberg.name/PoliticsBlog/2015/03/04/sen-warren-to-gop-stop-ambushing-workers-rights/
Even when I use the link with youtube-nocookie directly in the Firefox URL bar, I get a blank page. If I take out the -nocookie from the domain in the address bar, the video plays.
Chosen solution
The issue with YouTube is that the file http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLT2nV3sWtw exists and will get you the correct video.
Right clicking on the player in the window shows the video URL to be - https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TLT2nV3sWtw
In the iframe, I had https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/TLT2nV3sWtw. This file exists on www.youtube-nocookie. For Firefox, YouTube changes the request to https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/watch. Notice the word changed to watch from embed. This file exists on youtube.com, but not on youtune-nocookie.com. This is unlike the other file that exists in both domains.
On Google Chrome, on the same iframe, when I right click on the video player to copy the URL, I get https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLT2nV3sWtw. So the -nocookie has been removed for Google Chrome, but not for Firefox. This is obviouslty a YouTube "mistake".
Read this answer in context 👍 0All Replies (12)
Google's scripts tend to be very complex so I'm not diving in to try to figure it out the reason for the following:
In Firefox 36, the embed uses the Flash player plugin and there are problems accessing files on the youtube-nocookie.com server (404 Not Found errors).
In Chrome, the embed uses the HTML5 player.
Now... I don't know why there is this difference, but it may be significant.
Modified by jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
You can try to switch the default player to the HTML5 media player.
cor-el said
You can try to switch the default player to the HTML5 media player.
Who is it that I tell to default to the HTML5 media player. I cannot find a way to do it in Firefox.
I did try to do that on YouTube. On the following page:
which I just noticed is the page you suggested, there is a button to "Request the HTML5 player", but it did not help.
Modified by Steve@ssgreenberg.name
jscher2000 said
In Firefox 36, the embed uses the Flash player plugin and there are problems accessing files on the youtube-nocookie.com server (404 Not Found errors).
The YouTube embed player just says ""An error occured, please try again later. " When I use the same link directly in the URL address bar of Firefox, I just get a blank page in a new tab. I just noticed that the name of the tab for that blank page is "404 Not Found". I had not noticed that before. Sarcasm -> Real helpful for YouTube to do that.
It would be nice if someone at either Mozilla or YouTube would accept the blame for this problem and try to fix it rather than just point the finger at the other guy.
I followed the instructions on the YouTube help page to right click on the offending embedded player to "report playback issue". I may have been the first person in the world to do that. Not real clever for YouTube to put the right click suggestion on a help page you are not likely to find by yourself. Perhaps YouTube collected enough info when I reported the problem that they can now take responsibility for fixing it.
You'd think that they would want their stuff to work with Firefox, a very popular browser.
Modified by Steve@ssgreenberg.name
There is also a conversation about this on the YouTube support forum where I have made a reply, and have gotten an offer of help.
The link to my original reply is https://productforums.google.com/d/msg/youtube/6JmM2mr_r10/4YtcH_g4vwsJ. Perhaps experts from the two communities can get together to resolve this. I have given them the link to this report on Mozilla.
To add some clarification, the following URL works just fine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TLT2nV3sWtw
Just add the -nocookie and it no longer works. The failing URL is
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TLT2nV3sWtw
When I got the blank page for the failing URL, I decided to look at the page source. I'll display it below. I have pretty printed it so you can analyze the code more easily.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style>* { margin:0;padding:0;border:0}html,body{height:100%;}</style>
<title>404 Not Found</title>
</head>
<body>
<iframe style="display:block;border:0;"
src="/error?src=404&ifr=1&error="
width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>
</body>
</html>
What the heck kind of display do you suppopse YouTube expected with code like this. There is no visible content to be displayed? There is only the title of the page that has a chance of displaying anything.
Modified by Steve@ssgreenberg.name
Hi ssg13565, I don't know why that 404 page has an iframe in it. Very strange. But I think the 404 page is a symptom of an earlier problem yet to be determined and is not itself the problem.
Yes, the 404 page thing is a complete red herring. The 404 problem is due to picking out the embed URL and trying it directly. That is not the correct way to get a stand-alone URL.
I think the correct stand-alone URL is https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/TLT2nV3sWtw
I have verified that the direct URL works in Google Chrome. It does not work in Firefox. With this URL in Firefox, I do not get the "404 not found" error. I get a video player that displays the correct image at first. If I then click on the play button, I get "An error occurred, please try again later" just like I get for the embedded version.
I may be on to something here.
My embed code is the following:
<div style="text-align:center">
<iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/TLT2nV3sWtw?rel=0" style="border:thick ridge #009900;" allowfullscreen="" height="315" width="560"></iframe>
</div>
However, if I right click on the player and ask it to copy the video URL, this is what I get:
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TLT2nV3sWtw
This is the URL that produces the page not found when I use it directly. This may be what the embed player is inadequately trying to tell me.
Perhaps YouTube has changed what is an acceptable URL. Maybe the iframe code at https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/ is screwing up the the call to the player that it gives to Firefox.
View the source code at https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/TLT2nV3sWtw
In the source code there is a line that says
<link rel="canonical" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLT2nV3sWtw">
The URL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLT2nV3sWtw is valid.
Now put in the stuff from the Flash copied URL. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TLT2nV3sWtw. That still works. Well, of course there is no -nocookie in there.
What if I put the -nocookie into the link line.
<link rel="canonical" href="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/watch?v=TLT2nV3sWtw">
http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/watch is the file that does not exist.
A "canonical" URL tag indicates that the site prefers search engines to only index the canonical URL instead of the current one. This avoids a duplicate content penalty. Firefox doesn't do anything with this tag -- I'm not aware of a way to signal to Firefox to use that canonical URL instead of the current one.
Chosen Solution
The issue with YouTube is that the file http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLT2nV3sWtw exists and will get you the correct video.
Right clicking on the player in the window shows the video URL to be - https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TLT2nV3sWtw
In the iframe, I had https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/TLT2nV3sWtw. This file exists on www.youtube-nocookie. For Firefox, YouTube changes the request to https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/watch. Notice the word changed to watch from embed. This file exists on youtube.com, but not on youtune-nocookie.com. This is unlike the other file that exists in both domains.
On Google Chrome, on the same iframe, when I right click on the video player to copy the URL, I get https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLT2nV3sWtw. So the -nocookie has been removed for Google Chrome, but not for Firefox. This is obviouslty a YouTube "mistake".