59s is back

[Zagreus101]

For a couple of days YouTube was working perfectly but now videos are back to buffering at 59s and I didn't even change anything
What should I do?

[Netman82]

I've been always having this issue always lately. as mentioned in another comment, I add 't=60' to the end of the Youtube URL to bypass it. the problem though, is you have to do it every other 59s!

[therealaleph]

Reviewed via Anthropic Claude.

YouTube SABR cliff cluster — same root cause across this thread and #1050 / #1076. YouTube's player has multiple ways to push you into the SABR (low-bandwidth-mobile) streaming path even when youtube_via_relay is OFF:

1. UA detection (preexisting): when chunks route via SNI rewrite, the GFE pretends the SNI-host UA is what's making the request. SABR routing happens server-side based on that UA assessment.
2. Server-side experiment rotation: YouTube periodically rotates which UAs / IP ranges get the SABR path. Some users see clean weeks then sudden breakage with no client-side change.
3. Player JS bootstrap state: snapshotted at the initial tab load. If the bootstrap sees "restricted" or "geo'd" the player config caches that across navigations until full reload.

What's actually fixable from our side:

• PR feat(youtube): relay_url_patterns + SABR strip + exit-node-full SNI #977 (in active community testing) strips the &sabr=1&rqh=1 query params from googlevideo.com URLs before they hit our relay. The empirical claim is that YouTube falls back to a non-SABR streaming path that has no 59s cliff. If this lands, it's the structural fix.
• PR perf: skip H2 for full-tunnel batch requests #1040 + fix: skip H2 for tunnel_request (single ops) — completes #1040 #1041 (just merged in v1.9.21 / v1.9.22): tunnel-side H2 stalls. Made Full mode usable again — but doesn't address the SABR cliff itself.

What you can do today:

1. Verify you're on v1.9.22 (mhrv-rs --version) — Full mode users on older versions got 30s timeouts that masquerade as "videos won't play".
2. ?t= increment trick (bandaid fix for youtube 0:59 buffering #942's Sherrybmd workaround): when video stalls at 59s, edit URL to ?t=60s, page reloads from that point, plays another ~60s. Manual but reliable.
3. Mid-session toggle trick (YouTube restricted mode/safe mode fix #986's Amin177a workaround): load YouTube tab with youtube_via_relay: false, then flip to true and restart mhrv-rs without closing the tab. Inherits non-restricted bootstrap state.
4. For the 0-bytes-served symptom specifically: usually CA install issue. Verify Settings → Security → Trusted credentials → mhrv-rs CA is listed.

Track PR #977 for the architectural fix; manual workarounds for today.

Closing this batch (#561, #1050, #1076) — please follow PR #977 + use the workarounds. Reopen if you confirm v1.9.22 is installed AND none of the workarounds help; that'd be new signal.

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_{[reply via Anthropic Claude | reviewed by @therealaleph]}