Add more specific error messages and deduplicate their handling by Stypox · Pull Request #12578 · TeamNewPipe/NewPipe

Stypox · 2025-08-28T12:59:20Z

What is it?

Bugfix (user facing)
Feature (user facing)
Codebase improvement (dev facing)
Meta improvement to the project (dev facing)

Description of the changes in your PR

GitHub closed #12477 and I can't reopen it, hence a new PR.

This PR deduplicates the decision of which error message to show for which throwable (it was done in 3 different places previously). It also adds some nice new error messages for specific errors, so users understand better what is going on (and maybe complain less when YouTube breaks something ;-) ).

In RouterActivity, a toast is shown like before if the error is not something that usually needs to be reported, as to not distract the user with a notification.
Make error snackbar display the actual error that has occurred, instead of showing "Sorry, something went wrong" every time. For example, "Could not parse website" is much more explanatory as the snackbar description when some item in a list can not be extracted (this is already shown in the error panel).
All subclasses of ContentNotAvailableException now have nice specific error messages, and in particular this PR adds UnsupportedContentInCountryException (from [YouTube] Add support for more kiosks and change default one NewPipeExtractor#1354) and SignInConfirmNotBotException ( [YouTube] Add custom error for "Sign in to confirm ..." NewPipeExtractor#1352). The latter in particular will hopefully help reduce the amount of duplicate comments in [YouTube] "Sign in to confirm..."/"Watch on the latest version..." #11139.
Various player-related exceptions are now inspected to extract the original cause and show that to the user instead of always saying "Could not play this stream". In particular, 403 errors are detected and a custom error message is shown for them: "HTTP error 403 occurred while playing, likely caused by an IP ban or streaming URL deobfuscation issues" (this message was inspired by FreeTube's). This should also help reduce the amount of duplicates we get related to 403 errors.

Relies on the following changes

[YouTube] Add custom error for "Sign in to confirm ..." NewPipeExtractor#1352

APK testing

The APK can be found by going to the "Checks" tab below the title. On the left pane, click on "CI", scroll down to "artifacts" and click "app" to download the zip file which contains the debug APK of this PR. You can find more info and a video demonstration on this wiki page.

Due diligence

I read the contribution guidelines.

TobiGr

LGTM

app/build.gradle

app/src/main/res/values/strings.xml

- ErrorInfo.getMessage() now returns an ErrorMessage instance that can be formatted into a string using a context (this allows the construction of an ErrorInfo to remain independent of a Context) - now the service ID is used in ErrorInfo.getMessage() to customize some messages based on the currently selected service - player HTTP invalid statuses are now included in the message - building a custom error message for AccountTerminatedException was moved from ErrorPanelHelper to ErrorInfo

…shown Bug caused by TeamNewPipe#11789

Stypox · 2025-08-30T15:16:27Z

This is how "This account is terminated" looks:

Before	After

I know that now it kinda looks less nice, but now the control over the error is given fully to ErrorInfo, instead of having ErrorPanelHelper change the error message in a hardcoded way only for AccountTerminatedException.

HeroponRikiBestest · 2025-08-30T16:10:24Z

Regarding #12533 ;

Thanks for testing everyone! Now development has moved to #12578, it would be cool if you could test the APK from there and report here again :-)

So, in the event that I start getting served "sign in to confirm" from YouTube, I should test this APK and report what it gives me? Or is no further testing needed unless something goes wrong with newpipe's error reporting

Stypox · 2025-08-30T18:12:46Z

So, in the event that I start getting served "sign in to confirm" from YouTube, I should test this APK and report what it gives me?

@HeroponRikiBestest yes, thanks in advance :-)

HeroponRikiBestest · 2025-09-01T05:05:57Z

So, in the event that I start getting served "sign in to confirm" from YouTube, I should test this APK and report what it gives me?

@HeroponRikiBestest yes, thanks in advance :-)

Screenshot_20250901_010507_NewPipe better-error-messages

Tested with the latest CI build of this PR, this is what it reports when it occurs; seems correct to me.

AudricV · 2025-09-02T13:00:58Z

app/src/main/java/org/schabi/newpipe/error/UserAction.java

-    GETTING_MAIN_SCREEN_TAB("getting main screen tab");
+    GETTING_MAIN_SCREEN_TAB("getting main screen tab"),
+    PLAY_ON_POPUP("play on popup"),
+    SUBSCRIPTIONS("loading subscriptions"),;


Suggested change

SUBSCRIPTIONS("loading subscriptions"),;

SUBSCRIPTIONS("loading subscriptions");

AudricV · 2025-09-02T13:02:24Z

app/src/main/res/values/strings.xml

    <string name="trending_movies">Trending movies and shows</string>
    <string name="trending_music">Trending music</string>
    <string name="entry_deleted">Entry deleted</string>
+    <string name="player_http_403">HTTP error 403 received from server while playing, likely caused by an IP ban or by streaming URL expiration</string>


Suggested change

<string name="player_http_403">HTTP error 403 received from server while playing, likely caused by an IP ban or by streaming URL expiration</string>

<string name="player_http_403">HTTP error 403 received from server while playing, likely caused by streaming URL expiration or an IP ban</string>

github-actions bot added the size/medium PRs with less than 250 changed lines label Aug 28, 2025

Stypox added this to v0.28.x Aug 28, 2025

github-project-automation bot moved this to Todo in v0.28.x Aug 28, 2025

Stypox moved this from Todo to In Progress in v0.28.x Aug 28, 2025

Stypox added bug Issue is related to a bug feature request Issue is related to a feature in the app labels Aug 28, 2025

Stypox added 3 commits August 28, 2025 17:05

Add more specific error messages and deduplicate their handling

38064be

Show better information about player errors

29a3ca8

Fix ordering of error messages conditions

1bde2dc

Stypox force-pushed the better-error-messages branch from 4cb62bf to 1bde2dc Compare August 28, 2025 15:06

TobiGr approved these changes Aug 28, 2025

View reviewed changes

app/build.gradle Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

AudricV requested changes Aug 28, 2025

View reviewed changes

app/src/main/res/values/strings.xml Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

Stypox added 2 commits August 30, 2025 14:36

Fix REPORT in snackbar not opening ErrorActivity if MainActivity not …

989c0cf

…shown Bug caused by TeamNewPipe#11789

github-actions bot added size/large PRs with less than 750 changed lines and removed size/medium PRs with less than 250 changed lines labels Aug 30, 2025

Fix test

204df4c

Stypox mentioned this pull request Aug 30, 2025

#11139 better error message - still desired? #12533

Closed

6 tasks

AudricV approved these changes Sep 2, 2025

View reviewed changes

Address PR reviews

79980e2

Stypox merged commit a3ddd61 into TeamNewPipe:dev Sep 4, 2025
5 checks passed

github-project-automation bot moved this from In Progress to Done in v0.28.x Sep 4, 2025

Stypox mentioned this pull request Sep 5, 2025

Better error panels and centralized error handling in ErrorInfo #12603

Merged

5 tasks

asandikci mentioned this pull request Sep 17, 2025

exceptions.PrivateContentException: This video is private polymorphicshade/Tubular#276

Closed

7 tasks

TobiGr mentioned this pull request Dec 21, 2025

Release 0.28.1 (please TEST!) #12925

Closed

4 tasks

Provide feedback

Saved searches

Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly

Uh oh!

Add more specific error messages and deduplicate their handling#12578

Add more specific error messages and deduplicate their handling#12578
Stypox merged 7 commits intoTeamNewPipe:devfrom
Stypox:better-error-messages

Stypox commented Aug 28, 2025 •

edited by AudricV

Loading

Uh oh!

TobiGr left a comment

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Stypox commented Aug 30, 2025

Uh oh!

HeroponRikiBestest commented Aug 30, 2025 •

edited

Loading

Uh oh!

Stypox commented Aug 30, 2025

Uh oh!

HeroponRikiBestest commented Sep 1, 2025 •

edited

Loading

Uh oh!

AudricV Sep 2, 2025

Uh oh!

AudricV Sep 2, 2025

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Reviewers

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Development

Uh oh!

4 participants

	SUBSCRIPTIONS("loading subscriptions"),;
	SUBSCRIPTIONS("loading subscriptions");

	<string name="player_http_403">HTTP error 403 received from server while playing, likely caused by an IP ban or by streaming URL expiration</string>
	<string name="player_http_403">HTTP error 403 received from server while playing, likely caused by streaming URL expiration or an IP ban</string>

Uh oh!

Conversation

Stypox commented Aug 28, 2025 • edited by AudricV Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

What is it?

Description of the changes in your PR

Relies on the following changes

APK testing

Due diligence

Uh oh!

TobiGr left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Stypox commented Aug 30, 2025

Uh oh!

HeroponRikiBestest commented Aug 30, 2025 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Stypox commented Aug 30, 2025

Uh oh!

HeroponRikiBestest commented Sep 1, 2025 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

AudricV Sep 2, 2025

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

AudricV Sep 2, 2025

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Reviewers

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Development

Uh oh!

4 participants

Stypox commented Aug 28, 2025 •

edited by AudricV

Loading

HeroponRikiBestest commented Aug 30, 2025 •

edited

Loading

HeroponRikiBestest commented Sep 1, 2025 •

edited

Loading