The Storage Access Framework Google introduced with Android KitKat has been enforced since Android 11.

This means that Android highly restricts the access apps have to user folders (for very good privacy and security reasons).

But it means that users need to relearn their habits when choosing folders for apps.

In NewPipe's case, this means that you need to ensure the folders NewPipe saves files to, or reads from, are accessible to the app.

The main thing to note is that on Android 11 and higher, you cannot use the Download folder for your files, nor the top level of your internal storage or external SD Card (the one that contains your usual folders: Android, Download, Movies, Music, etc.). You must choose a separate folder, ideally a newly created one that will only be used for NewPipe, to keep your NewPipe downloads, as well as your files intended for export from/import into NewPipe.

If you're using a custom ROM, it could be lacking a critical system app that handles all SAF operations: DocumentsUI (com.android.documentsui). You might even have disabled this yourself, knowingly or unknowingly. NewPipe does not support use cases where this app is unavailable. Please figure out on your own how to enable/obtain this system app. [Insert search engine here] is your friend.

If your default/chosen file manager app cannot handle the file types used by NewPipe, then please try Material Files from F-Droid.

Here are some generic steps you can try, though we make no guarantees of them working:

• Try another folder.
• If your SD Card is giving you problems, try internal storage, and vice-versa.
• Check if SAF is enabled in Download settings. Toggle on/off if it isn't greyed out.
• Ensure that the SAF provider mentioned above is not disabled.
• Check the download folders you have set for videos and audios in the Download settings. Check if NewPipe has access to these folders. (This refers to the File Picker UI which has a button "Use this folder" at the bottom.)
• Check if NewPipe has the Storage/Media permission in App Info.

NewPipe's goal is to as effectively as possible protect its users' privacy. This means, the app only sends information to external servers which is needed to access content like videos or search results.

Having said this, the developers of NewPipe hope it is understandable that they will not implement any form of authentication which might allow tracking users.

Try force-closing NewPipe, then setting Settings > Notifications > Control center > Lock screen > Format to either "Show notifications but hide content" or "Show notifications and content." See https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/website/issues/288.

If this doesn't fix the issue, please get in touch.

In order to play streams offline, you need to use an external video player.

The team has considered implementing this directly into NewPipe. This idea was dropped due to the following reasons:

• A phone is usually shipped with an audio and video player.
• There are other apps available that deal with offline playback, in case the phone doesn't have one.
• One option that could reduce friction between using NewPipe and an external player is Just Video Player, available on F-Droid, which is also based on ExoPlayer like NewPipe's player.
• NewPipe is not designed to be an all-around video player.
• A huge additional maintenance effort would be required to make this work.

Team NewPipe has received several requests to enable posting comments on videos, not just reading them.

Since NewPipe's goal is to protect its users' privacy, this feature is not implemented. This is because an account is required to publish comments on all supported services. Logging in with e.g. a Google account would allow the service to track you.

In addition to YouTube, NewPipe now also offers SoundCloud audio streaming.

The further development of NewPipe focuses on YouTube. This will only change with preparations for NewPipe version 2.0.0.

We appreciate your feedback regarding SoundCloud, but also ask for your understanding that we give preference to further improvements for YouTube.

If you are interested in fixing bugs for SoundCloud, you can find more information here.

MP3 offline usage for audio files is highly requested, but brings some difficulties for our developers.

First, and most importantly, some services like YouTube do not provide MP3 files which could be directly retrieved. Therefore, the only thing we could do on NewPipe's side is to convert/transcode M4A or WebM streams.
The reason why this features has not been implemented yet, is quite simple:
This process requires an external library like FFmpeg which would significantly increase NewPipe's size.

Nevertheless our team is working on a solution to make this features as soon as possible available to you. The plan is to move the conversion to an external and thus optional app called Video Transcoder which you can download from F-Droid too.

Help and contributions are always welcome. If you want to take a look at this issue, please read this page on GitHub.

NewPipe uses the Android Storage Access Framework (SAF) and the old but gold Java Input Output (Java IO).
SAF requires Android KitKat or later. However, it is not supported on all devices. If this applies to your device, please disable SAF. To do this go to the Download section in the Settings and uncheck Use SAF.

NewPipe supports Android phones and tablets, as well as TVs running Android/Google TV.

On some devices, it may be beneficial to change the appearance manually. This can be done by changing Settings > Appearance > List view mode, which can be toggled between Auto, List, Grid and Card.

NewPipe explicitly does not support Apple devices, whether iOS, macOS, or anything else. There are already good solutions available for those, such as the app Yattee.

There are also OS-agnostic solutions available: websites such as Invidious and Piped, as well as desktop apps like FreeTube.