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.

Maybe you installed the F-Droid version and want to update with an APK from GitHub or vice versa? Android does not allow app upgrades when the signing keys differ. This ensures the original developer has condoned the app.

This means, you need to either get the APK from the same source, or backup your NewPipe database, uninstall and reinstall the new app. Without a backup, current app data is lost, including subscriptions, history, playlists and settings. Follow this tutorial to do so.

The final solution to this problem is to have reproducible builds for NewPipe in F-Droid. We are working on this with the F-Droid developers here.

No. NewPipe does not rely on the YouTube API, as using it requires an API key bringing with it specific regulations and restrictions. YouTube would then have more options of tracking your YouTube usage at their disposal. Therefore, NewPipe Extractor gets the information by parsing YouTube websites.

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.