That sucks.
I got the latest version of Protube as well but only on my iPad Pro 10.5 inch. I redid my iPhone 6s Plus but forgot to redownload Protube on it in time
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ProTube Backup IPA
- Thread starter ganja24
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That sucks.
I got the latest version of Protube as well but only on my iPad Pro 10.5 inch. I redid my iPhone 6s Plus but forgot to redownload Protube on it in time
That's why I always recommend downloading the IPAs and saving in a safe place, such as your free Google Drive account.That sucks.
I got the latest version of Protube as well but only on my iPad Pro 10.5 inch. I redid my iPhone 6s Plus but forgot to redownload Protube on it in time
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/how-do-i-backup-my-apps.1986712/#post-23222387
The method described above only works in the previous iTunes version. Don't donwload 12.7 and later:
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...lt-in-app-store.2066504/page-20#post-25013828
1. Apple released an App Store, but ran it like nazis who refuse to let fun things like game console emulators, or alternative email clients and browsers (settable as system default) onto the store. Everything is under total control of Der Fuhrer (Apple).
2. Apple changed the Purchased tab, so that apps now vanish forever if the developer removes an app from sale in all regions worldwide. So most of us have forever lost tons of expensive applications.
3. Apple changed iTunes so that it could no longer "Transfer Purchases" to grab the IPA files from the device. So if you didn't download an app in iTunes manually, and kept it up to date there, then you can FORGET ABOUT GETTING IT BACK LATER.
4. Apple finally released iTunes version 12.7 which completely removes the app store (and the custom ringtone GUI) and makes it impossible to transfer apps or custom ringtones to the device, which means that you're at the mercy of your Purchased tab, and will lose apps forever WHEN (not "if") they're removed from there. So these Apple nazis expect us to pay for apps and then just lose them, with no refunds...
5. SteveJobzniak finally knew that he had made the right choice when he decided, a few months ago, that he would never buy another Apple computer, and strongly considered never buying another iPhone or iPad either.
[doublepost=1505706705][/doublepost]Here's the latest version of iTunes before the App Store change:
https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1934?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
But it's an Installer package, and if you run it, it says "A newer version of iTunes is already installed". But I needed the old iTunes.app file. So I did this:
- Mount the disk image.
- Open Terminal.
- Run this:
- And there you have it... a Finder window opens, with the iTunes.app file from version 12.6.2.
- Now just name it "iTunes 12.6.2" (so that it can co-exist with the newer version) and put it in your /Applications folder.
- Just be aware that you cannot run 12.7 on your computer at all. Doing so will cause your "~/Music/iTunes/Itunes Library.itl" file to be upgraded to 12.7, which means that iTunes 12.6.2 will refuse to launch, saying that the library was made with a newer version of iTunes. I had to download my "itl" library file from a backup, to be able to run 12.6.2 again...
- So, I guess you should delete the regular iTunes.app (the 12.7 version), if your iTunes update has already been auto-installed. I don't want to accidentally run it... Right, so let's delete it?! Wrong! Trying to delete it says "iTunes can't be modified or deleted because it's required by macOS.". Thanks Apple... Thanks a lot. Scumbags.
- I've placed iTunes 12.6.2 in my dock, and I'm ready to possibly need to restore my library "itl" file from a backup if I ever accidentally launch the newer iTunes version instead.
So, heeey, who's looking forward to them removing the Mac App Store from Macs next? Or revising its Purchased tabs to be unable to install apps that are no longer for sale?
I'm starting to understand why some people hate DRM protection... And why some people hate Apple.
2. Apple changed the Purchased tab, so that apps now vanish forever if the developer removes an app from sale in all regions worldwide. So most of us have forever lost tons of expensive applications.
3. Apple changed iTunes so that it could no longer "Transfer Purchases" to grab the IPA files from the device. So if you didn't download an app in iTunes manually, and kept it up to date there, then you can FORGET ABOUT GETTING IT BACK LATER.
4. Apple finally released iTunes version 12.7 which completely removes the app store (and the custom ringtone GUI) and makes it impossible to transfer apps or custom ringtones to the device, which means that you're at the mercy of your Purchased tab, and will lose apps forever WHEN (not "if") they're removed from there. So these Apple nazis expect us to pay for apps and then just lose them, with no refunds...
5. SteveJobzniak finally knew that he had made the right choice when he decided, a few months ago, that he would never buy another Apple computer, and strongly considered never buying another iPhone or iPad either.
[doublepost=1505706705][/doublepost]Here's the latest version of iTunes before the App Store change:
https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1934?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
But it's an Installer package, and if you run it, it says "A newer version of iTunes is already installed". But I needed the old iTunes.app file. So I did this:
- Mount the disk image.
- Open Terminal.
- Run this:
Code:
mkdir ~/Downloads/Unpack
cd ~/Downloads/Unpack
xar -xf /Volumes/iTunes/Install\ iTunes.pkg
cd iTunesX.pkg
cat Payload | gunzip -dc | cpio -i
open Applications- Now just name it "iTunes 12.6.2" (so that it can co-exist with the newer version) and put it in your /Applications folder.
- Just be aware that you cannot run 12.7 on your computer at all. Doing so will cause your "~/Music/iTunes/Itunes Library.itl" file to be upgraded to 12.7, which means that iTunes 12.6.2 will refuse to launch, saying that the library was made with a newer version of iTunes. I had to download my "itl" library file from a backup, to be able to run 12.6.2 again...
- So, I guess you should delete the regular iTunes.app (the 12.7 version), if your iTunes update has already been auto-installed. I don't want to accidentally run it... Right, so let's delete it?! Wrong! Trying to delete it says "iTunes can't be modified or deleted because it's required by macOS.". Thanks Apple... Thanks a lot. Scumbags.
- I've placed iTunes 12.6.2 in my dock, and I'm ready to possibly need to restore my library "itl" file from a backup if I ever accidentally launch the newer iTunes version instead.
So, heeey, who's looking forward to them removing the Mac App Store from Macs next? Or revising its Purchased tabs to be unable to install apps that are no longer for sale?
I'm starting to understand why some people hate DRM protection... And why some people hate Apple.
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I have to say the developer of ProTube did a dumb move and pissed off people that paid, he should have at least warned in advance so people that bought the app could have backed up the IPA. Maybe ProTube dev got cash from YouTube to take down the app. We should at least have it in purchase history, Never buying anymore apps!
I'm still incredibly sad to see ProTube go... And I didn't even back up the final version, so I can't re-install it later. Unfortunately, it's still only a matter of time until ProTube quits working even for people who were lucky enough to purchase it and save the final version before it vanished. Google just needs to update their API (which they've done quite frequently) and the whole app will break forever, just like it's been breaking at various times throughout the years. So it's only a matter of time until it's truly gone...
Therefore, I decided that I needed a reliable replacement that does everything that I've been using the ProTube app for. So I've spent all day experimenting and creating a bunch of brand-new, never-before-seen techniques for the normal iOS Safari and YouTube.com that finally gives us Picture-in-Picture videos, background playback (via either PiP or audio-only), real fullscreen playback, 1080p, AirPlay, sleep timer, and so on! No special apps required!
And I am giving it all away for free (unless you feel like donating, in which case you're totally awesome):
https://stevejobzniak.github.io/ios_safari_youtube.html
Have fun, everyone!
View attachment 718111
Awesome, this works great. I’ll bank this away for the day Google finally breaks protube entirely.
Hey, I am happy to help and happy to share the technique!
I’m getting mentally ready for the day the ProTube app breaks, so I’ve been using the website as much as possible instead. And I’m starting to like it. The only annoying step is opening the desktop site bookmark and setting the web tab to Desktop Mode, but I just do that once and then I keep the same ”prepared” YouTube tab open in Safari after that, day after day.
And I am really liking that I now have the full desktop site, with Dark Theme (you can toggle it via the site’s settings menu), and all desktop site features.
The only downside is that I was getting video ads, even though I was using the (terrible) ”Purify” ad-blocker for iOS. But those ads made me research if any other ad content blockers existed for iOS now. I only had Purify because it was the first one released in 2015 and that it came from a guy related to uBlock. Well, looking for alternatives in 2017 was a joy: I found Adguard for iOS, the incredibly good one I am using for Mac Safari too! In my opinion it’s the best desktop blocker in the world, with an incredibly easy system for enabling top-quality blocklists. So I was happy to see it on iOS.
The free version of Adguard for iOS and Mac is all you need. And voila, the YouTube site’s ads are gone!
Here are the blocklists I have enabled in Adguard (one of them is getting rid of the YouTube video ads): English filter, Spyware filter, Mobile ads filter, Safari filter.
I guess I’ll eventually update the site to instruct people about getting Adguard to get rid of the video ads.
ProTube was a great app, however I think it had a major flaw which was the inability to move back and forward while watching videos (or any custom gestures), pausing by touching the iPAD screen (not just the PAUSE button in the lower left corner) and adjusting volume levels without the need to minimize the window and visit Control Center, if you are using the Airpods and don't want to mess things by relying on Siri to issue commands by voice.
This is even worse in IOS 11, since the volume can't be adjusted by swiping up to see the control center, you'll get the Dock instead. We have to minimize Protube and only then swipe up, twice.
If any of you want to see all that, download this app (it's the free version)
https://itunes.apple.com/pt/app/nplayer-lite/id1078835991?mt=8
The most complete (paid): https://itunes.apple.com/br/app/nplayer-plus-the-best-media-player/id539397400?mt=8
And try using the browser feature in the app... nPlayer can even change the aspect ratio, which would be useful for videos like this:
https://goo.gl/oAgWPA
Where we can fix it by changing the AR to 2.39:1. Not to mention ProTube's closed caption subtitles were very small. And it didn't show the auto generated subtitles (most of them are very bad, though).
Despite all these shortcomings I still use ProTube to this date.
This is even worse in IOS 11, since the volume can't be adjusted by swiping up to see the control center, you'll get the Dock instead. We have to minimize Protube and only then swipe up, twice.
If any of you want to see all that, download this app (it's the free version)
https://itunes.apple.com/pt/app/nplayer-lite/id1078835991?mt=8
The most complete (paid): https://itunes.apple.com/br/app/nplayer-plus-the-best-media-player/id539397400?mt=8
And try using the browser feature in the app... nPlayer can even change the aspect ratio, which would be useful for videos like this:
https://goo.gl/oAgWPA
Where we can fix it by changing the AR to 2.39:1. Not to mention ProTube's closed caption subtitles were very small. And it didn't show the auto generated subtitles (most of them are very bad, though).
Despite all these shortcomings I still use ProTube to this date.
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Hey, since you installed the previous code, I'll let you know that I've worked ALL DAY and created something kickass. I don't even care about ProTube or other apps anymore.
https://stevejobzniak.github.io/ios_safari_youtube.html
Hours upon hours of work later, I've created a really advanced bookmarklet which inserts a beautiful, floating "Video Control Toolbar" on the webpage. It offers all functionality: AirPlay, Picture-in-Picture, and Fullscreen. You can reach the functions from that bar, right on the webpage (instead of constantly having to open your Safari Bookmarks Sidebar to run my earlier bookmarklet code).
And since YouTube loads videos in a special way, the toolbar almost always stays on the page even as you navigate around to other videos, other pages, etc. (Seems like only the search-bar makes the page reload sometimes and lose the toolbar. But I almost never search. I use subscriptions.)
This finally eliminates the need to constantly use the Safari Bookmarks menu from my previous solution.
So with this brand new bookmarklet, you just have to do the following:
1. Open a YouTube tab in desktop mode.
2. Open your Safari Bookmarks sidebar and tap the "Add Video Controls" bookmarklet once.
3. Now your YouTube tab is ready! And if you keep using the same Safari tab and never close it, then you'll never even have to repeat step 1&2 again. Just enjoy your videos, your fullscreen, your PiP, your 1080p, your background playback, your sleep-timer, your ad-free experience, etc!
I've also done these other changes to my site:
- Made it much easier to copy the bookmarklet code when installing the bookmarks. It now auto-selects the text when you tap on it, so that you just have to press "Copy".
- Added a section about how to get rid of YouTube's ads.
- General improvements to the language of the guide.
Enjoy.
I'm never installing any YouTube apps again. This is great and does everything I need. I'm even using YouTube's official Dark Mode (it's under the "..." settings menu in their top toolbar), for a great look.
And although I'm not expecting any donations, there's a link on my site above if anyone feels like saying thanks. ;-) Either way, enjoy!
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Ohh nice, I'll check it out and let you know how its working for me!
Edit: Holyshit, yeah the video controls are super convenient and this works great. As you said its also nice to have youtubes dark mode on mobile.
Thanks a lot for all the hard work.
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Thank you too for the kind words! I actually haven’t used ProTube at all since creating the YouTube mod toolbar. I am thankful that ProTube was pulled from the AppStore, otherwise I would have never thought about trying to mod the official site.
Sure, ProTube was the application I used the most on my iPad, but I actually always felt constrained by it. Only 1 video at a time (playlists were a workaround for remembering to watch stuff, but were more hassle to navigate/add/delete videos constantly, compared to just opening a new Safari tab to check some other YouTube video out before returning to my original tab exactly where I was). It had awful volume controls (it had NONE, so you had to use the inaccurate large-jump hardware buttons). The search could only search for one thing at a time. The comment reading experience was so awful that I never read anything via ProTube. And opening web videos in it was extremely tedious since you had to copy the URL, close Safari, open ProTube, and paste the URL in its search field.
What ProTube did right was: Beautiful interface (but that is also achieved via the dark mode desktop site with my mod), HD video (same as my mod), ad free (same as my mod), fullscreen (same as my mod), picture in picture (same as my mod).
With the modifications to the official site, I was able to ditch ProTube. I’ve gone from using ProTube daily and lamenting that I never backed up ProTube’s final installer for future reinstall purposes, to now thinking about deleting the only remaining installed version of the app from my devices (which, yes, means I can never get it back; because I never use it anymore).
I have started enjoying YouTube even more since the website mods, and have used YouTube’s own superior suggestions on their website to find tons of content I would never have found otherwise (because with ProTube I was stuck in a bubble watching channels I already knew about since it had no discovery mechanisms)... so I am enjoying YouTube more than ever! All thanks to ProTube dying. ;-)
And speaking of new content; that is why I am writing.
I discovered a really funny channel via the YouTube suggestions. It’s a guy testing out weird and unusual viruses to see what they do. Such as this super cute virus:
Or how about this amusing one that forces you to play a super difficult Japanese nerd-game before you get your files back:
His videos are quite entertaining, but I quickly started noticing that they always start autoplaying with subtitles. And then, I tapped the CC button on YouTube’s own bar to disable them, and noticed that I got DOUBLE subtitles instead... (Seriously, try it on the video I linked, in ”modded site mode”; it is a pretty funny looking effect.)
Then I went into fullscreen with both subtitles enabled and saw that only the HTML5 one works in fullscreen. Which proved that the subtitles were some kind of HTML5 feature which Apple’s built in HTML5 video player detected. Youtube themselves use another subtitle drawing system, hence why the duplicate subtitles appear when we try to tap YouTube’s own CC button to ”turn them off”. We are able to turn off the HTML5 subtitles (which are called WebVTT) by tapping Apple’s subtitle button while the video is in fullscreen mode, if we don’t want to see them...
But all of that was such a hassle. Having to go into fullscreen to disable subtitles drove me insane.
So I just spent the past ten hours coding up a huge rewrite (500 lines of new code) which makes the code more extensible and gave me the tools necessary to add advanced features (for instance, the bar is now able to contain additional bars dynamically), and then I used all of that work to add subtitle controls to my magical bar of controls! Yep, subtitle controls are here now. See, I told you it would be worth reading this post until the end. ;-)
I also added a bunch of minor improvements, such as a message bar which shows up when needed, to display status messages such as ”No subtitles on page” and ”No videos on page” when buttons are tapped at bad moments. (Maybe I should have also added a random one for when the buttons are grumpy and ”don’t feel like it” ;p)
Go to my site (in my previous post) and download the Video Controls toolbar again, and the separate Toggle Subtitles action too if you want it.
If I ever make any other changes then I will always make a post in this thread. And if I create a separate thread someday, then I will leave a link to it here. So that you guys know that you don’t have to constantly check the site for updates. Although in its current, feature-complete state I am not looking to do any more updates until it becomes necessary, such as this subtitle nuisance.
Enjoy the update! ;-)
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Just after releasing the nice update above, I went to watch some YouTube and had a few ideas for perfecting the new features. I've now released one additional nice update, but the post above has been up long enough that perhaps someone has downloaded the previous one already. In that case, I hope this extra post notification helps you discover the second update instead.
To first summarize the previous update above: It added awesome subtitle controls, status feedback messages and a big rewrite.
This second new update adds: Automatically hides the subtitle switching controls when you perform a disruptive action (switch to a different video or enter fullscreen), as well as when you've clicked a subtitle. And improves the Picture-in-Picture controls to now having totally automatic toggling back and forth between normal mode and PiP (rather than just launching PiP and nothing else happening after that) whenever you repeatedly press the PiP button on the control bar. Along with some nice improvements to all the standalone bookmarklets, the largest one of which is that the PiP bookmarklet now toggles too, just like the control bar does.
These mods are all meant for Mobile Safari in iOS, but the Play in Fullscreen and Picture in Picture ones are actually very useful for macOS too. They help with sites that lack those features.
Everything is available for free, with instructions, at my site:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/protube-backup-ipa.2065827/page-2#post-25084462
These will always be free, but two people have been cool enough to donate, which is greatly appreciated and very motivational.
Anyway, enjoy and have fun! Everything's now finally implemented to the degree that I was personally looking for. These mods give you Picture-in-Picture videos, background playback (via either PiP or audio-only), real fullscreen playback, subtitle controls, AirPlay, sleep timer, an incredibly convenient and well-integrated control bar, HD videos, and ad-free videos, all via the real YouTube.com. Seems appropriate in this thread where we were all mourning ProTube. Well, I and a growing number of people don't use that at all anymore.
To first summarize the previous update above: It added awesome subtitle controls, status feedback messages and a big rewrite.
This second new update adds: Automatically hides the subtitle switching controls when you perform a disruptive action (switch to a different video or enter fullscreen), as well as when you've clicked a subtitle. And improves the Picture-in-Picture controls to now having totally automatic toggling back and forth between normal mode and PiP (rather than just launching PiP and nothing else happening after that) whenever you repeatedly press the PiP button on the control bar. Along with some nice improvements to all the standalone bookmarklets, the largest one of which is that the PiP bookmarklet now toggles too, just like the control bar does.
These mods are all meant for Mobile Safari in iOS, but the Play in Fullscreen and Picture in Picture ones are actually very useful for macOS too. They help with sites that lack those features.
Everything is available for free, with instructions, at my site:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/protube-backup-ipa.2065827/page-2#post-25084462
These will always be free, but two people have been cool enough to donate, which is greatly appreciated and very motivational.
Anyway, enjoy and have fun! Everything's now finally implemented to the degree that I was personally looking for. These mods give you Picture-in-Picture videos, background playback (via either PiP or audio-only), real fullscreen playback, subtitle controls, AirPlay, sleep timer, an incredibly convenient and well-integrated control bar, HD videos, and ad-free videos, all via the real YouTube.com. Seems appropriate in this thread where we were all mourning ProTube. Well, I and a growing number of people don't use that at all anymore.
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Steve - thanks dir your Scripts but as for now keeping video running in the background does Not work??
Hi. Glad you like it! And yes, that's true... when you leave Safari, Apple's browser stops playing any media that's currently playing.
You can use 2 different workarounds:
1. Tap message to leave browser. Then swipe up to control center and press Play to resume audio in the background. After you have done that, it will never stop when you leave the browser again.
2. When you get a message, swipe down from the top of the screen to get notification center, then swipe on the message and choose "Reply". If I remember correctly, it will open the keyboard and let you reply to the message directly via notification center without leaving Safari.
I think method 2 will be the best one if it works.
SteveJobzniak - thank you for this excellent work around. You obviously put a lot of work into it!
I only use YouTube on a mobile device occasionally, but I hate restrictions, hence me having ProTube before.
I will give this a try and probably leave a tip.
The only thing missing now would be the ability to remove geographical restrictions.
I only use YouTube on a mobile device occasionally, but I hate restrictions, hence me having ProTube before.
I will give this a try and probably leave a tip.
The only thing missing now would be the ability to remove geographical restrictions.
Thanks for the really nice words. I definitely put a lot of work into this. Probably a week in total for all the research and coding so far. And anytime that I get an occasional tip in return, it definitely brightens my day and reinvigorates me to keep going.
As for your situation: The geographical restrictions on YouTube are based on your IP address. You could try the free Opera VPN for iOS. I have never tried it but constantly hear people talk about it as a good product. It may be able to unblock that content. I don't know for sure if it's going to be fast enough for video since it's a free service, but it would be free to try so let us know if you try it.
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Hi There,
I know this is an old post but I just discovered all you did and just tried it today for the first time. I followed your instructions from your site and videos are still playing at 720p and some aren’t which I find so odd. For example, the new incredibles movie trailer played at 1080 yet a video titled super HD 4K and other known 1080p videos don’t.
Desktop site is enabled and I request desktop site. Amy thoughts?
I know this is an old post but I just discovered all you did and just tried it today for the first time. I followed your instructions from your site and videos are still playing at 720p and some aren’t which I find so odd. For example, the new incredibles movie trailer played at 1080 yet a video titled super HD 4K and other known 1080p videos don’t.
Desktop site is enabled and I request desktop site. Amy thoughts?