iOS Safari – Why Am I Asked to Open YouTube Videos in VLC?

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I use the mobile site for YouTube in safari on iOS 13.3. Sometimes when I tap play on a video I get a pop up saying 'Open in "VLC"?' as though I had ever made the slightest indication of wanting that.

When I tap cancel I'm left with a non playing video in safari.

How do I disable this nonsense? What's causing it? Is VLC now affiliated with YouTube, or if not, how do I prevent it from infiltrating the domain and interfering with my browsing?

Best Answer

This is most probably caused by having played around with "Request Desktop Site" in Safari, whereby I somehow end up getting served a mobile page, but with an unsupported video format (likely VP9).

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