May 04, 2021
I have an iPad Mini (1st gen) on iOS 9.3.5. Google is hard-at-work to kill off legacy devices/software, but for now, you can still get YouTube working.
First, make sure you download the latest compatible version of YouTube. You can do that just like with any other app you’d previously purchased, from the purchases tab in the App Store. From any other tab, it’ll tell you that the app’s not compatible. If you hadn’t previously downloaded Youtube, you’ll have to figure that part out on your own.
Also, make sure you have Filza installed from Cydia.
Open either /var/mobile/Containers/Bundle/Application/YouTube/YouTube.app/Info.plist or /var/Containers/Bundle/Application/YouTube/YouTube.app/Info.plist.
Find the two keys CFBundleShortVersionString and CFBundleVersion, and change both to 14.10.
Then save the changes.
Install either Youtube Tools, or Youtopia, to simplify the app and get rid of ads (also reduces crashes).
I have Youtube Tools.
Who knows for how long this method will work, but at the moment it does.
To get it it working now (to some extent), get the latest version via the same process, and change the Info.plist versions to 15.02.1 (or whatever the latest version is).
It’s very buggy though, front page doesn’t load except for ads (lol obviously ads will always work).
Another option seems to be verduraiOS but I haven’t tested that.
You can also use “Youtube Eternal”, which is a “WebClip” – basically the Youtube website in a container of sorts. Here it is, originally from here, it’s completely safe, it’s just an XML file describing a WebClip.