Technical Tip: YouTube Login Screen Appears when users are connected to FortiSASE SIA tunnel

YouTube asks users to sign in for the following reasons:

• To verify the user's age for age-restricted content.

• To confirm the user is not a bot (security check).

• To access personalized features (subscriptions, recommendations). 

• To view private or unlisted videos shared with specific accounts.

• To like, comment, or upload videos.

• To comply with regional or legal restrictions.

• To continue watching content after a certain limit while logged out.

• To protect against suspicious activity or unusual traffic.

• To access users' watch history, playlists, and saved videos.

When users are connected to the SIA tunnel, users connected to the same PoP use the same source IP (SASE PoP's dedicated IP) to access YouTube. YouTube suspects this as unusual traffic and prompts the user to sign in.

To resolve the issue where YouTube displays a login screen when users are connected to the FortiSASE SIA tunnel, follow these steps:

1. Enable steering bypass destination for YouTube. This can be done by following the instructions in the Steering bypass destinations.
2. Verify that the issue is resolved by accessing YouTube after connecting to the FortiSASE SIA tunnel. If the issue persists, check the configuration and ensure that the steering bypass destination is correctly set up.