Linux users are experiencing issues when attempting to stream content from Disney+, despite the video-streaming service explicitly adding Linux support a few years back.
Update: 16 November
I’m hearing from Linux subscribers to Disney+ that the issue that caused this has been fixed.
So what’s up?
Well, some diligent debugging by YouTuber gnifs-tech detects that that cause of the issue is a bug in analytics code running on the video streaming site. Changing the user agent string of a Linux browser to pretend it is running on Windows magically fixes the issue, and users can stream content from Disney+ on Linux without any issue.
However, “bug” is perhaps too charitable a label. The real cause of the issue here is oversight, as the analytics code is set up to accept Windows, macOS, and ChromeOS system but freaks out if presented with Linux — a platform that turned 31 years old this year, so hardly an obscure upstart!
Wherever fault lay it is —temporarily, at least— reassuring to know this service outage isn’t down to any operational change on behalf of the Disney+ team with regards to Linux support more generally.
Still, if you plan to indulge in a bit of Star Wars: Andor binging this weekend (other shows are available) and you’ll be doing so from a Linux machine, be prepared: you need to modify your browser user agent to report a ‘compatible’ OS and version number.
Details on how to change browser user agent string varies based on browser, but a quick Google should turn up the relevant info.
But what user agent should you spoof to gain access?
Endless OS’s Cassidy James reports a “working” user-agent is ‘Firefox 83 on Windows’. This should work until the bug is fixed (if it’s fixed) but I don’t have a Disney+ account to verify perosnally.
Hopefully workarounds won’t be needed for long, as not having things “just work” when there’s no real reason for them not to, is frustrating to say the least!