Is this the death of FreeTube?
from kuiskaaja@lemmy.ml to privacy@lemmy.ml on 11 Aug 17:41
https://lemmy.ml/post/51261543

Videos looping infinitely in SABR requests and becoming unwatchable.

Comments unavailable to read because of “TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading ‘endpoint’)”.

These have been a problem for like at least 2 weeks now. Before there were like 3 refreshes due to SABR and you could open up comments by spamming the button despite the error.

Now however, it’s completely unusable.

Is this the death of FreeTube? I’ve really loved this software and would hate to have to permanently return to the website with all that tracking bullshit and no offline subscriptions :(

edit: An update was released, it is now possible to watch videos but the comment section is still broken.

#privacy

threaded - newest

trevor@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 11 Aug 17:45 next collapse

When one falls, another takes its place. Check out VacuumTube. It uses the official YouTube Leanback interface with adblock, sponsorblock, etc.

That said, I’m sure FreeTube will probably be able to fix whatever you’re going through, assuming it isn’t Google rate-limiting or blocking you outright.

kuiskaaja@lemmy.ml on 11 Aug 17:53 next collapse

thank you, seems like there’s no offline subscriptions but this is better than nothing.

i can just check the subscriptions from freetube for now i guess, unless that breaks too

hopefully freetube gets fixed soon! i really miss it already

edit:

<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.ml/pictrs/image/fdf408d8-e31c-4860-a374-89482b70f7d0.png">

:(

pHr34kY@lemmy.world on 11 Aug 22:12 collapse

Oh wow this is exactly what I wished existed. A standard TV experience without ads.

goreverminski@lemmy.world on 11 Aug 17:52 next collapse

Not familiar with the app, but PipePipe and other NewPipe forks have had similar issues lately. They have been fixed recently, however, so one could assume they will be similarly fixed in FreeTube too.

kuiskaaja@lemmy.ml on 11 Aug 17:54 collapse

that’s good news :)

Carmakazi@piefed.social on 11 Aug 18:21 next collapse

This is hardly the first time Freetube has broken at a core level. They (and their upstream dependencies) have to keep up with YouTube’s constant technical changes, some of which are deliberately hostile to people circumnavigating their panopticon.

It may take weeks or even months but they’ve fixed it up until now.

kixik@lemmy.ml on 11 Aug 18:27 next collapse

I you use the external player, and mpv in particular with yt-dlp installed, then you’ll have an alternative still using freetube as frontend to navigate YT.

I do prefer ytcui with yt-dlp backend, which is native, low on resources and I really like ncurses, but that’s up to anyone.

That said, yt-dlp also gets IP blocked every once in a while, and also find itself non working at all depending on G. moves…

Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca on 11 Aug 18:29 next collapse

Youtube regularly makes changes that break third party apps/clients/frontends.

Give it a couple days, the devs will catch up and fix the issues/incompatibility.

bourgeoisie_burgers@hexbear.net on 11 Aug 18:33 next collapse

Haven’t used it , but invidious.io work ok for my needs . YouTube won’t even let me in these days. Fake Google account is an option also

ohshit604@lemmy.halstead.host on 11 Aug 19:36 collapse

Freetube is capable of utilizing the Invidious APi and provides more functions such as sponsor blocking or click-bait thumbnail removal.

Lots of customization features that I highly suggest pairing with Invidious.

shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip on 11 Aug 18:36 next collapse

I don’t know if other interfaces expose it or not, but all YouTube channels are is an RSS feed and Newpipe exposes them so that you can subscribe to the RSS feed in your favorite RSS reader and just bring up new videos that way.

FineCoatMummy@sh.itjust.works on 11 Aug 19:12 next collapse

I use yt-dlp. It also works with other sites, not just yt.

Every so often G does sth to break it. But not very often. It works more of the time, than any other thing I tried so far.

StumblingWasabi@lemmy.today on 11 Aug 21:13 collapse

This reminds me, I need to set up yt-dlp

ohshit604@lemmy.halstead.host on 11 Aug 19:31 next collapse

Freetube either runs off of YouTube’s APi directly or an Invidious API to proxy requests to Youtube, how is your application configured? If you’re using Invidious have you tried another instance?

Have you read any of the issue reports on their GitHub? it seems like issue #9526 might be what you’re looking for.

kuiskaaja@lemmy.ml on 11 Aug 19:37 collapse

i used youtube api before, and now i tried invidious on two different instances and it spams a lot of errors in the subscription tab and when i try to watch a video i get this

<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.ml/pictrs/image/80cc37c1-fb5e-453d-9cd2-9a8340294c61.png">

i did check the issue reports and these seem like issues other people are experiencing too

ohshit604@lemmy.halstead.host on 11 Aug 19:40 next collapse

I’m not home to verify my Freetube however, I just checked my invidious instance and can confirm that the first video I attempted to play errored.

I am updating my Invidious instance to see if it still persists, perhaps the instances you’re using are out of date, I know invidious updates quite frequently to stay on-top of YouTube changes.

Edit; Updating invidious appeared to resolve my errors, I can only assume the instances you’re using are out of date. I’ll check Freetube when I get home.

ohshit604@lemmy.halstead.host on 11 Aug 23:11 collapse

Chiming back in 3 hours later, just downloaded the latest release from Freetubes website, i can confirm that with my invidious instance that everything seems to be working fine. While my invidious instance is a private one, ill share it with you in the meantime until your normal setup gets back in order, shoot me a DM.

<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.halstead.host/pictrs/image/aae5c986-f5eb-4e60-87ab-9537a6b460cf.png">

<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.halstead.host/pictrs/image/b4a84f4e-d8c4-4458-8c01-74b1f8d2c3d5.png">

<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.halstead.host/pictrs/image/ac28b28a-b5ba-48dd-919f-61b00ef68aa7.png">

DFX4509B@lemmy.wtf on 11 Aug 19:39 next collapse

How soon before Google goes nuclear and completely locks YT to only their native client, and only on Chrome?

sompreno@lemmy.zip on 11 Aug 22:25 collapse

Unlikely since youtube is the standard for embedded media across the web and locking YouTube to only chrome seems like grounds for a lawsuit

anotherspinelessdem@lemmy.ml on 11 Aug 22:59 next collapse

Hopefully leads to a lemmy like exodus

ClathrateG@hexbear.net on 11 Aug 23:09 next collapse

Several small scale exoduses of niche communities, leaving the corporate behemoth with a miniscule loss in userbase that is quickly recouped?

onlinepersona@programming.dev on 12 Aug 03:22 collapse

The youthbers are even more dependent that reeeeeeditors. At this point, even if Goofle started making literal nazi content themselves, they’d probably gain viewers, not lose it.

Sxan@piefed.zip on 12 Aug 11:36 collapse

A lot of content creators are locked in by revenue. Even if þey’re being screwed over, some money is worþ it (to þem) vs no money.

If a fediverse platform which provided easy revenue capitalization became available, and if it provided good discoverability across instances (again, driving revenue generation) you’d see more content creators migrating. And viewers by and large are going to go where þe content is.

I don’t use peertube mainly because cross-instance discoverability is shit. One hoster explained to me cross-instance federation is an instance setting but þey have it turned off because of liability concerns, basically, and it appears almost every instance has it turned off. Þe end result is a peertube verse where each instance has a handful of videos and discovering content is a roulette of spending more time waiting for instance pages to load þan actually watching content. Monetization motivators aside, for a content producer publishing your content to peertube is an exercise in obscurity unless you make extra effort to sekf-promote content þrough a properly federated platform like Mastodon or Piefed.

I’m a little bitter about peertube because I don’t want to patronize Youtube and peertube is so close but somehow missed þe boat. Unless I decide to stop watching video content, I feel like Youtube’s my only real option… and it must be 10x as much so for people whose livelihoods are as content producers.

DFX4509B@lemmy.wtf on 13 Aug 00:26 collapse

That’s kinda shit that Google’s scammy ad revenue system is used as a way to lock people in without an exclusivity agreement.

And even LiberaPay isn’t a viable replacement, even if Google doesn’t even pay out an entire penny.

Sxan@piefed.zip on 14 Aug 12:32 collapse

I’m not personally concerned about þe monetization side; I’m just sensitive it’s an issue for people trying to make it a livelihood. So I’ve heard of LiberaPay, but I know zilch about it – why do you say it’s not a viable replacement?

DFX4509B@lemmy.wtf on 14 Aug 23:46 collapse

It’s donation-based rather than a constant revenue source. It’ll work for secondary, but maybe not as a primary income. Basically, if you’re relying on donations for your primary or even only income, and you hit a slow month, that could actually hurt worst case.

DFX4509B@lemmy.wtf on 12 Aug 01:26 collapse

A lawsuit that Google can just bribe their way out of.

provectus@lemmy.ml on 11 Aug 19:45 next collapse

You can always use a invidious instance to watch YouTube. Last time I tried it was not bad, but some instances use anubis so I cannot watch YouTube without JavaScript.

potatoguy@mbin.potato-guy.space on 11 Aug 20:00 next collapse

I'm using this Invidious instance for now, on the "10 - Tétartos 1" backend, it seems to be working, a bit wonky but working. I'm using the web interface, and freetube for my subscriptions.

I'm hoping it gets fixed soon.

steelplatedmech@piefed.ca on 11 Aug 20:18 next collapse

This happens occasionally and have to be patient for a fix to come out. Sometimes takes a week or longer. During those times I just use freetube as a rss feed and use it to open videos on Firefox.

Pretty crazy amount of plugins I need to make default youtube palatable though like sponsorblock, dearrow, and blocktube. Freetube just simplifies it when it works.

simpolomeo@piefed.blahaj.zone on 11 Aug 21:09 next collapse

Nah, FreeTube breaks pretty regularly. It will most likely be fixed in the next release.

StumblingWasabi@lemmy.today on 11 Aug 21:15 next collapse

I use freetube + grayjay. Normally grayjays main problem is the subscription page not working but when freetube is down I can normally still watch the videos on Grayjay (including rn) until freetube gets an update

Templa@beehaw.org on 11 Aug 22:19 next collapse

This happens every now and then. I have been following the progress on their repo and it seems the SABR request loop has already been merged.

SocialistVibes01@lemmy.ml on 11 Aug 22:49 next collapse

Naw, that’s just Alphabet being a fucking removed, what happens regularly. Freetube and Newpipe are always being patched to circumvent some new shit in YouTube’s code.

BetterDev@programming.dev on 12 Aug 00:35 next collapse

<img alt="" src="https://programming.dev/pictrs/image/7c3247a7-0a6a-478f-a22f-3efd71608d8f.webp">

mrchampion@lemmy.world on 13 Aug 03:50 collapse

My thoughts exactly, FreeTube devs are the GOAT.

ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one on 12 Aug 00:57 next collapse

The devs just released a new version that fixed the issue. When use Freetube, you have to be ready for Google fucking everything up and then the Freetube devs working to fix it.

It’s literally a game of cat and mouse.

On a slightly related side note. I would hazard a guest that people who use Freetube, Invidious, Newpipe, etc make up like at most 5% of people who use Youtube. I am being very generous with the 5%. Google will do anything to make sure that they maximize profits.

marcie@lemmy.ml on 12 Aug 02:19 next collapse

flathub update when 😔

kuiskaaja@lemmy.ml on 12 Aug 09:14 collapse

it’s here!

marcie@lemmy.ml on 12 Aug 18:02 collapse

🥳

kuiskaaja@lemmy.ml on 12 Aug 09:16 collapse

in the new version the playback works fine, but the comments are still broken.

i’m fine with that though, but i hope they fix that too

DreamsK@lemmy.ml on 12 Aug 16:24 next collapse

I don t care , i use odysee

FoxAlive@lemmy.zip on 12 Aug 16:34 next collapse

Reporting in using newpipe, and its fine.

ZeroHora@lemmy.ml on 12 Aug 16:54 next collapse

The new update has a new problem. If your IP or VPN Server is marked you cannot watch anything because youtube will show the stupid reCaptcha page and Freetube can’t bypass it.

mrchampion@lemmy.world on 13 Aug 03:57 next collapse

Nope. As a longtime user of FreeTube, breakages like this is entirely normal. Give it some time and the devs will find a fix.

For what its worth, I usually rely on Invidious when Freetube breaks. So whenever Freetube breaks, try seeing if Invidious works. As a last resort, you can always use mpv + ytdlp.

Zoma@sh.itjust.works on 16 Aug 02:46 collapse

Noticed this I’ve just been using mpv:(