Is this the death of FreeTube?
from kuiskaaja@lemmy.ml to privacy@lemmy.ml on 11 Aug 19:41
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 19:45 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 19:53 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 12 Aug 00:12 collapse

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

Carmakazi@piefed.social on 11 Aug 20:21 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 20:27 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 20:29 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 20:33 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

shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip on 11 Aug 20:36 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 21:12 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 23:13 collapse

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

DFX4509B@lemmy.wtf on 11 Aug 21:39 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 12 Aug 00:25 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 12 Aug 00:59 next collapse

Hopefully leads to a lemmy like exodus

ClathrateG@hexbear.net on 12 Aug 01:09 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 05:22 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 13:36 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 12 Aug 03:26 collapse

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

potatoguy@mbin.potato-guy.space on 11 Aug 22:00 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.

simpolomeo@piefed.blahaj.zone on 11 Aug 23:09 next collapse

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

StumblingWasabi@lemmy.today on 11 Aug 23:15 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 12 Aug 00:19 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 12 Aug 00:49 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 02:35 next collapse

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

ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one on 12 Aug 02:57 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 04:19 next collapse

flathub update when 😔

kuiskaaja@lemmy.ml on 12 Aug 11:14 collapse

it’s here!

marcie@lemmy.ml on 12 Aug 20:02 collapse

🥳

kuiskaaja@lemmy.ml on 12 Aug 11:16 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

FoxAlive@lemmy.zip on 12 Aug 18:34 next collapse

Reporting in using newpipe, and its fine.

ZeroHora@lemmy.ml on 12 Aug 18:54 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.

Zoma@sh.itjust.works on 16 Aug 04:46 collapse

Noticed this I’ve just been using mpv:(