[Bug]: Subscription feed is empty when hitting RSS ratelimiting

[BobbyMcJefferson]

Guidelines

• [x] I have encountered this bug in the latest release of FreeTube.
• [x] I have encountered this bug in the official downloads of FreeTube.
• [X] I have searched the issue tracker for open and closed issues that are similar to the bug report I want to file, without success.
• [X] I have searched the documentation for information that matches the description of the bug I want to file, without success.
• [X] This issue contains only one bug.

Describe the bug

After updating to the most recent build https://github.com/FreeTubeApp/FreeTube/actions/runs/10346232986 , the video list on the subscriptions page is now empty and says "Your subscribed channels currently does not have any videos".

Checking "Fetch feed from RSS" doesn't work either.

I thought I broke something by updating to the new build, so I just exported my subscriptions list and imported it into a new 0.21.3 portable installation, still same problem. I can still see the list of subscribed channels, it just won't load the subscription feed for some reaosn.

Expected Behavior

Videos should show up

Maintainer edit: We can't do anything about the ratelimiting without removing or limiting functionality, so instead the solution should be to display a better message when hitting the RSS ratelimits.

Issue Labels

content not loading

FreeTube Version

0.21.3-nightly-4630

Operating System Version

Windows 10

Installation Method

Portable

Primary API used

Local API

Last Known Working FreeTube Version (If Any)

0.21.3

Additional Information

No response

Nightly Build

• [X] I have encountered this bug in the latest nightly build.

[RAPXT]

When creating a profile with less than 125 subscriptions, fetching works for me.

https://docs.freetubeapp.io/usage/subscriptions/

[fov95]

YouTube has a limit on how many requests per day an IP address is allowed to make. If you exceed this limit, you will be greeted with a 429 error and will not be allowed to browse using FreeTube any more. This limit can be reached much faster if you have a large amount of subscriptions

I can confirm this. Never read that site before... After switching VPN exit point the videos load again.

[BobbyMcJefferson]

Oh that makes sense as I have over 500 subscriptions.

After resetting my router to get a new IP, it loads the subscriptions just fine. This was the first time I had to do this.

[fov95]

I tested further. I can reload like 2-3 times then I have to get a new IP.. Weird..

[absidue]

We can't do anything about you getting ratelimited by YouTube with RSS (the APIs have even stricter ratelimits), without limiting functionality (e.g. we could add a limit to how many subscriptions you can have in FreeTube and limit how often you can refresh your subscriptions but you probably wouldn't like that).

Instead the resolution for this bug report will be to have FreeTube to display a better message when that happens, as the current behaviour of showing Your subscribed channels currently does not have any videos is, as you correctly pointed out, rather missleading.

@fov95 For you specifically, I would suggest not refreshing your subscriptions multiple times right after each other, as you'll hit the YouTube's ratelimits much faster that way.

[CTRLexe]

I found that waiting a while and then setting freetube to "only show latest video for each channel" helped in my case. It's under "subscription settings." Unfortunately there's no option to just do this for bigger profiles.

[github-actions[bot]]

This issue is stale because it has been open 28 days with no activity. Remove stale label or comment or this will be closed in 7 days.

[github-actions[bot]]

This issue is stale because it has been open 28 days with no activity. Remove stale label or comment or this will be closed in 7 days.

[github-actions[bot]]

This issue is stale because it has been open 28 days with no activity. Remove stale label or comment or this will be closed in 7 days.

[github-actions[bot]]

This issue is stale because it has been open 28 days with no activity. Remove stale label or comment or this will be closed in 7 days.

[github-actions[bot]]

This issue is stale because it has been open 28 days with no activity. Remove stale label or comment or this will be closed in 7 days.

[github-actions[bot]]

This issue is stale because it has been open 28 days with no activity. Remove stale label or comment or this will be closed in 7 days.

[nalathethird]

I just got this error today with 11 subscriptions total.

newest build, updated the client less than 24 hours ago to be clear, it worked perfectly fine a few hours ago, and then just all the sudden, poof all subscription feed content gone. I can go to the Creators page, but nothing shows in the Subscription page.

and to be fair, I have been updating sort of quickly today (about once every 5-10 mins cause I want to see new content from my subscriptions/am bored today) is this an issue, or is this just how Youtube Rate limits on their API? (I honestly dont know if I need to reinstall my client or if my IP is blocked now. I cant use a VPN cause I rely on it being off for another application on my desktop. - I've already restarted the client, so its not that...)

If anyone can shed some light on this issue in more details if possible and how to fix, that'd be great. Seeing as its been stale for a while, Im not so sure its fixable. :sigh:

[absidue]

@tgrafk12 The fact that you were spamming the refresh button is likely the cause yes. Just wait a while (a few hours to a day) and it should fix itself, as long as you don't do the same spamming thing again.

[Nickleaton]

Not sure if its related to this bug.

I change to a new profile. I get this message

"Your subscribed channels currently does not have any videos"

Refreshing, it uses RSS, comes back with that message.

Only applies to some of my profiles

This is with v0.23.4 Beta, didn't happen with the previous version.

[laclcia]

got the same error today. OS arch Linux build versions tested: freetube-git-0.23.4.beta.r8586.a995858-1 freetube-git-0.23.3.beta.r8336.94f3363-1

number of subscriptions: 349

my main profile with all my subscriptions displays the same message as OP when refreshing. i tested creating new smaller profile with 97 and 100 subscriptions respectively and when those are selected they do fetch the subscriptions properly.

other workarounds tested that did not work: waiting using a VPN in 7 different countries

[absidue]

Likely an outage on YouTube's side with their RSS feeds. You either need to split your subscriptions up into smaller profiles, reduce your number of subscriptions drastically or wait for YouTube to fix it, when it has happened in the past it was usually fixed within 24 hours.

When you have too many subscriptions FreeTube has to use the RSS feeds as using the normal approach for that many subscriptions would get you ratelimited part way through the fetching. Which means when you have that many subscriptions you just have to tolerate the occasional outage, as the alternative would be for us to add a limit to the number of subscriptions you could have in FreeTube, so that we wouldn't have to force the RSS feeds as you wouldn't be able to get high enough to hit the ratelimit.

[github-actions[bot]]

This issue is stale because it has been open 28 days with no activity. Remove stale label or comment or this will be closed in 7 days.

[github-actions[bot]]

This issue is stale because it has been open 28 days with no activity. Remove stale label or comment or this will be closed in 7 days.

[AlfaScarlate]

I have the same problem: "[BAD_HTTP_STATUS: 429] Ratelimited". My problem with this is that i JUST spun up the FreeTube App after booting up my computer. link to video: https://youtu.be/H-AhqqXKULY. edit: my version is for Windows10 - v0.23.5 beta

[github-actions[bot]]

This issue is stale because it has been open 28 days with no activity. Remove stale label or comment or this will be closed in 7 days.

[github-actions[bot]]

This issue is stale because it has been open 28 days with no activity. Remove stale label or comment or this will be closed in 7 days.

[github-actions[bot]]

This issue is stale because it has been open 28 days with no activity. Remove stale label or comment or this will be closed in 7 days.

[github-actions[bot]]

This issue is stale because it has been open 28 days with no activity. Remove stale label or comment or this will be closed in 7 days.

[github-actions[bot]]

This issue is stale because it has been open 28 days with no activity. Remove stale label or comment or this will be closed in 7 days.