[Feature Request]: Add an option to hide members-only videos

[k0zyrev]

Guidelines

• [X] I have searched the issue tracker for open and closed issues that are similar to the feature request I want to file, without success.
• [X] I have searched the documentation for information that matches the description of the feature request I want to file, without success.
• [X] This issue contains only one feature request.

Problem Description

It is impossible to view members-only videos without loggin into youtube account which is not going to be implemented any time soon if ever https://github.com/FreeTubeApp/FreeTube/issues/4232

Proposed Solution

Add an option to hide the videos as long as they are member-only, same way as Freetube is able to hide upcoming premiers.

Alternatives Considered

A more versatile but orders of magnitude more complicated solution is to add the ability to log into youtube account. That way if a video requires authorisation such as member-only or age-restricted video, Freetube could automatically use the credentials to be able to show the video. The user experience provided by Freetube is absolutely exceptional and being able to log in would elevate it even more. Keeping this optional should not affect the people who are concerned with their privacy (and they would have to log into youtube to watch the restricted videos anyway, so what privacy in that case?)

Issue Labels

ease of use improvement, improvement to existing feature, new feature

Additional Information

No response

[absidue]

Your suggested alternative will not be happening, as already mentioned in many other threads we will not be adding the ability to log into a YouTube account to FreeTube. Additionally that by itself that wouldn't even help for members-only videos, as you need to be a member of that channel, so paying a monthly fee to that channel to view the members-only videos and at that point you might as well just stick with the official YouTube clients.

This is the second time you have asked about it, do not ask again.

[k0zyrev]

Alternative is just an alternative, if you didn't like the main proposition. Is the main proposed feature unrealistic?

[absidue]

It depends, how exactly did you manage to get to a members-only video in FreeTube, afaik YouTube doesn't list them on the normal videos tab on channels.

[k0zyrev]

I don't know, I assume the video author mixed up some settings, because the video showed up in my subscriptions/videos feed just like a regular one. It disappeared after a while, and was published the next day. For some reason I assumed this is a new feature same as the premiers, so I decided to create the request. It now looks like it was a one-off occurrence and it's probably just something to keep in mind for the future.

[efb4f5ff-1298-471a-8973-3d47447115dc]

Interesting, could you provide a link to the authors channel and the video in question

[k0zyrev]

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1yNl2E66ZzKApQdRuTQ4tw

https://youtu.be/NUgRCBAvyeg

[absidue]

@k0zyrev How many subscriptions do you have in the currently selected profile, it's possible that members-only videos could appear in the RSS feeds (no idea how to test it but it's possible, they definitely don't appear on the channel tabs though)? If they do show up in the RSS feeds we would have no way of identifying them anyway.

[Winterhuman]

I think I saw this issue today as well (and I'm using RSS fetching). I was about to link to two CGP Grey videos that were failing to load for me, which I suspect were members-only videos, but, they aren't appearing anymore; it might be an intermittent issue (or perhaps they were members-only streams?)

EDIT: I'm very certain they were members-only streams now that I think about it, since they had "0 views" despite being around for a while, while normal members-only videos usually don't obscure view info.

[absidue]

Well if they were in the RSS feeds there is nothing we can do about them.

[k0zyrev]

@absidue I'm not using the RSS feeds, local api only. If it was fetching through the RSS, the videos on the subscriptions page wouldn't have the duration, would they? I'm pretty sure the day I've encountered this issue subscriptions page was working as usual.

[ghost]

Edit: Looks like I'm going to have to back out, I had my doubts because not long ago I temporarily activated the rss and the members-only videos I had were old, but there is a bug. I'm using the api and I just saw a members only video appear; I didn't get the OP's message but several error popups (I didn't take a screenshot, sorry, I know it was members only because I saw it in the browser), when I went back to the feed the video wasn't marked as watched and when I refreshed the video disappeared.

I switched then to rss and refreshed, but the video did not appear in my feed or history. From the browser it is still there, but it is not listed in the latest videos.

[An1nterestingName]

I also have something like this happening, sometimes members only videos show up on my subscriptions page, although they do disappear after a refresh, it feels like a 50/50 whether they appear or not. I'm not using RSS fetching, just the local API with Invidious fallback. They seem to show as having NaN views, but other than that they are indistinguishable from actual videos. (example)

[crisjolliff]

I also have something like this happening, sometimes members only videos show up on my subscriptions page, although they do disappear after a refresh, it feels like a 50/50 whether they appear or not. I'm not using RSS fetching, just the local API with Invidious fallback. They seem to show as having NaN views, but other than that they are indistinguishable from actual videos.

I just started seeing something similar. I changed my Current Invidious Instance to the most populated item on the list (inv.nadeko.net), and that seems to have cleared it up.

[ghost]

It happened to me again, same conditions and behavior as in my last comment. I think that in both cases only the member-only videos of a single channel appeared. This time I was able to copy the error messages, they don't seem very useful, but just in case I leave them here.

TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'text')

Then it went to the invidious api, and returned this error.

SyntaxError: Unexpected token '<', "<html>
<h"... is not valid JSON

[hcgrove]

It also happens to me, and I made a screenshot to show it, and a part of my settings so you can see that RSS is off) and uploaded it to: https://imgur.com/a/p8oMWkh

On the left (in the top screenshot) is freetube's start screen with my subscriptions, scrolled down to show a problematic video, and on the right (still talking about the top screenshot) is a window with that exact video opened by middle-clicking it in freetube. Yes, the thumbnail says it's a members (only) video, but that's a lot harder to read with the size the thumbnail usually has when the window is in fullscreen - and it still should be in my feed.

I use freetube v0.23.1 - i.e. not the latest nightly build, but it seems from this thread that you'll still unsure how this happens so I'm guessing it's not suddenly fixed. I run freetube on Debian 12.

As you can see from the screenshots, I run with Danish locale settings, when I restarted freetube with LANG=C, I couldn't see that video (or any of Geoff's member videos), but a number of Sabine Hossenfelder's (the same creator as @k0zyrev presented a screenshot of in the first post) member videos suddenly appeared. - A strange dependency on locale settings probably doesn't make this any easier to debug.

The reason for restarting freetube was that I wanted to make a screenshot of my settings that weren't in Danish, but the only text that (partially) changed language is the "Videoer feed last updated: moments ago" (partially because "Videoer" is still in danish). I don't know what is going on, but I guess the screenshots aren't completely worthless anyway, there's hardly any interface text on the first one, and it still shows that a member video was in my feed, and as "RSS" is the same the second screenshot still shows that it's off.

[leeadama]

This is happening to me as well some of the time. I'm not using RSS (See screenshot). The video I noticed this on (this time) is : https://youtu.be/WPtKIye8RjI?si=ITLdOxzPrKhCXFpT

It doesn't happen all of the time, only intermittently. And this video vanished from my subscription page on a refresh.

Please let me know if you need anything else from me.

Thanks for this awesome program and for your time!

[crisjolliff]

I just started seeing something similar. I changed my Current Invidious Instance to the most populated item on the list (inv.nadeko.net), and that seems to have cleared it up.

Sadly, this issue persists. I am not using RSS. I am using invidious.darkness.services to pull subs and have RSS switched off. Still seeing members-only content mixed into regular feed from the following YT channels: https://invidious.darkness.services/channel/UCTCpOFIu6dHgOjNJ0rTymkQ (Freakin' Reviews) https://invidious.darkness.services/channel/UCIFk2uvCNcEmZ77g0ESKLcQ (The Why Files) https://invidious.darkness.services/channel/UCXuqSBlHAE6Xw-yeJA0Tunw (Linus Tech Tips) https://invidious.darkness.services/channel/UC30kGV4sncdqkjNO7aeU5iQ (Screen Tested)

[jaxk49]

As with [Feature Request]: Add an option to hide members-only videos #6425 at the top of this page; I am having the same issue. I get the error 'Members only videos cannot be watched...'.

Can you please add the feature to hide members only videos.

[d86592]

This is happening with me without RSS fetching, can these just be hidden as they are unusable on the app?

[Barugon]

I'm surprised that this is not already a feature.