Can't add YouTube user feeds

problem
#1

Lately I’ve been having trouble adding feeds for certain YouTube URLs - I get the error message “This address does not point to an RSS feed or a website with an RSS feed”. Through trial and error, it seems that this happens most often when the URL takes one of these forms:

https://www.youtube.com/user/USERNAME
https://www.youtube.com/user/USERNAME/videos

Here’s an example of one that doesn’t work:  https://www.youtube.com/user/TheProdigalGuide/videos

I have had better luck with YouTube channel URLs, which take the form of:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/NAME/videos

Here’s an example of one that does work: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC–QpnDBOG2Z4KrhMr7C89w/videos

Since YouTube only offers a “channels” link for certain users, the practical effect is that there are a bunch of video feeds I just can’t add to NewsBlur. Hopefully this is a simple fix!

thanks,

  • Matt
1 Like
#2

This same issue has been posted twice in the last week with no resolution as yet. There is certainly something wrong.

https://getsatisfaction.com/newsblur/topics/i-cant-subscribe-to-a-youtube-user-92p00o0gc7pst

https://getsatisfaction.com/newsblur/topics/cant-add-youtube-feed-saying-no-rss

1 Like
#3

The brute force way to find you channel ID is to view the page source (CTRL+U in most browsers) and then search (CTRL+F) for channel_id.  The channel ID will be the string of characters that follows (not including = or ").  Change your URL from user/NAME to channel/CHANNEL_ID.  Then you can copy and paste that entire link into NewsBlur’s add subscription function.

I know it’s a pain, but this is primarily Google’s fault and not Samuel’s.  I think ever since I started using RSS I’ve been forced to find workarounds.

#4

Sure.
But his last official statement in this case claims anything to the contrary (Dashboard, “New Features”, 30.4., and here: http://blog.newsblur.com/post/117767869761/a-real-solution-to-the-deprecated-youtube-api), so maybe it would be appropriate to clear the case straight from the horses’s mouth, not letting the custumers muddle through this on their own.

#5

Thanks, that did the trick. But it seems like if a mere human can do this easily, it ought to be simple for NewsBlur to do automatically!

#6

Alternatively, just search for RSS in the source and you’ll get the official RSS URL, add that and it’ll work. Or, if you use Firefox, put the subscribe button in your navbar or manu and it’ll find and open the RSS for you.

@Matt, I suspect that when Newsblur see a YouTube user URL it does something special in the background, handles it different from other URLs, if it didn’t it would find the properly linked RSS just like Firefox does. Whatever special thing it does for YouTube user URLs now seems to have broken.