Frustrated with Freetube, what do you use on desktop (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 1 month ago by anticurrent@sh.itjust.works to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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Basically Most videos don't load on first try for me on Freetube. so I have to go back and forth to reload the video hoping this time it will load? they have removed the reload button, and the team are just closing issues on GitHub that demand reinstating the reload button. Plus comments have stopping loading as well.

Invidious doesn't work half of the times. and piped is dead.

What do you recommend using on desktop. or is paying for youtube Red the only option left?

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[-] Geodes_n_Gems@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 month ago

I'm probably being too lenient but if I can still watch videos on Freetube I'm not gonna abandon it, especially not for the official client, I'm pretty sure most issues are caused by Youtube shenanigans that affect all the alternative clients, FOSS Devs have always worked around those shenanigans before, and if Youtube does succeed in breaking all alternative clients & viewing methods forever then I won't watch Youtube videos anymore, yeah it'll suck but I'd much rather do that than go back to using an official Google product.

[-] anticurrent@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 month ago

I know they are doing their best to keep up with yt shenanigans. but they sometimes make decisions that hurt the user experience. like removing the reload option from the video page. its incomprehensible why the removed a feature that probably didn't interfere with the rest of the software performance

[-] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 month ago

Yeah same. For me, the alternate is to just not use YouTube so I usually give it a few tries with freetube before giving up

this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2026

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