YouTube Flaw: Years of Annoying Issue Finally Exposed

I’m regularly on YouTube not only for work reasons, but also for private purposes. The video platform has a lot of junk content to offer, but you can also find some educational and entertaining content.

But since I Don’t look at everything straight away can, a lot of it ends up on my watchlist – and that’s exactly where YouTube should finally fix an annoying problem.

The watch list on YouTube is called “watch later,” and it can take a while for me to finish it. I regularly find interesting videos that allow me to broaden my horizons – or simply get a dose of internet fun.

Specifically, what bothers me is the playlist that keeps coming back and forth Videos disappear completely without warning. This can have various reasons:

• the uploader deleted the video
• The channel owner has set the video to private
• the channel has been deleted
• the video was removed due to copyright infringement

Of course, unlike Netflix and Co., YouTube has no control over whether content is taken offline by the uploader. That’s not what it’s about.

But what annoys me is that I don’t even know anymore which video was actually deleted. Instead, the view simply shows the text

“1 unavailable video is not displayed”

Sometimes there are two or three. I get the feeling: Now I’ve missed something great that I actually wanted to see. And I ask myself: Why did the video suddenly disappear?

You can find out at least part of this by clicking on the three dots in the playlist view and selecting the menu item “Show unavailable videos”. Then the affected content appears as [Privates Video] or [Gelöschtes Video] at the original location of the playlist.

But there is no more information. Therefore, I have a simple request: Please just leave the name of the channel and the title of the unavailable video in the playlist. Example:

• [Privates Video] Last used title of the video
  Kanalname

Sure: The video creator may no longer even want to know the video title in public, so such a function would not be in the creators’ interest. But:

1. As a viewer, you would at least know what you missed and then have the opportunity to find out more about this topic somewhere else.
2. You could go to the channel to check whether the video might have been re-uploaded.
3. The YouTuber may explain in another video why the post had to be deleted.

Instead, you only get one option: “Remove the video from watching later.” Even that is far too hidden, so that every time you open the playlist you are reminded that you missed something.

Of course, I could also use a handy video downloader to save the videos I want as soon as I discover something interesting. However, given the amount of content, it would be a bit too much effort for me just to prevent possible deletion of interesting content – I also like to follow the discussions in the comments section.