To follow a YouTube channel, click Add feed, choose YouTube and paste the channel's address. Feeder follows the channel's RSS feed and adds each new video as a post you can play. If all your YouTube feeds turn red at the same time, YouTube's feeds are down, and yours recover on their own.
How do I add a YouTube channel or playlist?
- Click Add feed in the left sidebar.
- Under Social media, choose YouTube.
- Paste the address of a channel, like
https://www.youtube.com/@kurzgesagt, or of a playlist. A video's address works too: Feeder follows the channel that posted it, or the playlist if the address has one. - Click Follow on the result.
Pasting the address into the search box at the top of Add feed works too. A channel's feed lists its 15 newest videos, and Feeder keeps the older ones it has collected. For feeds without Shorts, see YouTube RSS feeds: get the feed for any channel.
How do I add many channels at once?
YouTube no longer exports subscriptions as OPML, but you can build a file Feeder imports:
- Export your subscriptions with Google Takeout, as described in the YouTube RSS guide. You get
subscriptions.csvwith each channel's ID. - Open it in a spreadsheet app. In a new column, build each feed address with a formula like
="https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id="&A2, where A2 holds the ID. Save as CSV. - In Feeder, click Library, open Import & Export and click Import from file.
- Under Choose what each column means, set your new column to Source and click Continue Import.
Each channel counts as one feed. Free follows up to 200, and Plus, at $7.99 a month billed yearly, follows 2,500. See Import and export your feeds with OPML.
Why are all my YouTube feeds red with a 404 error?
Sometimes YouTube's feed server answers every feed with 404 Not Found for hours at a time. Your feeds turn red, and Check error says "The feed URL returned a 404 Not Found error." Nothing is wrong with them. Feeder keeps checking, and one good check turns each feed back to normal.
Deleting and adding them again doesn't help: the new feed has the same address. If only one channel stays red for days, open it on YouTube. A deleted channel has no feed. If it's still there, add it again from its page and delete the red feed. See Why a feed stops updating or turns red.
Why does a video say "www.youtube.com refused to connect"?
The post is open in Full mode, which loads YouTube's own page inside Feeder, and YouTube doesn't allow that. Click Simple in the post's toolbar, or press F, to switch to Simple mode with Feeder's video player. You can also open the video on YouTube.
What does "Error 153" in the video player mean?
YouTube's player couldn't load inside Feeder. Privacy and cookie-blocking extensions can cause it. Allow feeder.co in them and reload, or open the video on YouTube.
Why do old videos come back as new?
The channel was probably added as an AI feed of its YouTube page, not as its RSS feed. To check, right-click the feed and choose Edit feed: an AI feed shows a lightbulb badge next to its name. Add the channel again with the steps above, then right-click the old feed and choose Delete feed. Feeder no longer makes AI feeds of YouTube pages.
Common questions
How often does Feeder check YouTube feeds?
At the feed's update speed, but no more often than every 15 minutes. See How often Feeder checks your feeds.
Do YouTube feeds need a paid plan?
No. They work on every plan, Free included.
Still stuck? E-mail support@feeder.co with the channel's address and a screenshot of the error, and we'll take a look.