Reviews for PocketTube: Youtube Subscription Manager
PocketTube: Youtube Subscription Manager by Dima Nabok
Review by Tom
Rated 3 out of 5
by Tom, sena iluThe idea is great, but the actual functioning is poor because it breaks some behaviors in YouTube and I had to uninstall this extension because of it.
1. When doing a search, the results page sometimes gets stuck refreshing the results, basically the results are caught in a loop of refreshing over and over so you can't click on anything.
2. When scrolling videos, YouTube uses lazy loading, but with this extension enabled, the videos do not load and it's just blank, therefore video results beyond the page break fail to load.
3. There are glitches when loading your main subscription feed page, things like shorts showing up then disappearing, despite what option you have selected. In my usage, I have shorts disabled, however they continue to show up sometimes on page loads.
4. The actual loading time of pages on YouTube is noticeably slower, this is most likely due to this extension using additional resources and causing it to lag.
5. Not the extensions fault but a byproduct is this will make your YouTube mobile app experience worse because your subscriptions are now all together, so if you use this extension to subscribe and be able to organize them where you wouldn't otherwise subscribe, then your lists are useless on mobile.
6. I don't appreciate the advertising for your extension upgrades. Yes, we understand you'd like to make revenue but let users show/hide these options and once they make their choice do not advertise this again. IF users want to upgrade, they can do so later on their own terms.
Again, it's a good idea but hopefully YouTube will adopt collections natively (as they have done beta testing with select users) and this will then be able to be used on your account across all platforms and devices.
The main feature I use is the subscription categories and the ability to hide shorts, once YouTube adopts this it will be great. Hopefully this extension will inspire YouTube to release collections to all users and feed options such as hiding shorts.
1. When doing a search, the results page sometimes gets stuck refreshing the results, basically the results are caught in a loop of refreshing over and over so you can't click on anything.
2. When scrolling videos, YouTube uses lazy loading, but with this extension enabled, the videos do not load and it's just blank, therefore video results beyond the page break fail to load.
3. There are glitches when loading your main subscription feed page, things like shorts showing up then disappearing, despite what option you have selected. In my usage, I have shorts disabled, however they continue to show up sometimes on page loads.
4. The actual loading time of pages on YouTube is noticeably slower, this is most likely due to this extension using additional resources and causing it to lag.
5. Not the extensions fault but a byproduct is this will make your YouTube mobile app experience worse because your subscriptions are now all together, so if you use this extension to subscribe and be able to organize them where you wouldn't otherwise subscribe, then your lists are useless on mobile.
6. I don't appreciate the advertising for your extension upgrades. Yes, we understand you'd like to make revenue but let users show/hide these options and once they make their choice do not advertise this again. IF users want to upgrade, they can do so later on their own terms.
Again, it's a good idea but hopefully YouTube will adopt collections natively (as they have done beta testing with select users) and this will then be able to be used on your account across all platforms and devices.
The main feature I use is the subscription categories and the ability to hide shorts, once YouTube adopts this it will be great. Hopefully this extension will inspire YouTube to release collections to all users and feed options such as hiding shorts.
Developer response
posted sena ilu1-2. I can't reproduce it. Try to disable other extensions, I think you have a conflict with something.
3. It's expected behavior because it uploads all pages and next hides videos by filters. If you want to use it without disappearing(seamless experience), you should use feed mode https://youtu.be/r4iX53Qg2sE?t=233
4. It takes some time, but it's insignificant, and no one complains. Again I think it's related to conflict with something another extension.
5. It doesn't make it worse because PocketTube has Android and iOS, you can find it in the official store.
6. I want my users to know about every extension upgrade, what it's, and how to use it. I'm not going to make a useless update that no one use. It's part of the extension, and every update has free options. Also, you have a close button, so why not close it and just a little appreciate the work behind the extension? But it's really stupid to use my extension and don't see special videos for updates. Every update takes time to implement and produce tutorial videos.
PocketTube is not only about the collection. It has a bunch of different functions like Deck, filters, sorts, mark as watched, and more which you can on my YT channel: https://www.youtube.com/@PocketTubeHQ/videos
I have been developing the extension for over 6 years and would say unfortunately only ads revenue inspires YouTube to implement features.
3. It's expected behavior because it uploads all pages and next hides videos by filters. If you want to use it without disappearing(seamless experience), you should use feed mode https://youtu.be/r4iX53Qg2sE?t=233
4. It takes some time, but it's insignificant, and no one complains. Again I think it's related to conflict with something another extension.
5. It doesn't make it worse because PocketTube has Android and iOS, you can find it in the official store.
6. I want my users to know about every extension upgrade, what it's, and how to use it. I'm not going to make a useless update that no one use. It's part of the extension, and every update has free options. Also, you have a close button, so why not close it and just a little appreciate the work behind the extension? But it's really stupid to use my extension and don't see special videos for updates. Every update takes time to implement and produce tutorial videos.
PocketTube is not only about the collection. It has a bunch of different functions like Deck, filters, sorts, mark as watched, and more which you can on my YT channel: https://www.youtube.com/@PocketTubeHQ/videos
I have been developing the extension for over 6 years and would say unfortunately only ads revenue inspires YouTube to implement features.
515 reviews
- Rated 4 out of 5by jimmychen_qq, 3 ġranet iluToday the count is missing for new videos.
I keep login youtube and reflash many time.
BTW, after re-install pockettube and missing count still happens. - Rated 5 out of 5by Animashka, 7 ġranet ilu
- Rated 5 out of 5by Firefox user 18450459, 16 ġranet ilu
Developer response
posted 17 ġranet iluWhat do you mean? You can filter it on the page https://www.youtube.com/feed/subscriptions- Rated 4 out of 5by AmkiTakk, 19 ġranet iluVery useful and easy to use, but settings don't save reliably on Firefox. I will painstakingly sort my subscriptions into categories, only for half of them to not have been saved once I reload the page...
Developer response
posted 19 ġranet iluIt's weird, try to disable other extensions, maybe you have a conflict with something - Rated 4 out of 5by Sharad104, xahar ilu
- Rated 4 out of 5by ambiades, xahar ilu
- Rated 5 out of 5by Ghost Warrior, xahar ilu
- Rated 3 out of 5by tomato sauce, 2 xhur ilushame it doesn't differentiate multiple channels, I have many of them for different kinds of contents and the groups from my main channel are shared through all of them, that's a bit annoying
Developer response
posted 2 xhur iluYes, multiple accounts are not supported. As a workaround, you can use different Firefox profiles(account containers) or use nested groups and create main groups for every account. - Rated 4 out of 5by Firefox user 18115078, 2 xhur ilui really like this for organizing the channels i like to watch. the only problem i have is that in the side bar i accidentally expanded my subscriptions and now i can't look at my folders at the side and i can't figure out how to bring them back
Developer response
posted 2 xhur ilumaybe you changed position of the block, please check the tutorial https://youtu.be/r4iX53Qg2sE?si=RY9d5vh5zeGSnAlU&t=227 - Rated 5 out of 5by ClemTlse, 2 xhur iluI love this add-on but, recently, I encounter a strange behavior: when I select a site I am subscribed to in a PocketTube folder, PocketTube shows me the "Videos" page of the channel which is then constantly refreshing/flashing (or jumping to the next page?) until it shows me a blank page (the last page?). When I click on the "Home" tab of the channel, this behavior stops. It seems to only happen on the "Videos" tab.
I use the latest version of Firefox on Windows 10.
This behavior disppears if I switch off PocketTube. Cheers
EDIT: thanks for your reply. Spot on, I must have disabled it by error. Thanks! I updated to 5 star!Developer response
posted 2 xhur iluMaybe you disabled the Uploads filter on the page?
You should check it, the screenshot with filters https://share.cleanshot.com/XFxHyzwQ - Rated 1 out of 5by Firefox user 18236046, 2 xhur ilu
- Rated 5 out of 5by klobexia, 3 xhur iluthis extension is really comprehensive. it must have taken a lot of effort and attention to detail. I plan to get the full version soon, as its not that expensive and i feel unethical using the product of such effort and time without paying the creator.
Developer response
posted 3 xhur iluThanks so much! So glad PocketTube has been helpful for you, and really appreciate this awesome feedback! - Rated 1 out of 5by Firefox user 12698138, 3 xhur ilu
- Rated 5 out of 5by uzaylul, 3 xhur ilu
- Rated 2 out of 5by Roon, 3 xhur iluNot open-source, some features are locked behind paywall. Sad to see this is the only extension that has channel grouping.
I understand making extension like this costs money but at least you could make donation optional rather than locking some of features behind a paywall.
Other than that, I am using the base feature very well. However please keep this review in mind and won't change this review unless the above problem gets resolved.Developer response
posted 3 xhur iluThe base features аre free. Watch the full tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4iX53Qg2sE If you need more, become my supporter. It takes time to update the extension every time YouTube changes internally. - Rated 5 out of 5by AngelTurret, 3 xhur ilu
- Rated 5 out of 5by pnhan, 3 xhur ilu
- Rated 4 out of 5by Nick, 4 xhur iluThe idea is for 5 stars for sure. On chrome it seems to work pretty well. However, on Firefox it is kinda buggy.
Sometimes changes are not saved in spite of the fact the notification pop up explicitly says that changes have been changed. Sometimes you need to refresh the page to see the subscription list. Sometimes it works okay. Tried to disable other plugins, but didn't solve any issue.
Will keep using it for a while though.
-- edit --
After using it for a couple of days, it certainly deserves 4 stars, so I increased my rating from 3 to 4 stars.
Just for reference, the problems I describe above are in my Linux systems and in more than 2 (fully updated) computers. The problems mostly occur when i massively change the categories on the channel list. Apart from that, everything else runs smoothly.Developer response
posted 4 xhur iluIt's weird, we have the same version for Chrome and Firefox. Maybe you have some specific settings in Firefox - Rated 5 out of 5by beussta, 4 xhur iluVERY useful extension for a feature that youtube should have included as standard a long time ago, showing that a single person can do better than a multi-billion company
simple to use, very practical, and the non-paying part is more than sufficient
a big thank to the creator and good workDeveloper response
posted 4 xhur iluThanks so much! So glad PocketTube has been helpful for you, and really appreciate this awesome feedback! - Rated 3 out of 5by Urnfs, 4 xhur iluAfter a year and a half of use, with more than 300 subscriptions organized, suddenly yesterday all my groups got deleted. And my backup is a year old 🤦.
Developer response
posted 4 xhur iluBy default, your data is saved in browser storage. Maybe did you cleaned up?
You can use auto backup to recover https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuqWMXu9hak It's a feature available for our patrons and enabled automatically. Are you a patron? In this case, we will be responsible for your data and save it on our cloud, and you can easily recover any version from the latest ten days.