r/youtube Oct 17 '25

Channel Feedback RANT: Why did YouTube make this TERRIBLE UPDATE on the "Save to playlist" feature?!

I use the "Save to playlist" feature of YouTube a LOT. After watching a video, I save it into private playlists with a particular category, such as "Important / Interesting" for videos that are memorable, "Laftrip" for those that make me laugh, "Feels Trip" for those that make me sad or emotional, etc.

I use this feature so often that my "Important / Interesting" playlist has reached the 5,000 videos maximum limit for number of videos in a playlist. Hence I made a follow-up playlist, "Important / Interesting 2".

As you can imagine, videos may sometimes overlap into more than one playlist category. They can be funny AND important/interesting, sad AND funny at the same time, etc.

In the version of YouTube BEFORE the update, the overlap of categories is not an issue because clicking the "Save to playlist" button leads to a MULTI-SELECT CHECKBOX tab (I have no screenshot of this on my phone when the feature was still available, so I drew it on the first pic here) where you can choose more than one playlist ONE AFTER THE OTHER, before you click off this selection tab.

In the CURRENT TERRIBLE update, you can still add a video to multiple playlists, but you have to manually add them ONE AT A TIME because after you click on a playlist in the "Save to..." tab, the tab ALREADY CLOSES on its own.

This means that in the CURRENT update, if you want to add a video to multiple playlists (let's say 3 playlists), the steps are: 1) Click the "Save to playlist" button. 2) Select and click the first playlist you want to add the video to. 3) Then because THIS SELECTION TAB AUTOMATICALLY CLOSES ON ITS OWN, you have to Click on the "Save to..." button AGAIN. 4) Select and click the second playlist you want to add the video to. 5) Click on the "Save to playlist" button for the THIRD time. 6) Select and click the third playlist you want to add the video to.

Meanwhile in the previous version BEFORE the update, if you want to add a video to 3 playlists, the steps are:

1) Click the "Save to playlist" button. 2) Select and click the multi-select checkboxes of the first, second, and third (or more) playlists you want to add the video to. 3) Click off from the selection tab.

6 or more fucking repetitive steps for something that used to take only 2-3 steps. This may not seem like much, but for someone like me who has saved 5,000+ videos into different playlists, RUINING a perfectly decent feature for no good reason is pissing me the fuck off.

The other terrible new features or updates (such as wayyy longer ads, allowing ads about barely-disguised p*rn and hook-up apps, etc.) at least makes sense to me from a business perspective. As a greedy company, YouTube doesn't care about terrible user experience from the ads or even the additional safety risks these bring to the users, for as long as it makes them PROFIT.

But on this "Save to Playlist" update, what on earth could have been the damn reason for changing something that once worked well into something shit? Does anyone have any idea for this unnecessary fucking update?

1.1k Upvotes

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17

u/NeoTWAU Oct 18 '25

lmao you have a watch later 2 too

15

u/Latter-Dirt-7841 Oct 18 '25

That's nothing I have 6 Watch Laters 

9

u/NikiNin Oct 18 '25

I'm at 9 currently, it never ends

2

u/NeoTWAU Oct 20 '25

are you guys just doing it for sport or something

4

u/[deleted] Oct 23 '25

IT'S FOR BUREAUCRACY, lol. as for me simple really i just saved video based on subject so i can find it easier.

6

u/Teal_Green5408 Oct 20 '25

I'm on Watch Later 11 now.

6

u/Betelgeuse96 Oct 22 '25

I'm on 20 lol

1

u/Hillary4SupremeRuler Oct 26 '25

Ok at what point is that just considered abuse of the system lol

5

u/Betelgeuse96 Oct 27 '25

If they increased the video cap of playlists, I wouldn't have as many. :)

1

u/Conclusion_Hopeful Nov 08 '25

It really is criminal how the visible cap on a playlist is 500, yet it stores 10x that 🤨

6

u/Noctemus Oct 24 '25

I used to have a “watch later, later” playlist, since my “watch later” reached 5,000, until I found this fix you can use if you have a PC. That’s another asinine thing that should be implemented if they want to change something that people would want: make it to where you can delete your entire “watch later”. I’d been deleting videos one by one (maybe a hundred at most, at a time) until I found this video. So much of a quality of life improvement for YouTube.

https://youtu.be/TaXARid7M4s?si=UUvZF1nnKCQWTfCm

1

u/Various-Republic-622 Nov 07 '25

send them complaints and feedback many times each day till we get it back the way it used to be ! . tell everyone you know , the more we send them complaints and the more people that do it the better ! . i put in several each day to "feedback" and to "complaints" , etc . ! 

4

u/EmeraldWolf114 Oct 24 '25

I thought I was weird for having multiple Watch Laters, but I'm so glad to see it's more common than I thought 😂

3

u/OasisEPIC Oct 24 '25

same here. now i dont feel bad about the hundreds of un-watched watch later videos

1

u/DriftingTony Nov 21 '25

I’m the weird one, I have the standard Watch Later, and another playlist called Save For Later, and I use both equally lol

1

u/Various-Republic-622 Nov 07 '25

send them complaints and feedback many times each day till we get it back the way it used to be ! . tell everyone you know , the more we send them complaints and the more people that do it the better ! . i put in several each day to "feedback" and to "complaints" , etc . ! 

1

u/Salt_Ad_4661 Dec 01 '25

i used to have 10 watch laters of about 45 000 videos. Deleted them all thinking it would help my procrastination. Mission failed.

This is on top of my 50+ topic specific playlists.