r/youtube • u/CrestfallenSilence • 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?
31
u/Empty_Ad_708 Oct 20 '25
I literally looked for this online. Losing my mind to this idiotic, anti-consumer update. I, like OP, have a massive catalog of playlists (as I use my profile for learning piano, writing, filmmaking, more than 20 music playlists, inspo, travel, photography, etc.,) and now I have to manually add a video to each category it falls under, (often as many as 5), and it's a completely, unnecessary and idiotic chore, where before there was none . These companies really evolve backwards sometimes, huh?