# How to avoid the YouTube posting bug **URL:** \ **Category:** Site Feedback\ **Tags:** sdmb\_rules-and-notes\ **Created:** [September 20, 2024, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-avoid-the-youtube-posting-bug/1007499 "2024-09-20T00:46:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2025, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-avoid-the-youtube-posting-bug/1007499/43 "2025-06-10T02:19:14Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > You just have to be very quick between pasting the URL and clicking “Reply”, as I noted in post #34. Or turn off the preview. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2025, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-avoid-the-youtube-posting-bug/1007499/44 "2025-06-10T02:20:40Z")
Rather than trying to race the thumbnail being created, IMO it’s far simpler to enter all the text of your post, then turn off the post preview feature (one click), add in all your youtube links, save your post, then the next time you make or edit a post in some other thread, turn the post preview feature back on. No rushing, no possibility you’ll lose the race, no hassles. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2025, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-avoid-the-youtube-posting-bug/1007499/45 "2025-06-10T02:24:38Z")
To each their own. The fast-post method has never failed me, and I don’t have to bother with turning post-preview off and on again. Once you get used to it, it’s as easy as making any other kind of post. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2025, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-avoid-the-youtube-posting-bug/1007499/46 "2025-06-10T02:58:32Z")
Rapid posting has worked a little more than half the time for me. It’s good to have confirmed that the &1/&2 trick works. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2025, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-avoid-the-youtube-posting-bug/1007499/47 "2025-06-10T06:02:04Z")
Ack, ignore this. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2025, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-avoid-the-youtube-posting-bug/1007499/48 "2025-06-11T20:55:12Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > Anyway, about this YouTube issue… could it possibly be related to our particular combination of the default Onebox settings (“Onebox” is the Discourse name for the link preview generator) with our “no image uploads allowed” policy (which is pretty rare among Discourse forums, and possibly a contributing factor to this issue)? > [@wolfpup](#): > > I would have to assume that the response was that there was no practical solution for our particular rather unique configuration. Certainly not an expert in the topic, but I can’t believe that we’re all that weird. I presume one of the key reasons why we prohibit image/media uploads is to minimize storage consumption and the associated costs (assuming Discourse makes you pay for additional storage). Managing costs is something almost every customer is probably interested in to some degree and not allowing media uploads is the obvious solution. > [@Reply](#): > > I couldn’t find an official bug report about this on the Discourse forum (did we ever send one?), so I made a new report there: [YouTube link previews broken if user is not part of “Embedded media post allowed groups” - Bug - Discourse Meta](https://meta.discourse.org/t/youtube-link-previews-broken-if-user-is-not-part-of-embedded-media-post-allowed-groups/369494) If this is truly the first official bug report that suggests to me that there’s something more nuanced about our issue than just the combination of no images + YouTube…we can’t be the only people using that no images setting (let’s face it, literally everyone links YoutTube constantly). ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2025, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-avoid-the-youtube-posting-bug/1007499/49 "2025-06-11T21:25:26Z")
Image hosting is so dirt cheap these that it’s not usually much of a pricing concern. It’d cost you maybe $1-$2 per 100 GB. At Discourse’s scale, it’s probably much cheaper, and the forum admins can [configure a bunch of settings](https://meta.discourse.org/t/understanding-uploads-images-and-attachments/275735) to limit storage. Anyway, we had a [whole other thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-consider-allowing-direct-image-uploads/1013213) about that, in which the consensus was “it’s more of a bureaucratic hurdle than a technical one, and we don’t want to risk our owners having any second thoughts about our forum at all” (which makes sense). As for the bug report, well, it doesn’t take much to make it happen… you can just sign up for a Discourse trial (no credit card needed), follow the few steps on that bug report, and make it happen for yourself (I did). It probably just is an uncommon setting… “images in my forum or not” was more of a 1990s and 2000s concern and hasn’t really been much of an issue since. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2025, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-avoid-the-youtube-posting-bug/1007499/50 "2025-06-11T22:59:54Z")
Image hosting is certainly cheap to Discourse, but what they charge their customers for using it is largely unrelated to their cost. Maybe it’s a non-factor. Whether cost is a factor or not, I think the argument that we have some novel setup solely due to the disablement of images seems unlikely. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2025, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-avoid-the-youtube-posting-bug/1007499/51 "2025-06-11T23:14:07Z")
> [@Omniscient](#): > > but what they charge their customers for using it is largely unrelated to their cost. IMO, their standard plans are a rip-off. Their baseline Business plan is $500/mo for 100 GB. We’d run through that in no time for images. Even for text it seems a little tight. I’d guess we’re still big enough to need an Enterprise plan, which starts at 200 GB, but that’s still not much. Discourse does support external image hosting, like via Amazon S3, but that would require some effort to set up. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2025, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-avoid-the-youtube-posting-bug/1007499/52 "2025-06-12T00:17:52Z")
> [@Omniscient](#): > > Whether cost is a factor or not, I think the argument that we have some novel setup solely due to the disablement of images seems unlikely. Why do you think it’s unlikely when it’s in the reproduction…? The setting that forbids image posting also breaks YouTube links. That isn’t a blind conjecture, but trial and error on a Discourse demo instance I spun up and tweaked until I got the same error to happen. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2025, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-avoid-the-youtube-posting-bug/1007499/54 "2025-06-12T00:25:14Z")
Was there a mod note posted here for a brief second…? I thought I saw something about a pinned thread, but it disappeared before I could read it fully. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2025, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-avoid-the-youtube-posting-bug/1007499/55 "2025-06-12T01:20:13Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > I’d guess we’re still big enough to need an Enterprise plan, which starts at 200 GB, but that’s still not much. Like was mentioned elsewhere we’re in the “call for a quote” category of sites so it’s hard to find list prices. I have no idea what we pay for storage, or how the cost scales with usage, but I think it’s safe to assume that Discourse is likely to monetize the heck out of media hosting. > [@Reply](#): > > Why do you think it’s unlikely when it’s in the reproduction…? The setting that forbids image posting also breaks YouTube links. That isn’t a blind conjecture, but trial and error on a Discourse demo instance I spun up and tweaked until I got the same error to happen. I’m simply saying that I find it hard to believe we’re in some vanishingly small minority who forbids images. People here keep saying this makes us some kind of unicorn, that doesn’t pass the sniff test. Simply checking that one box, unless it’s deeply buried in some hard to find INI file, wouldn’t be rare. I beleive the root cause analysis is sound, but either there’s another less obvious factor also presenting in the testbed, or this issue is more widespread amongst the Discourse install base. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2025, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-avoid-the-youtube-posting-bug/1007499/56 "2025-07-29T18:11:03Z")
And now the guys at Discourse have also broken the workaround posted in this thread, by eliminating the preview pane of the edit window and producing the preview of a video in the actual edit window. Only chance to avoid the bug now is hitting “Reply” fast enough before the preview pic is generated. Bummer. There have been other enshitifications of the software in the last few days. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2025, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-avoid-the-youtube-posting-bug/1007499/57 "2025-07-29T19:18:06Z")
In the upper-left of the edit window (to the left of the bold B button), there is a toggle between “Markdown” and “rich text editor”. The rich text editor shows the YouTube previews inline, as well as some other formatting. The Markdown mode is largely the same as before. Switch to that and the rest of the workaround above should work. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2025, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-avoid-the-youtube-posting-bug/1007499/58 "2025-07-29T20:34:21Z")
Ah, thanks for that. But just another inconvenience, and I see that that the layout in markdown mode is just ugly. Testing here: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/UeGjQHwpzJA/maxresdefault.jpg "Getting Past German Immigration | Foil Arms and Hog") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeGjQHwpzJA) ETA: yeah, it went through this way. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2025, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-avoid-the-youtube-posting-bug/1007499/59 "2025-07-29T20:36:27Z")
Markdown mode is the same as the previous edit window, with the exception that they switched to a monospace font. I read a lot of text in monospace so I don’t see it as a particular regression. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2025, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-avoid-the-youtube-posting-bug/1007499/60 "2025-12-08T11:15:29Z")
Testing [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/PvWLbK_mNw0/maxresdefault.jpg "Polar Bear vs Walrus | Planet Earth | BBC Earth") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvWLbK_mNw0) ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2025, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-avoid-the-youtube-posting-bug/1007499/61 "2025-12-08T11:15:48Z")
Damn! It worked! ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2025, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-avoid-the-youtube-posting-bug/1007499/62 "2025-12-08T14:05:15Z")
It does every time without fail … _if_ you follow the recipe accurately. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-avoid-the-youtube-posting-bug/1007499/63 "2026-06-25T20:50:32Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > When you are satisfied with the post, _hide the preview window_ (see the \<\< button in the lower-right). I do not have a \<\< button at the lower right. I am posting from my Android phone, with a Chrome browser. [![](https://i.ibb.co/twMQXW8y/AISelect-20260625-164847-Chrome.jpg) ](https://i.ibb.co/twMQXW8y/AISelect-20260625-164847-Chrome.jpg) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-avoid-the-youtube-posting-bug/1007499.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-avoid-the-youtube-posting-bug/1007499.md?page=4)