youtube api playlistitems deleted videos

Question

I noticed some inconsistencies between the data retrieved via the Youtube API v3 and what Youtube shows accessing directly the website. Sometimes, the data returned via the playlistitem list contains a lower number of items (videos) than the playlist shown in the website. This happens when the playlist contains deleted videos. In fact, at times, a video marked as deleted on youtube's playlist, it is still reported in the returned data of a playlistitems call, other times it is not, leading to a playlist having 2 different sizes (i.e. 20 videos on the website and only 18 returned via the api).

This is puzzling for my users when they compare the playlists on youtube and in my application, as they see 2 different results...

Anyone knows how to handle playlists with deleted videos? Or how to retrieve the same data as it is shown in the website?

I'm using php and youtube v3 apis and youtube's php libraries if it is relevant.

Answer 1

I think it is a bug in the YouTube API version 3. You should check if it is already reported as a bug and if not you can file it yourself here: https://code.google.com/p/gdata-issues/issues/list?q=label:API-YouTube

if you decide to file it as a bug you should mention a playlistID that shows the problem.

I have noticed it too. However, it does not bother me. In my case: Using API version 3. The response is missing one or more items. Missing playlist items always appear as DELETED on youtube.com It happens on some playlists but not all. The playlist is PUBLIC and contains only videos from other channels.