YouTube API textDisplay is blank for all comments

Question

We have a site that has been using the YouTube API to load comments for videos for several months without issue. This weekend we noticed that the comment text has disappeared for all comments, across all videos! Author info, publishdAt, etc are all coming through just fine, but snippet.textDisplay is blank for every comment. If I view the video on YouTube.com, the comments are fine.

Sample API URL: https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/commentThreads?videoId=1nFywcC37i0&key=PRIVATE_KEY&part=snippet,replies

Partial JSON return:

{
 "kind": "youtube#commentThreadListResponse",
 "etag": "\"DsOZ7qVJA4mxdTxZeNzis6uE6ck/HnKLJJvaX5o82p7SOXqZoax63Pk\"",
 "nextPageToken": "Cg0QvLX3nrHpygIgACgBEhQIAxDQibyJ2oDKAhiwy_Dp193CAhgCIBEo_dG1q83Pj81Z",
 "pageInfo": {
  "totalResults": 17,
  "resultsPerPage": 20
 },
 "items": [
  {
   "kind": "youtube#commentThread",
   "etag": "\"DsOZ7qVJA4mxdTxZeNzis6uE6ck/Fme5IvQu6tqWHp4YOLrYer7CIV0\"",
   "id": "z12mcbxpbsvvvjpep22qufvxxsqiith5g04",
   "snippet": {
    "videoId": "1nFywcC37i0",
    "topLevelComment": {
     "kind": "youtube#comment",
     "etag": "\"DsOZ7qVJA4mxdTxZeNzis6uE6ck/ldVLSDtTKPhMl-FtaJHj6FzFBxs\"",
     "id": "z12mcbxpbsvvvjpep22qufvxxsqiith5g04",
     "snippet": {
      "authorDisplayName": "Tea Culture",
      "authorProfileImageUrl": "https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-gnq7syMNFPM/AAAAAAAAAAI/AAAAAAAABcY/GOY--FZpe0w/photo.jpg?sz=50",
      "authorChannelUrl": "http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLTjm6qRUveEL2-q0UcFjWQ",
      "authorChannelId": {
       "value": "UCLTjm6qRUveEL2-q0UcFjWQ"
      },
      "videoId": "1nFywcC37i0",
      "textDisplay": "",
      "authorGoogleplusProfileUrl": "https://plus.google.com/113856310904021846289",
      "canRate": false,
      "viewerRating": "none",
      "likeCount": 1,
      "publishedAt": "2015-12-29T08:58:47.729Z",
      "updatedAt": "2015-12-29T08:58:47.729Z"
     }
    },
    "canReply": false,
    "totalReplyCount": 0,
    "isPublic": true
   }
  },
  {
   "kind": "youtube#commentThread",
   "etag": "\"DsOZ7qVJA4mxdTxZeNzis6uE6ck/74T1pezkd-XvwRlS2TdnS55rMLU\"",
   "id": "z12egnvgnxubg1fcz23njpizuseusp52v",
   "snippet": {
    "videoId": "1nFywcC37i0",
    "topLevelComment": {
     "kind": "youtube#comment",
     "etag": "\"DsOZ7qVJA4mxdTxZeNzis6uE6ck/Qo_wbi2gLLivL4wxv762XrTrOTc\"",
     "id": "z12egnvgnxubg1fcz23njpizuseusp52v",
     "snippet": {
      "authorDisplayName": "speeedskater",
      "authorProfileImageUrl": "https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-vfRKsopq1lU/AAAAAAAAAAI/AAAAAAAAABM/L0ASWMo0cAg/photo.jpg?sz=50",
      "authorChannelUrl": "http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsb8wbZeHZTta_yZ_YN1mag",
      "authorChannelId": {
       "value": "UCsb8wbZeHZTta_yZ_YN1mag"
      },
      "videoId": "1nFywcC37i0",
      "textDisplay": "",
      "authorGoogleplusProfileUrl": "https://plus.google.com/113292370824207410602",
      "canRate": false,
      "viewerRating": "none",
      "likeCount": 0,
      "publishedAt": "2015-12-03T05:25:02.538Z",
      "updatedAt": "2015-12-03T05:25:02.538Z"
     }
    },
    "canReply": false,
    "totalReplyCount": 0,
    "isPublic": true
   }
  },
  ...

There are several bug reports that seem to match this problem (and the timing). For instance, #7969 code.google.com/p/gdata-issues/issues/detail?id=7969. The workaround seems to be to use textFormat as plainText but this is clearly not ideal! — theduck

David Doughty David Doughty · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-09T22:16:58

It does appear to be a recent bug; I'll keep an eye on the report at http://code.google.com/p/gdata-issues/issues/detail?id=7969, and implement the workaround to use textFormat as plainText for now.

YouTube API textDisplay is blank for all comments

2 Answers