[Bug] Repeated status code 400 on RefreshChannelsJob causing backoff to increase forever

[unrealtournament]

Describe the bug

Since yesterday, subscriptions have stopped refreshing properly, every few requests I'm getting a 400 status code error, which is causing invidious to increase the job backoff exponentially forever.

I've tried restarting Invidious multiple times and I've updated to the latest docker image versions, but I'm still getting the errors constantly.

I've also tried manually making the request to the channel id pages that are giving the error (it's not just one, and it's not always the same, the channel changes on every job execution) on the same public IP Invidious is hosted in repeatedly and I've never gotten any 400 errors, it always returns 200. The linked page https://docs.invidious.io/youtube-errors-explained/ mentions 429 and 403 but I'm not getting any of those.

I have 701 total subscriptions, I didn't massively subscribe to a lot of channels or anything similar before the error started happening, subscriptions have been working properly for months without any 400 status code errors.

Steps to Reproduce

Unknown, this randomly started happening yesterday. I'd be happy to provide more logs if there's some way to add debug info to see the request in detail.
Logs

invidious-1  | 2026-01-29T16:10:34.755751130Z 2026-01-29 16:10:34 UTC [error] RefreshChannelsJob: UCvwFAruyd5WGqi9qUoB91_g : Error: non 200 status code. Youtube API returned status code 400. See <a href="https://docs.invidious.io/youtube-errors-explained/"> https://docs.invidious.io/youtube-errors-explained/</a> for troubleshooting.
invidious-1  | 2026-01-29T16:10:34.755795140Z 2026-01-29 16:10:34 UTC [error] RefreshChannelsJob: UCvwFAruyd5WGqi9qUoB91_g fiber : backing off for 00:02:00s
--
invidious-1  | 2026-01-29T16:12:49.377746477Z 2026-01-29 16:12:49 UTC [error] RefreshChannelsJob: UC6n8I1UDTKP1IWjQMg6_TwA : Error: non 200 status code. Youtube API returned status code 400. See <a href="https://docs.invidious.io/youtube-errors-explained/"> https://docs.invidious.io/youtube-errors-explained/</a> for troubleshooting.
invidious-1  | 2026-01-29T16:12:49.377781423Z 2026-01-29 16:12:49 UTC [error] RefreshChannelsJob: UC6n8I1UDTKP1IWjQMg6_TwA fiber : backing off for 00:04:00s
--
invidious-1  | 2026-01-29T16:17:31.885269093Z 2026-01-29 16:17:31 UTC [error] RefreshChannelsJob: UClDb09FCWGuV231Ft3nRxvg : Error: non 200 status code. Youtube API returned status code 400. See <a href="https://docs.invidious.io/youtube-errors-explained/"> https://docs.invidious.io/youtube-errors-explained/</a> for troubleshooting.
invidious-1  | 2026-01-29T16:17:31.885307295Z 2026-01-29 16:17:31 UTC [error] RefreshChannelsJob: UClDb09FCWGuV231Ft3nRxvg fiber : backing off for 00:08:00s
--
invidious-1  | 2026-01-29T16:25:36.421112158Z 2026-01-29 16:25:36 UTC [error] RefreshChannelsJob: UCf-vV5woXPFpkvZKwooWoyw : Error: non 200 status code. Youtube API returned status code 400. See <a href="https://docs.invidious.io/youtube-errors-explained/"> https://docs.invidious.io/youtube-errors-explained/</a> for troubleshooting.
invidious-1  | 2026-01-29T16:25:36.421190617Z 2026-01-29 16:25:36 UTC [error] RefreshChannelsJob: UCf-vV5woXPFpkvZKwooWoyw fiber : backing off for 00:16:00s
--
invidious-1  | 2026-01-29T16:42:16.757693841Z 2026-01-29 16:42:16 UTC [error] RefreshChannelsJob: UCh1zLfuN6F_X4eoNKCsyICA : Error: non 200 status code. Youtube API returned status code 400. See <a href="https://docs.invidious.io/youtube-errors-explained/"> https://docs.invidious.io/youtube-errors-explained/</a> for troubleshooting.
invidious-1  | 2026-01-29T16:42:16.757725424Z 2026-01-29 16:42:16 UTC [error] RefreshChannelsJob: UCh1zLfuN6F_X4eoNKCsyICA fiber : backing off for 00:32:00s
--
invidious-1  | 2026-01-29T17:14:43.855285326Z 2026-01-29 17:14:43 UTC [error] RefreshChannelsJob: UCRcgy6GzDeccI7dkbbBna3Q : Error: non 200 status code. Youtube API returned status code 400. See <a href="https://docs.invidious.io/youtube-errors-explained/"> https://docs.invidious.io/youtube-errors-explained/</a> for troubleshooting.
invidious-1  | 2026-01-29T17:14:43.855337689Z 2026-01-29 17:14:43 UTC [error] RefreshChannelsJob: UCRcgy6GzDeccI7dkbbBna3Q fiber : backing off for 01:04:00s

(I only have these logs because I took the compose down and lost the logs, but the backoff went as high as 8 hours)

Screenshots

N/A
Additional context

• Docker compose setup behind nginx reverse proxy, basically the same compose as the installation instructions, nothing fancy.
• Private instance on a residential ISP IP (which hasn't changed for weeks), I'm the only user. I didn't touch any config when this started happening.

[unrealtournament]

Update with trace level logs:

invidious-1  | 2026-01-29 19:41:55 UTC [trace] RefreshChannelsJob: Fiber limit ok, continuing
invidious-1  | 2026-01-29 19:41:55 UTC [debug] RefreshChannelsJob: UCDW9XFv3T8VkBskvgEIiW2A : Spawning fiber
invidious-1  | 2026-01-29 19:41:55 UTC [trace] RefreshChannelsJob: Fiber limit reached, waiting...
invidious-1  | 2026-01-29 19:41:55 UTC [trace] RefreshChannelsJob: UCDW9XFv3T8VkBskvgEIiW2A fiber : Fetching channel
invidious-1  | 2026-01-29 19:41:55 UTC [debug] fetch_channel: UCDW9XFv3T8VkBskvgEIiW2A
invidious-1  | 2026-01-29 19:41:55 UTC [trace] fetch_channel: UCDW9XFv3T8VkBskvgEIiW2A : pull_all_videos = false
invidious-1  | 2026-01-29 19:41:55 UTC [trace] fetch_channel: UCDW9XFv3T8VkBskvgEIiW2A : Downloading RSS feed
invidious-1  | 2026-01-29 19:41:55 UTC [trace] fetch_channel: UCDW9XFv3T8VkBskvgEIiW2A : Parsing RSS feed
invidious-1  | 2026-01-29 19:41:55 UTC [trace] fetch_channel: UCDW9XFv3T8VkBskvgEIiW2A : author = mimo asmr, auto_generated =
invidious-1  | 2026-01-29 19:41:55 UTC [trace] fetch_channel: UCDW9XFv3T8VkBskvgEIiW2A : Downloading channel videos page
invidious-1  | 2026-01-29 19:41:55 UTC [debug] YoutubeAPI: Using endpoint: "/youtubei/v1/browse"
invidious-1  | 2026-01-29 19:41:55 UTC [trace] YoutubeAPI: ClientConfig: YoutubeAPI::ClientConfig(@client_type=YoutubeAPI::ClientType::Web, @region="US")
invidious-1  | 2026-01-29 19:41:55 UTC [trace] YoutubeAPI: POST data: {"context" => {"client" => {"hl" => "en", "gl" => "US", "clientName" => "WEB", "clientVersion" => "2.20250222.10.00", "clientScreen" => "WATCH_FULL_SCREEN", "osName" => "Windows", "osVersion" => "10.0", "platform" => "DESKTOP"}}, "continuation" => "4qmFsgJkEhhVQ0RXOVhGdjNUOFZrQnNrdmdFSWlXMkEaSDhnWXVHaXg2S2hJbUNpUXdNREF3TURBd01DMHdNREF3TFRBd01EQXRNREF3TUMwd01EQXdNREF3TURBd01EQWdCQSUzRCUzRA%3D%3D"}
invidious-1  | 2026-01-29 19:41:55 UTC [error] RefreshChannelsJob: UCDW9XFv3T8VkBskvgEIiW2A : Error: non 200 status code. Youtube API returned status code 400. See <a href="https://docs.invidious.io/youtube-errors-explained/"> https://docs.invidious.io/youtube-errors-explained/</a> for troubleshooting.
invidious-1  | 2026-01-29 19:41:55 UTC [error] RefreshChannelsJob: UCDW9XFv3T8VkBskvgEIiW2A fiber : backing off for 00:04:00s

Just want to clarify that a whole bunch of channels (10 to 20) get processed properly before this error every time, it could be some kind of rate limit but it's only happening after a bunch of requests and its returning status code 400 instead of 429.

Also trying the requests manually immediately after on a browser returns no errors, even if I'm spamming F5, so the exponential backoff seems excessive, I feel like the request could just be retried on 400 errors instead of pausing the entire job and the issue might be solved.

I've also tried moving the invidious instance to a different IP and spinning up a new instance and importing subscriptions, and I'm still getting the error.

[FibreFoX]

And I thought my setup was the problem somehow. Thanks for reporting this, having the same problem.

Sometimes I get updates for some channels I am watching, but mostly being stuck. Restarting the service sometimes gives updates again, but then stuck at 400 again. Right now I haven't find a pattern if it is channel related, maybe YT is doing some A/B-testing or rolling out some updates to the requests?

EDIT: not only just updating my feed is broken, just showing channels entirely result in status 400 errors

[olympics5061]

I am also having this issue, only a couple channels in my private instance are refreshing. Videos are loading normally and recommended videos are loading properly under videos i am watching

[0xa1]

I'm having the same issues as in the earlier posts. If I open a specific channel through the UI, I sometimes get the same error:

[unrealtournament]

So it seems like it's a rate limiting thing, with youtube returning 400 status codes when you check channels too quickly. I added some extra logging and logic to handle retrying 400 errors (I'm getting between 1 and 7 retries sometimes, so you might need to increase max_retries or the sleep time). Another option is to sleep for a few seconds after fetching each channel, since it seems like I'm getting at least one 400 response around 80% of the time:

invidious-1     | 2026-01-30 18:02:15 UTC [debug] fetch_channel: <redacted>
invidious-1     | 2026-01-30 18:02:15 UTC [debug] YoutubeAPI: Using endpoint: "/youtubei/v1/browse"
invidious-1     | 2026-01-30 18:02:15 UTC [error] YouTube API returned response code 400, sleeping for 1 second...
invidious-1     | 2026-01-30 18:02:17 UTC [error] YouTube API returned response code 400, sleeping for 1 second...

In case anyone needs to get this working ASAP, this patch seems to fix things for me, at least regarding subscriptions. Keep in mind I don't know Crystal so my code might not be great or break other things:

diff --git a/src/invidious/yt_backend/youtube_api.cr b/src/invidious/yt_backend/youtube_api.cr
index dd709920..f2308300 100644
--- a/src/invidious/yt_backend/youtube_api.cr
+++ b/src/invidious/yt_backend/youtube_api.cr
@@ -594,16 +594,35 @@ module YoutubeAPI
     LOGGER.trace("YoutubeAPI: ClientConfig: #{client_config}")
     LOGGER.trace("YoutubeAPI: POST data: #{data}")
 
-    # Send the POST request
-    body = YT_POOL.client() do |client|
-      client.post(url, headers: headers, body: data.to_json) do |response|
-        if response.status_code != 200
-          raise InfoException.new("Error: non 200 status code. Youtube API returned \
-            status code #{response.status_code}. See <a href=\"https://docs.invidious.io/youtube-errors-explained/\"> \
-            https://docs.invidious.io/youtube-errors-explained/</a> for troubleshooting.")
+    max_retries = 10
+    attempts = 0
+
+    body = nil
+
+    while true
+      attempts += 1
+
+      body = YT_POOL.client() do |client|
+        client.post(url, headers: headers, body: data.to_json) do |response|
+          if response.status_code == 400 && attempts < max_retries
+            LOGGER.error("YouTube API returned response code 400, sleeping for 1 second...")
+            sleep 1.seconds
+            next nil
+          end
+
+          if response.status_code != 200
+            raise InfoException.new(
+              "Error: non 200 status code. Youtube API returned " \
+              "status code #{response.status_code}. See <a href=\"https://docs.invidious.io/youtube-errors-explained/\">" \
+              "https://docs.invidious.io/youtube-errors-explained/</a> for troubleshooting."
+            )
+          end
+
+          self._decompress(response.body_io, response.headers["Content-Encoding"]?)
         end
-        self._decompress(response.body_io, response.headers["Content-Encoding"]?)
       end
+
+      break if body
     end
 
     # Convert result to Hash

[acolis]

If you fetch using a client like freetube, enable fetching through RSS, that eliminates that