Attempting to remove a library album using rate_playlist -> 'INDIFFERENT' is giving unexpected results

[apastel]

I have a tool that uses this API to do bulk deletion, and one of its main functions is removing all your library albums/songs.

For every album, it uses yt_auth.rate_playlist(playlistId, 'INDIFFERENT')

This has historically always worked, but I have one user reporting that it's not actually removing each album even though the response is successful, so I had them provide some debug logging and here's what is in their response text for each album removal:

{'successResponseText': {'runs': [{'text': 'Removed from liked music'}]},

It says "Removed from liked music". When I test it against my library, it says "Removed from library".

I've never seen this happen. I can't think of why it would be happening unless it's some kind of A/B testing thing.

Here's an example of one of those responses from rate_playlist:

[2024-07-24 10:18:22] Processing album: Egypt Central - White Rabbit [Deluxe Edition]
[2024-07-24 10:18:22] https://music.youtube.com:443 "POST /youtubei/v1/like/removelike?alt=json HTTP/1.1" 200 None

{
    "responseContext": {
        "serviceTrackingParams": [
            {
                "service": "CSI",
                "params": [
                    {"key": "c", "value": "WEB_REMIX"},
                    {"key": "cver", "value": "1.20240724.01.00"},
                    {"key": "yt_li", "value": "1"},
                    {"key": "RemoveLike_rid", "value": "0x94eef85b727eb6f2"},
                ],
            },
            {
                "service": "GFEEDBACK",
                "params": [
                    {"key": "logged_in", "value": "1"},
                    {
                        "key": "e",
                        "value": "9405957,23804281,23880831,23880834,23946420,23966208,23998056,24004644,24077241,24181174,24241378,24290971,24439361,24456089,24468724,24499534,24542367,24548629,24566687,39326848,39326916,51009781,51010235,51016856,51017346,51020570,51021190,51025415,51030101,51037342,51037349,51041512,51050361,51053689,51057848,51057857,51057865,51060353,51063643,51064835,51065188,51089007,51091331,51098297,51098299,51102410,51111738,51113658,51113661,51114642,51115184,51116067,51117319,51118932,51124104,51133103,51139379,51148688,51148869,51149607,51152050,51157411,51157838,51158514,51159756,51160545,51162170,51163635,51165467,51165568,51169117,51170247,51172670,51172684,51172693,51172700,51172707,51172714,51172721,51172726,51176511,51176608,51177092,51178318,51178327,51178344,51178353,51178770,51178982,51181296,51182275,51183508,51183909,51184022,51185143,51186528,51187249,51189826,51190059,51190075,51190080,51190087,51190198,51190209,51190220,51190229,51190652,51195231,51197355,51197687,51197690,51197701,51197708,51199193,51200253,51200256,51200295,51200300,51200568,51200778,51201352,51201367,51201374,51201383,51201430,51201437,51201442,51201451,51204329,51204586,51207180,51207187,51207198,51207215,51209050,51212464,51212551,51212569,51213807,51217274,51217504,51219800,51221011,51221146,51222972,51223961,51224747,51224921,51226344,51227776,51227880,51228202,51228350,51228352,51228767,51228776,51228785,51228796,51228805,51228814,51230123,51230478,51230492,51231125,51231813,51231864,51232191,51232709,51235371,51235402,51236017,51237841,51238247,51238399,51238485,51238569,51238737,51239820,51240878,51240890,51241029,51241212,51241600,51242398,51242447,51243519,51243940,51245700,51246266,51246281,51246305,51248715",
                    },
                ],
            },
            {
                "service": "ECATCHER",
                "params": [
                    {"key": "client.version", "value": "1.20000101"},
                    {"key": "client.name", "value": "WEB_REMIX"},
                ],
            },
        ]
    },
    "actions": [
        {
            "clickTrackingParams": "IhMI8vCSm--_hwMVorDlBx1tZgVy",
            "addToToastAction": {
                "item": {
                    "notificationTextRenderer": {
                        "successResponseText": {"runs": [{"text": "Removed from liked music"}]},
                        "trackingParams": "CAAQyscDIhMI8vCSm--_hwMVorDlBx1tZgVy",
                    }
                }
            },
        }
    ],
}

Compare that with an example of running this against my library and it actually removes the album:

{
    "responseContext": {
        "serviceTrackingParams": [
            {
                "service": "CSI",
                "params": [
                    {"key": "c", "value": "WEB_REMIX"},
                    {"key": "cver", "value": "1.20240724.01.00"},
                    {"key": "yt_li", "value": "1"},
                    {"key": "RemoveLike_rid", "value": "0x06681fb93bec8184"},
                ],
            },
            {
                "service": "GFEEDBACK",
                "params": [
                    {"key": "logged_in", "value": "1"},
                    {
                        "key": "e",
                        "value": "23804281,23946420,23966208,23998056,24004644,24077241,24181174,24241378,24290971,24439361,24456089,24468724,24534952,24542367,24548629,24566687,39326848,39326916,51009781,51010235,51016856,51017346,51020570,51025415,51041512,51050361,51053689,51060353,51063643,51064835,51065188,51079020,51089007,51091331,51098297,51098299,51102409,51111738,51114642,51115184,51116067,51117318,51118932,51124104,51133103,51138503,51139379,51148688,51149607,51152050,51155997,51157411,51157838,51158514,51159756,51160545,51162170,51165467,51165568,51167813,51169118,51170248,51176511,51176608,51177817,51178982,51183909,51184022,51186528,51189826,51190652,51195231,51196181,51199193,51200568,51204329,51204586,51213807,51217274,51217504,51219800,51221011,51223962,51224134,51224747,51224921,51226344,51227881,51228202,51228350,51228352,51230478,51230492,51231813,51231864,51234406,51235402,51236017,51237842,51238400,51238486,51238569,51238737,51239303,51240941,51241028,51241600,51242448,51243940,51246266,51246798,51247366",
                    },
                ],
            },
            {
                "service": "ECATCHER",
                "params": [
                    {"key": "client.version", "value": "1.20000101"},
                    {"key": "client.name", "value": "WEB_REMIX"},
                ],
            },
        ]
    },
    "actions": [
        {
            "clickTrackingParams": "IhMIhZyoi_6_hwMVjrblBx0Y5AoM",
            "addToToastAction": {
                "item": {
                    "notificationTextRenderer": {
                        "successResponseText": {"runs": [{"text": "Removed from library"}]},
                        "trackingParams": "CAAQyscDIhMIhZyoi_6_hwMVjrblBx0Y5AoM",
                    }
                }
            },
        },
        {
            "clickTrackingParams": "IhMIhZyoi_6_hwMVjrblBx0Y5AoM",
            "removeFromGuideSectionAction": {
                "handlerData": "GUIDE_ACTION_REMOVE_FROM_PLAYLISTS",
                "guideEntryId": "OLAK5uy_lZ90LvUqQdKrByCbk99v54d8XpUOmFavo",
            },
        },
    ],
}

[sigma67]

Difficult to say. Perhaps this is some case where the album has different/multiple IDs?

[apastel]

I added more debug logging, and what I found is that when my code uses get_album(browseId) to look up the album's info before removing it, the returned album response has an audioPlaylistId of None, and that is the case for all 1200 of this user's albums. And when you call rate_playlist(None, 'INDIFFERENT') you get back a successful response like the first one above.

So the question is why is "audioPlaylistId": None for each of the user's albums when the same get_album() request with the same browseId returns a response that has an "audioPlaylistId" when I do it on my account.

That's what I'm looking into right now.

get_album_response_no_audioPlaylistId.json

[sigma67]

These are public albums right?

The only explanation I can come up with are regional differences or A/B tests

[apastel]

Yeah public albums. My guess also is that it's some kind of A/B test where something's different in the format of the browse response.

I suppose the best way to inspect their typical browse response is just using the dev toolbar in Firefox right? They browse to an album and send me the response as shown in the Response tab?

In the meantime I can probably try just using the playlistId that's already (hopefully) returned by get_library_albums() instead of doing the secondary get_album() lookup.

[apastel]

I ended up working around this by switching to using edit_song_library_status() with the feedbackTokens to remove songs.