YouTube

The collector polls live chat using OAuth and honors the returned polling interval, with an additional minimum of 60 seconds. It starts stopped, even when server credentials and policy gates are configured.

YouTube refresh tokens expire after 7 days in Testing mode

If your Google OAuth app has an External audience and its publishing status is Testing, Google expires refresh tokens for the YouTube scope after seven days. Access-token refreshes and saving a rotated refresh token do not remove this limit. Collection will stop until you reauthorize.

Check the app's publishing status before an event. Either reauthorize close enough to the event or plan for Google's production publishing and verification requirements in advance. Production tokens can still expire or be revoked for other reasons. See Google's refresh token expiration guidance.

Create credentials and authorize a channel

1. Create/select a project in the Google Cloud console.
2. Enable YouTube Data API v3 in that project.
3. Configure the OAuth consent screen, audience, required branding/privacy links, and test users. Use the channel-owning/authorized Google account.
4. Create an OAuth client of an appropriate type and save its Client ID and Client Secret. Register the exact redirect URI used by your authorization flow.
5. Obtain offline consent for https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube.readonly using Google's authorization-code flow. Request offline access and retain the returned refresh token, not only the short-lived access token.

For a controlled setup rehearsal, Google's OAuth Playground can obtain a refresh token. Select Use your own OAuth credentials, supply your client, register https://developers.google.com/oauthplayground as an allowed redirect, request the scope above with offline access, authorize the correct channel account, and exchange the code. Do not use shared playground credentials for a long-running deployment. Handle tokens privately and remove unnecessary redirect URIs after setup.

Find the live chat ID

The setting is not a video ID or watch URL. Retrieve either:

• snippet.liveChatId from liveBroadcasts.list for the authorized broadcast; or
• liveStreamingDetails.activeLiveChatId from videos.list for an active livestream.

The broadcast must have chat enabled and the authorized account must be able to access it. A future, ended, restricted, or chat-disabled stream may not provide an active live chat ID.

Configure Admin

Social__YouTube__ClientId
Social__YouTube__ClientSecret
Social__YouTube__RefreshToken
Social__YouTube__LiveChatId
Social__YouTube__Enabled=true
Social__YouTube__PolicyApproved=true

In the owner console, open Social connections and choose Start YouTube collection when ready. Stop it after the stream. The saved start/stop choice survives restarts; it cannot bypass missing credentials, policy gates, or quota. No OAuth or chat requests are made while stopped, although an already in-flight request may finish.

Send a new exact #question message and verify moderation before publication. Starting collection returns recent messages supplied by YouTube, not guaranteed history for the period while stopped.

Token storage and reauthorization

When Google returns a changed refresh token, Admin encrypts it with ASP.NET Data Protection and saves it in ProviderCredentials. The saved token takes precedence over Social__YouTube__RefreshToken; back up the Admin data-protection key ring alongside the database. If no new refresh token is returned, the existing token remains in use.

Reauthorization requires replacing the stored token

Changing the configured token alone does not override a saved rotated token. Stop YouTube collection and any Admin instances, obtain a new refresh token for the same client and authorized channel, and update the Admin secret configuration. If a YouTube row exists in ProviderCredentials, remove only that row using a privileged database maintenance session before restarting Admin. Do not clear other providers' credentials or reset the database. Restart Admin, start YouTube collection, and verify a new #question reaches the review queue. Never expose tokens in logs or screenshots.

Quota and errors

liveChatMessages.list currently costs 5 units. At the 60-second minimum, one continuously running collector uses at most about 300 units/hour or 7,200 units/day for polling. Longer provider intervals reduce that. Other clients/instances share your project's quota. Matching fewer #question messages does not reduce polling charges.

The implementation uses polling, not the newer streaming API suggested in Google's docs. Changing transport requires separate implementation and validation.

Status	Check
API disabled	Enable YouTube Data API v3 on the OAuth client's project; allow propagation
Missing permissions	Reauthorize with the correct YouTube scope; existing tokens do not gain scopes from a config change
Forbidden	Account access to the selected broadcast/chat; not necessarily a bad client secret
Chat ended/disabled/not found	Active broadcast and exact live chat ID
invalid_grant	Expired/revoked refresh token, wrong OAuth client, or Testing-mode lifetime
Budget exhausted	Project quota; recognized daily-quota failures pause until midnight Pacific

The quota pause is in memory; restarting can cause another failed request before the quota is recognized again. Changing credentials does not restore quota. Restart Admin after changing credentials or live chat IDs to clear access-token and pagination caches. Rehearse provider deletion events as well as manual withdrawal.