# Core YouTube embed thumbnail fails to render (releases.obsidian.md/youtube endpoint returns 404 for all video IDs)

**URL:** <https://forum.obsidian.md/t/core-youtube-embed-thumbnail-fails-to-render-releases-obsidian-md-youtube-endpoint-returns-404-for-all-video-ids/117397>\
**Category:** Bug graveyard\
**Tags:** tracked, windows\
**Created:** [August 16, 2026, 5:11am UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/core-youtube-embed-thumbnail-fails-to-render-releases-obsidian-md-youtube-endpoint-returns-404-for-all-video-ids/117397 "2026-08-16T05:11:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![satogo2000](https://forum.obsidian.md/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/eb8c5e/32.png) [@satogo2000](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/satogo2000)\
**Post date:** [August 16, 2026, 5:11am UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/core-youtube-embed-thumbnail-fails-to-render-releases-obsidian-md-youtube-endpoint-returns-404-for-all-video-ids/117397/1 "2026-08-16T05:11:49Z")

</div>

### Steps to reproduce

1. Create a new note with the core embed syntax:  
 ![](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1VQrbcfEsc)
2. Switch to Reading view (or Live Preview).
3. The thumbnail/play-button widget never renders.  
Reproduces on:

- The main vault (with community plugins enabled)
- A brand-new, empty Sandbox vault with no plugins or CSS snippets  
Does NOT reproduce on:
- Obsidian for Android, same note, same video — thumbnail displays correctly

### Did you read and follow the Troubleshooting Guide ?

Yes — issue persists in Sandbox vault.

### Expected result

The YouTube thumbnail with a play button overlay should render, as it used to before.

### Actual result

An empty placeholder area is reserved at the correct thumbnail dimensions, but no thumbnail image is shown inside it, regardless of video ID or vault.

### Environment

SYSTEM INFO（Sandbox vault）:  
Obsidian version: 1.13.7  
Installer version: 1.12.7  
Operating system: Windows 11 Home 10.0.26200  
Login status: not logged in  
Language: ja  
Insider build toggle: off  
Live preview: on  
Base theme: adapt to system  
Community theme: none  
Snippets enabled: 0  
Restricted mode: on  
RECOMMENDATIONS:  
none

Electron: 39.8.3  
Chromium: 142.0.7444.265

* * *

### Additional information

I spent significant time isolating this and can share the following findings:

1. Network layer is confirmed healthy.  
Using Chromium’s NetLog capture (`--log-net-log`), I confirmed the thumbnail image request itself (`https://img.youtube.com/vi/<id>/mqdefault.jpg`) completes successfully with a full response and is written to disk cache. So the image _is_ being fetched correctly — it’s simply never painted.

2. Suspected root cause: releases.obsidian.md/youtube endpoint is broken  
releases.obsidian.md/youtube?v=\<video\_id\> returns HTTP 404 for every video ID I tried. I confirmed this from two completely separate networks, and even with a definitely-valid, extremely well-known video ID (dQw4w9WgXcQ), so this is not specific to my network or a specific video.  
NetLog shows that this endpoint is called early in the embed flow, right before the request for the thumbnail image itself. My working theory: the core YouTube-embed widget calls this endpoint first (likely for metadata), and normally waits for a successful response before building the thumbnail DOM. Since this endpoint now always 404s, that step fails and the DOM is never built — even though, separately, the raw thumbnail image download still succeeds on its own.

3. GPU rendering was ruled out.  
Regular remote image embeds (`![](https://...jpg)`) and local image embeds (`![[image.png]]`) both render correctly on the exact same machine/session, including with `--disable-gpu --disable-gpu-sandbox --enable-unsafe-swiftshader --use-gl=swiftshader`. So this is not a general compositing/GPU issue — it is isolated specifically to the YouTube embed widget’s code path.

4. about a similar report  
A similar report from July 2025 ( \<forum.obsidian.md/t/youtube-video-embed-does-not-work-video-player-configuration-error/103181\> ) describes the same symptom (works in Sandbox test, was working before, stopped without any local config change) and self-resolved after ~2 days with no user-side action, consistent with a server-side dependency.

Happy to provide the full NetLog JSON or run further diagnostics if useful.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![WhiteNoise](https://forum.obsidian.md/user_avatar/forum.obsidian.md/whitenoise/32/11_2.png) [@WhiteNoise](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/WhiteNoise)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2026, 4:31pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/core-youtube-embed-thumbnail-fails-to-render-releases-obsidian-md-youtube-endpoint-returns-404-for-all-video-ids/117397/2 "2026-08-19T16:31:17Z")

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works fine for me.

The other thread that you linked was due to a change in youtube a year ago and we fixed it.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![satogo2000](https://forum.obsidian.md/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/eb8c5e/32.png) [@satogo2000](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/satogo2000)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2026, 4:22am UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/core-youtube-embed-thumbnail-fails-to-render-releases-obsidian-md-youtube-endpoint-returns-404-for-all-video-ids/117397/3 "2026-08-23T04:22:18Z")

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Thanks for checking!

I just re-tested and the thumbnail is still not rendering on my end (Obsidian 1.13.7, Windows 11, both main vault and a fresh Sandbox vault).

I also re-checked the releases.obsidian.md/youtube endpoint directly just now, and it’s still returning a 404 for me — including for the well-known video ID dQw4w9WgXcQ that I mentioned before.

```auto
> GET /youtube?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ HTTP/1.1
> Host: releases.obsidian.md
> User-Agent: curl/8.21.0
> Accept: */*
>
* Request completely sent off
< HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
< Date: Sun, 23 Aug 2026 00:55:56 GMT
< Content-Length: 0
< Connection: keep-alive
< Server: cloudflare
< cf-cache-status: DYNAMIC
< CF-RAY: a2f62792a93fdfc9-NRT

```

Since it “works fine” for you, would you mind checking whether releases.obsidian.md/youtube?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ itself returns 200 or 404 from your side? If it returns 200 for you but 404 for me, that would point to a regional/Cloudflare edge issue rather than something broken on my machine specifically — which would explain why it looks fine to you but not to me.

Happy to share the full NetLog capture if that helps narrow it down further.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![satogo2000](https://forum.obsidian.md/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/eb8c5e/32.png) [@satogo2000](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/satogo2000)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2026, 1:54pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/core-youtube-embed-thumbnail-fails-to-render-releases-obsidian-md-youtube-endpoint-returns-404-for-all-video-ids/117397/4 "2026-08-23T13:54:39Z")

</div>

As a side note, native `<video>` embeds (e.g. from other sites captured via Web Clipper) render their thumbnail just fine on the same machine — further confirming this is isolated to the core YouTube-embed widget’s dependency on the releases.obsidian.md endpoint, not a general media rendering issue.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![satogo2000](https://forum.obsidian.md/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/eb8c5e/32.png) [@satogo2000](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/satogo2000)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2026, 1:11pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/core-youtube-embed-thumbnail-fails-to-render-releases-obsidian-md-youtube-endpoint-returns-404-for-all-video-ids/117397/5 "2026-10-25T13:11:31Z")

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Just wanted to follow up and close the loop on this.

I did a clean reinstall of Obsidian from the installer today, and the core YouTube embed thumbnail is now rendering correctly again on the same machine (Windows 11) — no special flags, no workarounds, just a fresh install.

It’s been working fine ever since, so it looks like whatever was broken on the releases.obsidian.md/youtube side has been resolved. Thanks for looking into this — appreciate the fix ☺