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I usually use rssowl to read rss feeds but a while ago it stopped working with tumblr feeds. I think this might be because of the gdpr consent page. Is there a way to bypass this in rssowl or another way to do this?

user914606
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  • If they are actual RSS feeds and tumblr is still providing them you probably should investigate what you see when you try to view them manually? – Seth Jun 14 '18 at 11:53
  • When I view them in my browser they look like normal rss feeds, possibly because because I've already clicked through the gdpr page and my browser remembers it. I don't know a way to view the raw feed in rssowl, but the status says "The last attempt to load this feed failed. Reason: Invalid or Malformed Feed". – user914606 Jun 14 '18 at 12:22
  • That might be a reason. You probably will have to look into how you can view the raw rss or some more information what makes it malformed and/or wait for tumblr to adjust it. Assuming it's really the GDPR page. – Seth Jun 14 '18 at 12:50

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First of all, I can confirm that the problem lies in the redirect to the GDPR consent page. If you manage to somehow view it in your reader and click "Accept" (and if your reader stores cookies), the feeds start working again.

The exact way to do this will depend on the specific RSS reader. Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with the one mentioned in the question (RSSOwl), so I can't help with that.

But, for anyone using Thunderbird, the solution is pretty simple - see below.

Bypassing the tumblr GDPR page in Thunderbird

In Thunderbird, there's a simple trick that allows you to open any website without installing any plugins:

Simply go to Thunderbird settings, and in the "General" tab, there is an option for "Thunderbird Start Page". Replace the default address with your RSS feed link and then restart Thunderbird.

Thunderbird Options window, with the "Thunderbird Start Page" setting highlighted and a note saying "(Temporarily) replace this with the feed URL"

Now, instead of the usual "Welcome to Thunderbird" text in the message area, you should see the tumblr GDPR consent page:

Redacted image of a Thunderbird window, with the tumblr GDPR consent page in the message area

Click "Accept" and it should reload to show you the actual feed. You can now change the start page back and you're done.

If it doesn't work, make sure you have Thunderbird set to allow cookies (via the Privacy tab in settings).

Note: If you don't want to allow all cookies, adding just oath.com, tumblr.com and [something].tumblr.com as exceptions should be enough.

Disenchanted Lurker
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