[Brave News] Some channel subscriptions not working for some locales

[DJAndries]

Description

Subscriptions do not work for channels with no sources in the user's given locale.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open subscriptions modal
2. Attempt to subscribe to a channel with no sources in the current locale (i.e "Celebrities" for en-US)

Actual result:

Notice that the add button still appears over the channel card. Restart the browser, notice that the channel does not show up in the list

Expected result:

The channel should show up in the channel list, even after restarts.

Reproduces how often:

Easily reproduced

Desktop Brave version:

1.67, perhaps 1.66 and/or 1.65

[stephendonner]

Verified PASSED using

Brave | 1.67.82 Chromium: 125.0.6422.41 (Official Build) beta (64-bit)
-- | --
Revision | cbebefd4c702801af65a196ba9701a907ed0d292
OS | Windows 10 Version 22H2 (Build 19045.4355)

Steps:

1. installed 1.67.82
2. launched Brave
3. opened a new-tab page
4. scrolled down
5. clicked on Turn on Brave News
6. clicked on Customize
7. removed Top Sources
8. added Celebrities
9. clicked Reload

Confirmed I was able to subscribe to the empty Celebrities feed, without issues

example	example	example	example	example

[LorenzoMinto]

We shouldn't allow the user to subscribe to channels that are empty. @DJAndries was the issue that we were showing them at the beginning and then not showing them on browser restart? cc @fallaciousreasoning

[DJAndries]

@DJAndries was the issue that we were showing them at the beginning and then not showing them on browser restart? cc @fallaciousreasoning

Yes, the channel appeared as unsubscribed upon browser restart.

We shouldn't allow the user to subscribe to channels that are empty.

I have no skin in the game, but i'll throw in my 2c regardless. Wouldn't it be beneficial to allow users to subscribe to currently empty channels, so they could automatically receive relevant new feeds if such are added server-side for their locale in the future?

[kjozwiak]

@LorenzoMinto if we need a follow up, lets create a new issue 👍 Closing the above as brave/brave-core#23274 is being pushed out via 1.67.x. Any follow up work will require a new fix via master and a new GH issue.

[GeetaSarvadnya]

Verification PASSED on Vivo X70 Pro version 12 running Bravemonoarm64.apk_1.67.112

• Verified the steps from [Brave News] Some channel subscriptions not working for some locales #37845 (comment)

Reproduced the issue on 1.66.120

• Users were unable to see any feeds for the subscribed empty channel Celebrities
• The subscribed channel Celebrities is removed from Following channel list upon browser restart

Verified the issue on 1.67.112 and ensured the following:

• Confirmed I was able to subscribe to the empty Celebrities feed without issues
• Users were unable to see any feeds for the subscribed empty channel Celebrities
• Confirmed that the subscribed channel Celebrities is NOT removed from Following channel list upon browser restart as per the expected result from [Brave News] Some channel subscriptions not working for some locales #37845 (comment)

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