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Apps Apple TV 4K — YouTube not marking videos as watched, and not adding to history

DDustiNN

DDustiNN

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Jan 27, 2011
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A few days ago, YouTube suddenly stopped marking videos as watched, and no longer adds then to my history. It still works on my iPhone, and if I watch a video on the phone, it shows up in the history even on the Apple TV app. But the Apple TV app won’t register a video as “watched” no matter what I try (even pausing and unpausing watch history). It’s very annoying for keeping up with subscriptions.

What is going on here?? Anyone else have this issue, or know how to fix it? I can’t seem to find any mention of it.
 
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Reactions: ouimetnick and Shortblondeguy
Can you do me (and possibly yourself and others) a big favor? Sign out from your Google account on Apple TV 4K, wipe YouTube library, reset YouTube app, reboot Apple TV 4K, launch YouTube (without logging in to Google account), and see if YouTube Search function works. I think it is related to a thread here - https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/youtube-search-not-working.2315485/ .

P.S. If you sign out of Google account before wiping library and resetting YouTube app, it isn't going to wipe your library preserved on your Google Account.
 
YouTube has issues on Apple TV especially. Sometimes I just have to force quit and restart the app, sometimes I have to sign out. But, it seems to constantly "forget" what I've watched, especially if it wasn't recent. I see this on the web sometimes as well, and I have to log out and back in.
 
iKristoffer said:
Have you setup a pi-hole or are you trying to block ads in some way? This may cause watch history to stop working.
Click to expand...

I do, but I also disable all filtering for Apple TV 4K 2021 and use different DNS providers (Google, Cloudflare, etc.). None of those aspects seem to help the situation...

I use identical DNS providers for my Android tablet and YouTube search works fine there.
 
Looks like Roku users are also affected:
Reddit Forums
Roku Forums

I hope Google changes course. It has no problems showing ads when common "doubleclick" ad domains are blocked. Aside from that Google can has mindless number of ways to track you, fingerprint you, and serve you personalized content without you ever having a Google account.
 
Last edited:
Any updates? I noticed YouTube App has new icons within the app itself, but the Search function is still not working... All I get is a black screen when I press Search.
 
Last edited:
The following was done on Monday intermittently while on lunch, during breaks from WFH, and after my shift.
For me, this issue in the OP, has been happening for easily a couple months.
In order for me to have Youtube to show a video in my watch history, I'd have to play it in Safari on my iPhone and Airplay it to my Apple TV.

Now, I'm happy to say the frustrating and inexact steps I took below solved my problem.
  • I deleted the Youtube app from my Apple TV.
  • I put the Apple TV into sleep mode and pulled the power plug a few minutes.
  • I plugged it back in and re-downloaded the Youtube app onto the Apple TV.
  • I tried to sign in with the email address and password and it gave me hassle.
    • It kept taking me back to the sign in page, instead of telling me something was wrong.
  • At some point, it was REALLY pushing me to use my iPhone's Youtube app to sign in, which I didn't even have installed on my iPhone.
  • After a few tries of signing in like before I downloaded the Youtube app onto my iPhone and signed into it there.
  • Then I tried a few times and failed, where the Youtube app would say the process timed out, but only after a couple seconds.
    • It wasn't even pinging the app on my iPhone.
  • After a while of trying, I tried later in the day, and I had some progress.
    • The progress was that my iPhone app was asking me to verify the sign in on the Apple TV.
  • However, the Youtube app on the Apple TV would still say it failed, before I even had a chance to confirm on the iPhone app.
  • Eventually it worked. This was all over a day of intermittently trying and wanting to break my TV's screen though this mess definitely was not my TV screen's fault.
  • Now, my views of videos on the Apple TV Youtube app register as watched in History for Youtube.
 
Same issue here and it’s driving me crazy. The solution fromshortblondeguy didn’t work. Any other suggestions?
 
I upgraded to a new Apple TV 4K, logged in to all the apps and YouTube is not keeping track of history. It is on my phone still. But not on the TV.
 
Purdue said:
I upgraded to a new Apple TV 4K, logged in to all the apps and YouTube is not keeping track of history. It is on my phone still. But not on the TV.
Click to expand...
I fixed it by resetting my Apple TV. Resetting youtube doesn’t work. You have to reset the whole Apple TV which is very strange
 
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