YouTube Says Videos Are Blurry for Some iOS Users, But a Fix Is Coming

[MacRumors]

Are you watching blurry YouTube videos? You're not alone. YouTube has acknowledged that some users are experiencing issues with videos playing back at unexpectedly low quality.

According to a YouTube support page, affected users are seeing videos default to 144p or 360p resolution, despite having strong internet connections.

We're aware some of you are experiencing lower than usual video quality when trying to watch Videos and Shorts.

Here's what you might be seeing:

• YouTube streaming at 144p or 360p despite strong internet connection.
• Buffering when changing to higher quality.
• Video quality could be impacted on IOS mobile, desktop, or Smart TV.

Rest assured, we're actively looking into this!

When attempting to manually increase the resolution, many users report that videos begin buffering. It sounds like the issue is pretty widespread, but Android users appear to have been spared for the most part.

YouTube hasn't provided a timeline for a fix, but we'll update this article with any new information as it becomes available.

Article Link: YouTube Says Videos Are Blurry for Some iOS Users, But a Fix Is Coming

 

[Kissmo1980]

Can confirm.
This happens to me since a few weeks even when I set the always load at maximum quality

 

[chickeneaster]

Can confirm.
This happens to me since a few weeks even when I set the always load at maximum quality

I haven't noticed but now I'll keep an eye out for it

 

[TechWhisperer]

Glad to read this as I thought it was my internet connection to be the culprit. It kind of ruines the gorgeous OLED display of the iPad Pro.

 

[dwight123]

Hello…Has any had Youtube videos randomly freezing needing to reload or close and restart safari for video to play fully again? I have Fiber optic internet no issues on any other video streaming platforms ether.

 

[Zerlina]

youtube on ios they always seem to never get it right... but on android its a different story 🙄

 

[The Doctor11]

I thought I was going crazy last week when I was speed testing over 500 down on my phone and couldn't get a YouTube short to load at higher than 144p.

 

[xander49x]

YouTube is giving lip service, all the money YouTube is making from commercials and people paying not to have commercials update their servers and bandwidth and make a native AVP app.

 

[WhiteHawk]

So that’s why it’s been rubbish the last few days, I thought it was ISP related, even adverts were showing in the lowest possible quality.

 

[Kylo83]

Why has there never been an option to always play the highest quality, even setting it to higher it doesn’t always do it at the highest

 

[Benny0001]

Yup this happens. And it's way too common. All of my shorts play in 360p despite me setting it to "High" resolution.

 

[khanmein]

I thought is my WiFi or carrier issue.

 

[Marco Klobas]

Who cares. I use it only to listen to ASMR videos with closed eyes.

I'm joking...

 

[NateNateNateNate]

Experienced on my iPhone 16 Pro Max. Only when I was on cellular though. Had to manually pick 1080p and that fixed it.

 

[wanha]

I'm reminded of the Mitch Hedberg joke:

“I think Bigfoot is blurry, that's the problem. It's not the photographer's fault. Bigfoot is blurry, and that's extra scary to me. There's a large, out-of-focus monster roaming the countryside.”

 

[F23]

how about fixing Higher Picture Quality to actually DO that instead of having to press thru 5 menus to pick 4K

 

[freezelighter]

They increased YouTube Premium for Switzerland to absurd 39$ per month. And now I watch 144p videos with my 2Gbit/s internet.

 

[cocky jeremy]

Makes sense now. I had a video on this morning that was 144P even when I set it to 1080P. (highest option on that video)

 

[RobNYC]

I noticed this on Tuesday when I was looking up some stuff.

 

[-BigMac-]

Who cares. I use it only to listen to ASMR videos with closed eyes.

I'm joking...

The sound isn't as high bandwidth.. the crunches aren’t as crisp!

 

[djinn]

I'm experiencing something similar with YouTubeTV with my iPad Pro 13. But my iPad 12.9 M1 doesn't experience this issue at all. Not a deal breaker but just annoying.

 

[AppleFeller]

Surprised this just started, ironically I noticed issues but also identified my prior router was dropping packets over WiFi and I guess failing so I replaced it. Using YouTube via safari I haven’t see an issue since.

 

[djinn]

Surprised this just started, ironically I noticed issues but also identified my prior router was dropping packets over WiFi and I guess failing so I replaced it. Using YouTube via safari I haven’t see an issue since.

Interesting... tried streaming YouTubeTV through Firefox on the IPP 13 and working flawless. Sounds like the *Tube Apps need to get their fixings. 😃

 

[Delorean2006]

Why has there never been an option to always play the highest quality, even setting it to higher it doesn’t always do it at the highest

There is an option for this in the settings on the YouTube app. But this hasn’t worked for me either for quite a while now. I would choose it, but videos would only in 720p for a 4K video, with a 1gig connection.

 

[saronian]

This has been happening for about a week. I’ve been working with Google technicians since all iOS, iPadOS, & tvOS apps have been affected. Both YouTube app & YouTube TV app.
But high quality is still working when accessing these services in a browser (when available) Which proves it’s not a bandwidth issue on my end. Glad they finally acknowledged the issue.