YouTube No Longer Stops Playing After iPhone Sleep Timer Ends

This is a change in how YouTube interacts with iOS’s “Stop Playing” timer. This happens only when you are on a YouTube Premium account.

Here’s what’s happening:

Why It Worked Before

• The Stop Playing timer is a system-level function: when it expires, iOS tells the device to stop media playback and lock the screen.
• For years, YouTube respected this system command, so both video and audio stopped when the timer elapsed.

What Changed Recently

• In the last few days, YouTube’s app behavior shifted. Instead of fully stopping playback, it now continues audio from the lock screen even after the timer expires.
• This suggests YouTube updated its background playback handling (likely tied to Premium features like audio-only play when the screen is locked).
• Because of that, iOS’s “Stop Playing” command now only locks the screen, but YouTube overrides the stop instruction and keeps audio running.

See the pic below