YouTube is starting videos at the midpoint or even at the end of the video on my Apple TV 4K

SOLUTION: Under the ATV video settings, change the format to 4k SDR. Then switch it back to Dolby Vision. Then under video settings, click “match content” and turn “match dynamic range” off.

Now the YouTube app will work perfectly.

Once Google squashes this bug in the YouTube app, we can turn that setting back on. But for now, this is the only solution I’ve found with consistent results lasting for days now.

UPDATE: it appears to be some new incompatibility bug with Dolby Vision. I changed the ATV video settings from Dolby Vision to 4k HDR and the YouTube app seems to work fine again.

Talked to Apple support and it looks like we are on our own. Here’s their response:

"I was checking and we have tried all the troubleshooting steps that we could, it seems that the issue is related to the compatibility of the newer tvOS version and the current version of the Youtube app, this kind of issues tend to happen when newer versions of the software aren't fully compatible, in this case I will recommend you to contact the YouTube developer regarding this issue, and also, just waiting some time for a newer release of YouTube or the tvOS could resolve the issue."

Thank you so much for pointing the right direction !

I don't have a Dolby Surround TV so I was about to jump to another forum to find another hypothesis and hypothetical solution... but I gave a chance to your suggestion and only turned off the “match dynamic range” (no change to the format set to 4K HDR). This alone solved the issue 👍

Based on other comments here, I changed the Apple TV Video Format setting from 4KHDR to 4KSDR and You Tube APPEARS to now be behaving.

Setting to 4k HDR fixed playback for me as well. I'm still getting videos starting at random points though. So frustrating.

Had video that was posted 50 mins before I watched it this morning start with like 30 secs remaing.

Having the same issue on my 2022 AppleTV 4K. It will start a YouTube video just before its end, or a few minutes into it. Often, it'll stop playing a video and just return to the main menu/Home Screen of the AppleTV or it'll go to the main menu/Home Screen by merely having pressed up on the direction pad. I'll go into settings and "reset" the AppleTV and it'll work the rest of the day, but it'll eventually return to operating as mentioned before not too long after.

I'm having the same issue. I've found that when I close the application it 'fixes' the issue for one more video, maybe another. Then as you said, videos will start playing 1/2 way through, or all of the way through a video, or sometimes the video won't play at all, just a black screen.

I updated my video settings.. still having trouble. Why pay for ad free or use Apple TV if its this frustrating to use?

Hope the devs take a look soon. Thanks

I think I've worked out what's happening (for me at least). Not a solution, but maybe useful to know. Whenever I go from one video to the next, the second video is starting at the timestamp the previous one ended. E.g., if I finish a 5 minute video and start a 10 minute video, then the 10 minute video will start at the 5 minute mark when the last one finished.

Haven't found out how to make it stop though! It's been doing it for the past couple of days.

It’s not apple’s responsibility to make sure every OS update will work with every app. App companies are allowed to test their apps on new versions far in advance. Seems YouTube didn’t do a good job identifying and squashing bugs that appeared with this update.

Exactly the same here. The problem is, if you end watching a video later than the next one is long, it won't play nothing. E.g you watch a vid for 5:00mins, but the following one is just 4:00mins long, than it sometimes shows a black screen with nothing happening, sometimes it jumps back to the overview, sometimes it shows any follow up video....pretty annoying.

I’m having the same issue. Some vids will act as if they are going to play, but then just takes me back to the list of videos.

Killing and reopening the app works sometimes. But not all of the time. Annoying as heck.

I cannot watch Youtube or most other apps on my Apple TV 4K due to constant buffering, VERY poor sound and video quality, video's starting over after an Ad, constant app crashes and numerous other issues. I have rebooted, updated, etc until I'm sick to death and I wish I had never purchased it! I bought an XBOX a couple of weeks ago (October 2024) and put ALL the apps on it (even Apple TV software and Apple Music works better on the XBOX than on the Apple TV 4K Hardware!) and EVERYTHING now works smoothly with no sound or video issues, no buffering, and without ANY of the issues I experienced using the APPLE TV hardware. My hardware Apple TV is now in the closet where it belongs along with the Apple HomePod mini, Magic Mouse (what designer felt a charging port on the bottom of a mouse was an intelligent decision? LMFAO), and as soon as I get my new Windows desktop from Santa my 24" M1 iMac will join them in the closet. All have been bitter disappointments and a complete waste of money. All the products are very pretty, they just don't function as they should except in very limited circumstances and with quite specific requirements with very narrow tolerances. IMO the iPhone is the only apple product that is still worth keeping although even it is starting to get buggier and buggier with each new iOS update!

Im having the same issue. I thought I was going crazy. Then I realized most of these videos that start like this have been posted earlier in the day, and I haven't watched YouTube since the prior night.

I am also having an issue with the autoplay. Sometimes it will spit me back out to the login screen for the different YouTube profiles, other times it will spit me back to the YouTube home screen, and then once or twice it just stayed on a black screen.