YouTube Auto-Playing Issue after upgrade to iOS 18.1

I started a chat with a YouTube agent. They said to turn off autoplay. They also said no one had reported this issue, which seemed false from what is said in this thread. This is what they recommended:

“Please try the following steps:

1. Delete the app's cache.
2. Make sure your device uses the latest version of the YouTube app.
3. Uninstall and reinstall the YouTube app. Touch and hold the YouTube app icon on the home screen until it starts shaking. Tap the X, which will uninstall the app from your phone. Then, reinstall the app from the App Store. Doing this will delete your downloaded videos from the app. Don't worry. You can always redownload them. This step can help clear any glitches in the app that might be causing this issue.
4. As a final step, try restarting your device by turning it off, then back on.

These steps often do the trick, but if you’re still having issues after trying them, the best way to let the team that design the features that you love is by sending them feedback from the app. Here's how:

1. Tap your account icon in the top right corner of the YouTube app
2. Tap Help & feedback > Send feedback
3. ​Enter a short description of the issue and tap the arrow icon in the top right corner to submit”

Disabling YouTube's background refresh seems to make it stop. Hasn't had this happen since disabling it. It very much can be a YouTube bug since iOS does allow apps to run from the playground and use the media output.

Turning off background app refresh for the YouTube app solved this for me

It's been 4 days since I turned off background refresh and this issue hasn't reappeared.

Settings -> General -> Background App Refresh -> Scroll down to YouTube and turn off.

Yeah, I turned off "background app refresh" for youtube, and it doesn't seem to have happened since then. However with that said, still a big problem since this is ultimately a workaround. Off topic: I realized that background app refresh is mostly useless anyway

I have the same exact issue. Being waken up at random times in the night by something playing on its own. I didn’t realize it was YouTube the first couple of times because the playback control on the Lock Screen doesn’t show what’s playing. I also didn’t even have the YouTube app open in the background when this happened. I only realized it was YouTube because I recognized the audio of the clip that was randomly playing one of the times. I deleted the YouTube app and it’s stopped occurring. Pretty inconvenient when I want to use YouTube….

I reported it to YouTube as well in the mean time I turned off background refresh on it

Happened to me at 5:30 this morning. It’s been happening throughout the past few weeks. I noticed once it happened immediately after getting a YouTube notification. Something royally strange is going with YouTube.

I’ve disabled Notifications. Not sure why I had them on in the first place.

I encountered the same issue this morning where the YouTube app played a short. I believe this is a bug with the app, not the software. It doesn’t matter what phone you have and from what I’ve read it’s happening on iOS 17 as well. It’s all on YouTube.

I've been experiencing the same issue since upgrading to iOS 18.1. The only solution is to remember to close the YouTube app; otherwise, it pops up randomly, and I can’t even pause it from the Lock Screen. The only workaround, once again, is to close the app. Even if the issue originates from the YouTube app or occurs only with YouTube, iOS should not allow this behavior.

I am not sure it’s just YouTube problem here as Overcast a podcast app that I used resumed playing my podcast 3AM the other day.

This issue happens pretty consistently, so far the temporary solution is that if you see a resume/pause widget for the content you were listening/watching, close that app from the task switcher and if the widget goes away it won’t happen.

Ensure that background activity for the YouTube app is restricted in your device settings. I am hoping this resolves my issue. Otherwise, uninstalling YouTube.

I’ve had this happening. I just turned off background app refresh so maybe that will help?

Same issue here. It’s definitely an issue with the YouTube app. Closing out the app used to stop the video from playing but it doesn’t anymore.

I’ve emailed support regarding this issue twice and haven’t heard a thing.

I just delete the YouTube app off my phone every night so it won’t wake me up. So annoying.

Mine is also random but seems to happen pretty consistently after an alarm goes off. It’s been several days in a row now where I wake up to my regular alarm followed by the audio for a random youtube short playing. Outside of that it’s still occurring but less often and with no trigger I can pin point.