YouTube Auto-Playing Issue after upgrade to iOS 18.1

I'm on 17.6.1 and this is also happening to me. I think it's a problem with the Youtube app itself.

I have exactly the same issue with my 16 pro max and my wife's 16 pro does the same thing. Apple should fix it. It feels very creepy.

same issue ….

always at night

reported to youtube.

Having this issue as well. This needs to be fixed ASAP. This could get people fired if the wrong random YouTube video decides to play during a major meeting.

Hello!

This is happening to me but what makes it even weirder is that YouTube isn’t even in my task switcher. I’ve had to completely restart my phone to stop it when it’s happened the last few times.

This just happened with me. I was sleeping and suddenly a shorts video on YouTube started to play. It was 1:15 am in morning. I got scared. This needs to be fixed.

I’ve just had the exact same thing happen to me.

I was just drifting off to sleep with my phone by the bed when Gary Lineker suddenly started reminiscing about Diego Maradona. Leapt out of my skin.

Same thing for me - I recognised the audio from YouTube shorts, which can’t normally be played in the background. This is really bad and needs to be fixed ASAP.

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.

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.

Mine went off while in a Client meeting and it was a video I’ve never watched. This is very embarrassing considering my phone was on silent!!! 🔕 YouTube or Apple need to address this! Just dropped $4k on new iPhones for the family and about to return all of them and get Samsung’s

same thing has been happening to me, short videos on youtube start playing in the background randomly. it woke me up this morning and startled me just a few minutes ago. started to happen after I upgraded ios on my iphone.

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

The same happened with me. Suddenly some video made noise and i was at office.

It is seriously some kind of vulnerability. The point is i am using Youtube premium and it is having the provision to play without the screen to be on.

I am using 18.0 within Iphone13. Not even the 18.1. I guess here the problem might be the youtube application not the iphone. But still such a possibility need to be checked from the Apple itself.

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….