youtube doesnt play in the background anymore

Youtube doesn't allow you to play music in the background, as it could be used as a free music-streaming program (what im aware of)

- Have you always been able to leave the app, and have music in the background? Sounds completely strange to me.

If you open YouTube via safari you can %1000 play YouTube content in the background. Have been able to for many years. Since the 10.3.1 update this feature has been removed. I have listened to hundreds of documentaries this way. This better be a mistake because Apple has ****** off thousands of customers

I just updated the Youtube app this morning. I'm not sure if this will be consistent but I put the Youtube.com site using Safari on my iPhone 7+ iOS 10.3.1, by scrolling to the bottom of the webpage and selecting Desktop Version.

I also tried doing this by holding the Refresh button on the browser and selecting Request Desktop Site on the pop-up below, but in the end, this didn't work out.

So I activated the desktop website by scrolling to the bottom of the Youtube webpage.

I clicked a video and played it. I pressed the Home Button to exit the Safari app.

I then swiped from below to activate Control Center and then swiped left to view the volume and play buttons. Next of course, I pressed the Play button and audio continued to play in the background. The audio continues to work when I turn off the phone's screen and when turning on the screen to display the lockscreen, you can still press the play button to pause and continue as well.

Will someone else try this to confirm, hopefully with the same parameters ie. iOS version.

I hope this helps anything.

I highly doubt iOS 10 has anything to do with it. If you're not a Youtube Red subscriber, it never plays in the background on any version of iOS.

Try subscribing to a free trial on Youtube Red, and see if it helps!

Best of luck

I'm experiencing the same exact issue. This was never a problem until the recent update, don't let the Apple fanboys fool you.

The current workaround is to put Safari in Private mode, open your YouTube video, then lock the screen, and it should now play once you resume.

You absolutely...100%...totaly...where able to streem youTube in background with locked phone until the last update 10.3.1 and a claming anything else in response is being waste off time for people asking for solution. I've been Apple user for years but can't deffend them any more, talk premium but act like total $&@#%!!!

Guys it's not just the 10.3.1 update.... I have an iPad and an iPhone.. When ever an update rolls out, I update my iPhone but I never update my iPad cause I know Apple screws us with every new update.

I was having the same issue when I updated the phone and I was glad I didn't update my iPad cause it WAS able to play in background until recently. But today I discovered that I was no longer able to play on my iPad too.

Apple might've changed this over the air.... Without any permission WHATSOEVER!!! :/

FYI my iPad is currently running iOS 9.3

This is completely untrue as I have been using YouTube after hitting the sleep button for years...after the iOS 10.3 update it flat out stopped working. How do I know? Because I immediately turned on a YouTube the next morning in my car as I usually do and guess what...it didn't work anymore.

I just updated my ios to 10.3.1 and now I'm having the same problem. Yesterday it was playing youtube in the background just fine. I really don't like this new feature in ios 10.3.1. Now I can't listen to music and play games at the same time.

You are completely right. The first time I fixed it by clearing the safari memory and Turing the phone on/off. That was a few weeks ago. Tonight it's doing it again. Best fix to still use safari is to turn the mobile site for YouTube into the full (desktop) site through the settings. I don't know who's fault this falls on. This issue was happening before this update for me if I remember correctly. It could easily be Youtube, they are becoming stingy AF and things are run very poorly there at corporate. You can always download other search engines, but the best fix is to just go to www.youtube.com and go to the little cog and turn on desktop. It works fine for me. Was listening to music from YouTube on safari while writing this. I hope Apple knows what's going on, you never know, could easily be YouTube.

Just yesterday, I was aboe to work around this problem using firefox after it not working on safari. Now, to my surprise today, it's not even working on firefox anymore either. Tried using private browser, but still nope...

I didn't even update to 10.3.1.

*****

Anyone else in the same boat as me still or is it just me now in this particular situation?

YES! Finally I found someone with the same problem! This is so frustrating. Worse that I had the hardest time finding anyone who cared about this feature. For me it's huge. I use it while driving all the time since YouTube has endless content to listen to. I then continue the audio and have my gps app running in the front. It's perfect. Now it's broken and this thread is the only other thread I can find with the problem. Apple, please acknowledge this bug :(

I've always been able to play music in the background. When you close YouTube, all you had to do was bring your bottom menu up and press "play" and your song would continue. It would pause until you did so though. Now, ever since this stupid update, you go to resume the song and the menu goes blank and just says "music" at the top, and the song won't play at all.