YouTube's Android app auto-plays paused videos after reopening

YouTube’s Android app is now auto-playing paused videos the moment users reopen it after a break, triggering thousands of complaints in recent weeks.

The change appears to have rolled out quietly in March and is steadily getting worse. Users report that videos resume from the start as soon as they launch the app hours or days after closing it, even when autoplay settings are turned off. The issue doesn’t usually happen if YouTube is reopened just moments after being closed. A single YouTube Help thread already shows more than 3,000 people reporting the same problem, suggesting it may not be a bug but a deliberate tweak by Google.

Thousands of users are calling the behavior “nightmarish.” Many rely on YouTube to play sleep-friendly audio like podcasts or meditations on a timer at night. Waking up to the same track restarting is jarring, especially in public places where phones are muted. Even paying YouTube Premium subscribers say the forced replay breaks their background playback habit. One workaround that’s surfaced is uninstalling and reinstalling the app, though it’s unclear how long the fix lasts.

YouTube has form for unwanted autoplay. Last year the Android app began auto-playing the top video in users’ feeds before Google confirmed it was intentional. With no obvious off-switch in sight, the latest replay issue is piling frustration on top of old grievances.