If you’ve opened up the YouTube app (or the YouTube Music app) on an Android TV (or Google TV) device today and found it isn’t working, you’re not alone. Streaming Better can confirm we are also encountering the same problem, as are multiple other Android TV and Google TV users.
For those unsure of whether they are affected, the problem is very apparent. Opening the YouTube app results in the app force-closing a few seconds later, returning the user back to the Home screen again. We have tried restarting the device, clearing the app’s cache, data, and even installing/reinstalling the app, and can confirm none of these made any difference.
Based on the reports we’ve seen, it also doesn’t seem to matter whether you’re using a Chromecast with Google TV or the Nvidia Shield TV, suggesting the problem is with the actual Android TV/Google TV app.
Speaking of which, Android TV/Google TV versions of both the YouTube and YouTube Music apps were updated yesterday (Sept. 3). In contrast, we are not seeing any issues with the YouTube TV app and haven’t seen any user reports of problems either.
For reference, the YouTube TV app wasn’t updated yesterday along with the main YouTube app and YouTube Music.
While this would seemingly indicate the arrival of the updates is what’s broke the app, that’s still unconfirmed right now. If the rolling out of a new version is the cause, then it is possible that affected users may have to wait for another update to roll through to fix the problem.
In the meantime, the YouTube app seems to be working fine on other devices (so far), and the YouTube website is also working fine as well.
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