It’s Not Just You, YouTube Looks Like Crap Right Now
Typically, you can blame a low-quality video stream on slower bandwidth or a poor internet connection—sites like YouTube adjust the video resolution accordingly, so instead of a crisp HD or 4K stream, you end up with a blurry, pixelated mess. You can manually adjust the resolution to make it look better, but you’ll likely run into buffering issues since your internet can’t handle it.
However, something else has been happening lately that is causing the quality of YouTube videos to deteriorate. Users report that when they play a video – be it a YouTube short or a standard clip – the stream loads in very poor quality, ranging from 360p to 144p. While some can manually set the stream to a higher resolution (such as 1080p), others find that this simply results in endless buffering. For many now it’s either a blurry video or nothing. It’s also not browser or platform specific, with iOS, desktop, and smart TV users reporting the same strange quality issues.
It is possible that some of these users have a slow Internet connection, but it is almost impossible to conclude that everyone has one. In fact, there are many complaints that despite a fast connection that handles other online activities seamlessly, YouTube insists on playing videos in an unwatchable resolution.
Luckily, YouTube itself is well aware of what’s going on. In a post on its support page published Wednesday , the company identified the issue (144p or 360p defaults buffering indefinitely when changed), clarified that it does affect iOS, desktops and smart TVs, and said it was working on a solution.
You’ll notice that there is one platform that is not affected by these issues: Android. As of this writing, Android phones and tablets appear to be unaffected by these recent quality issues. It’s not clear why, other than the fact that YouTube and Android are run by the same company (Google), which doesn’t really explain what’s going on here.
Is there a way to fix YouTube streaming quality issue?
There’s nothing you can do at this time other than wait for YouTube to fix the problem. You can, of course, try to change the video resolution manually using the settings under Quality , but you may find playback stuck with blur, or run into an endless buffering problem.
It seems stupid, but at the moment the only real option is to watch YouTube on Android if possible. If you have an Android phone or tablet, use it for your YouTube needs via iPhone, iPad, desktop computer or Smart TV. The rest of us will have to hope YouTube fixes the situation quickly.