Since its inception in 2020, YouTube Shorts has been TikTok’s fierce competitor in the short-form content sector, but as of recently YouTube has been having a bit of run-in with issues that many users have picked up on. As reported by people on Reddit (see below), a new bug auto-plays the Shorts tab as soon as you open the YouTube app.
This issue has been quite on and off for YouTube and has somehow resurfaced for more and more people over the past few weeks. For many users, the app will automatically open to show its Shorts tab if it was the last thing viewed/ used, as opposed to opening the YouTube homepage as it usually would.
However, according to 9to5Google, it’s noticed a growing trend where YouTube automatically launches Shorts no matter what was previously viewed – and this is the case for both free users and paying subscribers of YouTube Premium. As it stands, it’s not certain if this issue is cropping up for iOS users, however 9to5Google has noticed that Android devices – notably the Nothing Phone (3a) and the Pixel 9 Pro Fold – have fallen victim to this annoying bug.
There’s no doubt that YouTube has contributed a substantial amount of attention to launching its answer to TikTok’s popular short video feed, and even gained an edge over it with a music video remix feature last year. But it’s hard to tell if this bug is a minor fault in the system, or a tactic to get more users to ride the YouTube Shorts train.
How you can fix the YouTube Shorts bug
If you’re an Android user who’s having issues with YouTube playing you Shorts as soon as you launch the app, then there’s a way you can change this. As recommended in 9to5Google’s report, opening and force-stopping the app won’t be enough to solve the issue, but clearing your storage/ cache will help.
Though this is the trick to getting YouTube to stop auto-playing the Shorts tab when you open the app, 9to5Google says that the issue will return when Shorts are opened again. YouTube has yet to comment on its efforts to fix the issue, but we’ll update this story if any new information surfaces.