YouTube’s latest mobile crash saga is officially over, but the clean-up isn’t the same for everyone. Google says it has patched the bug that made the video app collapse seconds after launch. Android owners only need to grab the fresh update from the Play Store, yet iPhone and iPad users must uninstall the old build and download a new copy from the App Store before playback turns stable again.
Reports of sudden crashes first surfaced late on 17 June, when posts on Reddit’s r/YouTube community filled with screenshots of blank players and looping error messages. Within hours, the complaints spread to X and Google’s own support forum, indicating that both Android and iOS were affected, though the exact trigger remained unclear.
iOS Devices Still Need a Full Reinstall To Stabilize
Google’s support staff initially advised a nuclear option for every device: delete the app, reinstall, and sign back in. Overnight, engineers pushed a server-side fix and folded it into the latest Android package, allowing most users there to skip the reinstall step. iOS, however, still holds corrupted data in its sandbox, so a full removal remains Google’s prescribed cure.
Reinstalling on iOS wipes every downloaded video and resets in-app preferences, an inconvenience for commuters who bank on offline viewing. Google recommends re-downloading only what you need and warns that the process may take longer if you store content in higher resolutions. Cloud-stored playlists, likes, and watch history reappear automatically once you sign in again, so your viewing profile itself is safe.
With YouTube’s crash behind us, attention now shifts to how Google prevents a repeat. The company’s public tracker shows no open tickets tied to this incident, suggesting developers think the patch fully resolves it. I’ll keep an eye on the support forums over the next few days. If new complaints bubble up, you’ll read about them here first. For now, update or, if you’re on iOS, reinstall, then dive back into your queue without fear of another hard stop.