It’s not just you: a YouTube bug is causing low-resolution videos

It appears that a rather frustrating issue has been plaguing YouTube users across various platforms, specifically iOS, desktop, and smart TVs. Reports are surfacing of YouTube videos and Shorts defaulting to unexpectedly low resolutions, even when robust internet connections are present. Users are seeing resolutions as low as 144p and 360p being the default, and that clearly deteriorates the overall experience.

The problem seems to have gained traction over the past week, with numerous users taking to Reddit to voice their concerns. One user concisely summarized the frustrating experience, stating, “Every video I click on YouTube the quality automatically sets to 144p even if I try to manually change it higher, it just reverts back to 144p.” This isn’t an isolated case; many others are reporting similar experiences, where manually adjusting the resolution results in immediate reversion to the lower quality.

Further complicating matters, some users have encountered significant buffering when attempting to switch to higher resolutions. This suggests the issue isn’t simply a display error, but potentially a deeper problem with how YouTube is handling video streaming in certain scenarios. Standard troubleshooting steps, such as device resets, connection changes, and app re-installs, have proven ineffective as well.

While a definitive fix remains elusive, YouTube has acknowledged the issue and confirmed they are “actively looking into” it. The company has indicated that updates will be provided via their support thread. It definitely helps to know YouTube is aware and admitting the issue, but that doesn’t really change the issue in the meantime. Hopefully a resolution is found quickly, and this particularly odd bug will get squashed and users can get back to consuming content the way YouTube intends it.