YouTube Blocks Background Playback
Typically, YouTube will stop playing on your phone or tablet if you turn off the screen; if you want to listen to an hour-long playlist or podcast on your next walk with your device locked in your pocket, you need to pay $13.99 per month.
Dwayne Cubbins (Hacker News, Slashdot):
While a majority of reports are coming from Samsung Internet users, it’s not the only browser impacted. Users on Brave, Vivaldi, and even Microsoft Edge have complained about the issue.
[…]
When users try to minimize the browser or turn off their screen, the audio cuts out. On Samsung devices, some users noticed a fleeting notification that said “MediaOngoingActivity” right before the media controls vanished entirely.
[…]
For years, people have relied on these mobile browser workarounds to get a free taste of what YouTube Premium offers: ad-free viewing and, crucially, background audio. This sudden, simultaneous failure across multiple browsers strongly suggests a targeted change by YouTube.
[…]
We’ve already reported on YouTube’s fresh crackdown on third-party clients like NewPipe. So it won’t be a stretch to assume that YouTube is indeed patching such workarounds.
A Google spokesperson has confirmed to Android Authority that YouTube has been updated so that non-Premium users can no longer access background playback[…]
Google has revealed YouTube brought in more than $60bn (£44bn) in revenue in 2025 as the firm targets getting more subscribers.
The figure, which totals the money generated through advertising on YouTube as well as paid subscriptions, far surpasses streaming rival Netflix’s $45bn revenue.
Today, @TeamYouTube fully removed the ability to search by upload date by killing the last workaround (appending the URL with
&sp=CAISAhAB).The feedback they got on this change last month was overwhelmingly negative, but rather than listen to their users, they chose to remove all workarounds.
Previously:
3 Comments RSS · Twitter · Mastodon
It is still possible to search by date by adding
before:2022-01-02 after:2010-05-05
to the query.
I use an extension to convert the web player into the native Safari video controls, which allow Picture in Picture, which then allows the playback in background or even when the screen is off. Not perfect, but good enough.
