Google investigating YouTube Music app crashes on iOS

Google says it is looking into a wave of reports that the YouTube Music app is crashing on iPhones. Over the past few hours, users have taken to Google’s support forums and Reddit to say that the app opens for a split second before closing on its own. The glitch seems to hit the home screen hardest, with playlists and recommendations refusing to load without forcing the app to quit.

Someone even shared a screen recording of the issue. Check it out below:

In an official post on the Google support forums, community manager Kazuma Sugimura acknowledged the problem as a “known issue” that affects some iOS devices. They shared a temporary workaround: long-press the YouTube Music icon, tap “Search” or “Podcasts,” then switch accounts from the profile menu and back again. That trick allows users to navigate the app without it crashing, but it does not fix the main page. Sugimura said the team is investigating and will update the thread when they have news.

On Reddit, affected users have described a similar experience. One iPhone 14 Pro owner said they tried everything — app updates, offloading and reinstalling, even a full reboot — only to keep facing the same crash loop. Others noted that the bug struck after an app update and speculated it might be tied to the latest iOS release. Some have found that non-Premium accounts seem to fare better, while Premium subscribers hit the crash every time they tap the home icon.

Despite the flurry of complaints, I was not able to trigger the issue on my iPhone 16 running iOS 18.5 Beta 4 with YouTube Music version 8.18. The app opened and ran normally, including the home feed and search function. That suggests the bug may not affect every device or software combination, or that Google might already be rolling out a fix behind the scenes.

It is not yet clear what caused the crashes. The community workaround points to a problem with how the app loads its main interface. In the meantime, anyone who finds the home screen crashing can try the search bypass until Google patches the issue. Given the fast response from the company and the simplicity of the workaround, it seems likely the problem will be resolved quickly.