Several accessibility bugs with latest version of YouTube

By Luke, 11 March, 2018

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

With the most recent version of the YouTube iOS app, I am experiencing some new bugs and wanted to see if anybody else was having similar issues. The biggest one is that I can’t seem to minimize the video player when I am done watching a video. VoiceOver announces the button to minimize the player but double tapping it does nothing. I have to disengage voiceover and then single swipe from near the top of the screen downward which is the normal iOS gesture to minimize the player. The second one is, when I’m on the home tab where it shows suggested videos, voiceover reads aloud the title of each video twice, along with a bunch of other information that isn’t helpful. It makes scrolling through this area of the app very cumbersome. Finally, screen formatting seems to get really messed up if you swipe left and right to read through the comments under a video. I have a little bit of vision and I can see that as I am swiping through the comments, the entire display is shifting upward, leaving a big black void at the bottom of the screen. If I go too far, the entire screen is black and the only way I can get functionality back is to restart the app.

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Comments

By Ibrahim on Tuesday, March 27, 2018 - 11:33

Hello Joe,
A lot of us experienced the same YouTube bugs you mentioned. But most of us who uninstalled youtube, then reinstalled it fresh got rid of these bugs. With a fresh install of youtube, the app functioned normally without any problems.

By tech_geek1 on Tuesday, March 27, 2018 - 11:33

Hello,
I attempted to uninstall and reinstall the app but I am noticing now that after a day of use the first bug that Joe describes has returned. Although I can find the collapse button with VoiceOver enabled double tapping on it does not minimize the video and I am not able to find a close button on screen to exit out of the screen with the recommended videos.

By tripolice on Tuesday, March 27, 2018 - 11:33

The feedback is very inconsistent when turning on or off watch or search history in privacy settings of Youtube. This is not related just to the current version. First voiceover announces some other control and then lands on the confirmation which is a button. tapping that button dismisses the confirmation screen, but often the history is not paused or resumed and one has to repeat the same action.

By burak on Tuesday, March 27, 2018 - 11:33

Hello, the issue mentioned in the first post of this thread goes away only for once when you uninstall then reinstall the app. When you launch for the first time and quit, it returns. I cannot collapse videos anymore.

By sockhopsinger on Tuesday, March 27, 2018 - 11:33

It's frustrating, because sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. There is nothing specific I do, but just sometimes when I open the app it will dismiss a video, and sometimes it will not.

By Bobcat on Tuesday, March 27, 2018 - 11:33

I can't find a place in the YouTube app to send bug reports.
I went to the developers link from the apple of the YouTube page but it looks like a form that you have to join in order to post.

By Aidan JK on Tuesday, March 27, 2018 - 11:33

As others have said, installing the app again temporarily resolve the issue. It comes back when the app is closed the first time. I have reported this, and you can too using @googleaccess for the tweeters among us. These are such serious bugs they will almost certainly be fixed very quickly.

By Dawn 👩🏻‍🦯 on Tuesday, March 27, 2018 - 11:33

I'm not having any issues with collapsing. Everything works good for me here.
Only annyance I had was that I got recommened videos first instead of my history, which was buried. Once I re-opened the app, I now have my history back.

By Luke on Tuesday, March 27, 2018 - 11:33

In reply to by Dawn 👩🏻‍🦯

For those of us who don’t use Twitter, is there just a good old-fashioned email address where we can send this feedback, similar to apples accessibility address? As others have stated, since originally posting, I tried uninstalling and reinstalling but today the problem has returned. Thank you

By Luke on Tuesday, March 27, 2018 - 11:33

As we await a permanent fix from Google, here’s a trick that will make life a little easier in the meantime:
With a video loaded, touch near the top of the screen until VoiceOver announces “video player heading.” Using a single finger, double tap and hold until you hear the tone, and then hold for another second or two. While still holding, swipe down once and the video player should minimize. It takes a little practice but I am now a pro at it, LOL. Oh and if you’re device supports 3D Touch, make sure not to press on the screen because you don’t want 3D Touch engaged here. Good luck

By Rocker on Tuesday, March 27, 2018 - 11:33

From the home tab, double tap the My Account button
Swipe down to the Help & feedback Button and double tap
You will find an edit field and a submit button

Skip the edit field as it is just a help search function
Double tap the submit feedback button
This time, enter your feedback into the edit field and swipe left then double tap the send button
Note: there are selected items that include screenshots and event logs selected by default. Near the bottom of the page, not sure what happeneds there but I’m assuming the Dev team would appreciate the information
Good luck!

By DJHey20 on Tuesday, March 27, 2018 - 11:33

Hey Joe,
The moment I saw you and other people talking about being unable to minimize the video player, I knew I’m not alone. I’ve been experiencing it too, and it’s really annoying. I just submitted a feedback form about it on the Google accessibility page that was shared in this post, so I’m hoping they’ll pass it onto the accessibility team of their iOS apps. And I specifically mentioned how uninstalling and reinstalling the app temporarily fixes it, but that it’s still pretty frustrating. But hopefully, they’ll get it fixed soon. ☺️

By Troy on Tuesday, March 27, 2018 - 11:33

I think googles accessibility team is about like facebook, they're hit and miss. The youtube tv app still doesn't read the activation code. I am also having issues collapsing videos.

Every few days I check the App Store for a YouTube app update, but nothing so far. It seems like an unusually long time between updates, this time around. Hopefully big improvements are coming

By MelodicFate on Tuesday, March 27, 2018 - 11:33

Collapsing videos has started working for me again. I was using the app a couple of days ago when I noticed it just randomly started working again. Not sure if it's just me, but thought I'd chime in on this.

By Luke on Tuesday, March 27, 2018 - 11:33

Thanks to the new screen recording capabilities of iOS 11, I made a short video where I tried to document some of the screwy bugs I’m experiencing with VoiceOver in the YouTube comments section. Using the feedback form in the YouTube app (thanks to the great advice of one of the above commenters), I submitted this video to them to hopefully help them resolve it. Here’s the link if interested:
https://youtu.be/PVo5KOSA9Xg

By Darrell Hilliker on Tuesday, March 27, 2018 - 11:33

I have just written to disability-support@google.com citing this thread. I would urge others experiencing trouble to do likewise, so we can measure the effectiveness of this means of working with Google.

By Luke on Tuesday, March 27, 2018 - 11:33

Thanks to the person above who submitted this thread to Google

By Holger Fiallo on Tuesday, March 27, 2018 - 11:33

whenever I open youtube, and slide right voiceover does not read the next selection. Sometime voice over says possible text.

By Luke on Tuesday, March 27, 2018 - 11:33

In reply to by Holger Fiallo

Yep, that’s another bug. It happens on the youTube home tab and subscriptions feed tab. Use a three finger swipe up to scroll past those first couple of videos and then it should scroll automatically using the flick right gesture from then on. There are bars of unrecognizable text in between the videos for some reason but you still have access to the actual videos — I think those weird bars are providing more detail about the video just above them. Hope this made sense

By Holger Fiallo on Tuesday, March 27, 2018 - 11:33

Deleted youtube from my iPhone reinstalled and still see the following bug. When sliding right I hear possible text. Does not matter if you remove the app and reinstall because it comes back. Hope they fix this. Also it looks like youtube does not since with my IE in my PC. Before if I was watching a video in my PC and stop, I could see it in youtube where I left. No more.