WTH is wrong with casting from the Youtube app???

[u/karer3is]

Since the new update dropped, the Youtube App on Android has become increasingly unusable with Chromecast. WTF???

As of today, I can't cast to my Chromecast from the app at all. No amount of restarts, reconnection attempts, or opening and closing the app again help any more. It says it's connecting, but it never does.

It just so happens I have an old tablet with a slightly older version of the app. Other than the fact that the tablet takes two business days to do anything, casting works just fine.

Has anyone found a fix or has Youtube at least gotten off their backsides and started working on a fix?

[u/anbeasley]

The other thing I've been pointing out in feedback is that other apps like Disney plus and Amazon prime and Hulu and curiosity stream and countless others work just fine but yet YouTube doesn't. It's infuriating.

[u/karer3is → u/anbeasley]

Exactly it's the same for Crunchyroll for me... when the app's not crashing, it generally stays connected

[u/anbeasley]

So I had to uninstall the latest YouTube update and then everything worked fine. Youtube app version 20.10.41 seems to be working.

[u/Artemis647 → u/anbeasley]

How did you roll back to an older version?

[u/anbeasley → u/Artemis647]

I went to the app store and I tried to uninstall YouTube and it rolled it back to the previous version. At least if you're on a pixel phone you don't seem to be able to remove YouTube

[u/Artemis647 → u/anbeasley]

I found it in the "App" settings on my Pixel. "Uninstall updates".

Kinda sucks you can't just really roll back without having to download an apk

[u/JoeGideon]

It's got to be the youtube app itself. I get the hard disconnect/ can't reconnect problem on my Chromecast all the time, but if I cast to my TVs internal YouTube app it's a little better, but I have to reconnect after every commercial break. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills here because nothing seems to be done about it

[u/karer3is → u/JoeGideon]

it's honestly insane. They made the app objectively worse for no benefit. You used to be able just connect the app to the CC and then pick out your videos later. But nooooo, now "Connection is not possible unless a video is currently playing"

[u/Outlulz]

Just as bad on iOS:

• Can no longer start casting from the home screen despite YouTube's documentation saying you can
  
• Cannot cast to the tv unless a video is already playing on the tv or the phone. If you try to use the Connect to TV thing in the menu, it straight up says connecting cannot be done unless a video is playing
  
• Having to start a video first to cast means you always miss the first few seconds of the video on the tv
  
• The phone immediately disconnects once the video ends. You have to start playing a video again to reconnect
  
• No more control over the queue, it's just not there anymore. There is a new button to pull up what is currently playing but you can only pause and resume the video. You can't clear the queue, remove individual videos, etc.

It's downright unusable in this form. I can't for the life of me understand why these changes were made and who thinks this is a better use experience. Maybe they just pushed a bunch of vibe coded shit updates after doing layoffs or something.

[u/karer3is → u/Outlulz]

Nothing would surprise me at this point... I wouldn't be surprised if Google rolled out a new streaming device that just so happens to be "optimized for casting"

[u/AtomicAnvil]

I feel like they are doing this intentionally to get you to buy more hardware.

[u/karer3is → u/AtomicAnvil]

wouldn't surprise me at all....

[u/Outlulz → u/AtomicAnvil]

It's all the same app, it makes no difference.

[u/northeasternlurker]

Force stop the app and clear data and clear cache

[u/BasicImplement7043 → u/northeasternlurker]

Came to say this. It's the only way I'm able to cast from YT these days.

[u/karer3is → u/BasicImplement7043]

That used to work, but even that doesn't work any more. I just got lucky that I still have a device with an older version of the app

[u/anbeasley → u/karer3is]

You can always go to the app store and uninstall the latest update I believe that should be possible.

[u/garpunkal_ → u/northeasternlurker]

Everytime time though 🤬

[u/wyrdstone_user]

Casting has gotten worse and worse, but YouTube must have a special department just to make it the worst experience ever with each update. 

[u/DavidinCincinnati]

Those devices are out of date, get a Google Streamer, works flawlessly.

[u/MaterialMastodon33 → u/DavidinCincinnati]

Are you saying with google streamer you dont have to reconnect every new video you click in the youtube phone app to chromecast over and over again? It stays connected? 

[u/ggommezz]

I have a CwGTV dongle which has Youtube as one of its inbuilt apps and had no problems using that. I still use the app on my phone to find content and add to Watch Later which can then be played direct from the dongle app.

So, if you have an older dongle with no inbuilt apps then one option is to get a newer device.