If you opened YouTube today and were greeted by a bunch of grainy, low-quality videos, you’re not alone. On Wednesday, YouTube posted an update on its help site to let users know that the team is aware of the issue and looking into a solution.
Here’s what YouTube employee Camila said: “We’re aware some of you are experiencing lower than usual video quality when watching Videos and Shorts.”
If you’re one of the users impacted by the issue, here’s what you might be seeing:
- YouTube streaming at 144p or 360p despite strong internet connection
- Buffering when changing to higher quality
- Video quality could be impacted on iOS mobile, desktop, or Smart TV
What caused the issue remains a mystery, but the good news is that it doesn’t seem especially widespread. As noted by Android Police, there have been complaints on Downdetector, but not many more than come in on an average day. I also only spotted a few posts about the issue on r/YouTube, such as this thread that has yet to receive a single response.
Here’s hoping YouTube finds a solution even more quickly than Google was able to roll out a fix for bricked Chromecasts last week. If you’re experiencing issues with blurry videos on YouTube, be sure to keep an eye on this thread for official updates.
