A bug has appeared on the Android version of the YouTube app that makes navigating a lot more difficult — by making the bottom bar disappear.
It was recently discovered (via Android Police) that a new bug has completely removed the navigation bar from the YouTube app for both regular and YouTube Premium users. As such, affected devices can’t access the Subscriptions, Shorts, Library or Profile buttons to quickly navigate. Not only that, it appears that the Notifications button at the top of the screen is also missing.
While losing access to the Shorts and Library is certainly annoying, you can still find most of the content on the home page. But losing the ability to navigate to your Profile is a bigger issue, as it means no access to Playlists, History or Incognito mode. It’s also the only means to quickly swap accounts, meaning some of the proposed fixes that recommend changing accounts are much harder to achieve.
YouTube is aware of the issue, with its support page detailing that the company is working on a solution and will update as soon as possible. For the time being, it appears that the majority of users affected are in the U.S., but several comments on the support page indicate that users in other countries are seeing scattered cases. We checked devices across Tom’s Guide and the UK devices all appeared to still have the navigation bar at the bottom.
Sadly, this issue reminds us that one of the biggest issues with YouTube as a service - there’s no real alternative to it. While you could use some of the best streaming services like Netflix or Disney+, they don’t offer the same type or volume of content. On the plus side, the desktop, smart TV and iOS versions of the YouTube app both still function as they should.
We will keep you updated with any news as we hear it, including when a fix is announced by YouTube. In the meantime, please let us know if you have been affected by the bug and what solutions you have found.
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