The latest YouTube app update breaks comments

By Ipadman, 14 June, 2022

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

My YouTube app updated and now I can’t read comments on YouTube anymore, well I can read the first one but then after that VoiceOver won’t carry on.
Just wondering if anyone else is having the same issue, I will put a report into Google Accessibility but the last one I did took about two years to resolve, and then The issue just came back again in the next update so I don’t suppose it’ll be much use.
I used to love the YouTube app, particularly the feature where you could double tap and swipe along the track bar to take you to the middle of a video, was very handy for audiobooks but that feature doesn’t seem to work either anymore and you can only skip by 10 or 30 second increments.

Options

Comments

By Saqib on Thursday, June 16, 2022 - 11:07

Once I tap comments, I'm able to scrawl through all of the comments on my iPhone. On my iPad Air 4, the comment section is displayed on the right of the screen and you can't flick to it! You simply have to find it by touch and explore.

By sockhopsinger on Thursday, June 16, 2022 - 19:22

Those don't seem to work either. I have reported them to Google several times through the YouTube app, but so far nothing has happened. I have uninstalled and re-installed the app three times on my iPhone. The like and unlike buttons show up for about 2 or 3 videos and then are gone again. I'm wondering if something is wrong on Apple's end.

By Andy Lane on Thursday, June 16, 2022 - 19:48

Hey, I know its not how its meant to work but there is at least a work around for the like dislike buttons, if you calapse the video panel back to the list of video’s then swipe up or down on the video you can mark them liked or disliked from there.

By Erick on Sunday, June 19, 2022 - 21:10

I'm thinking it has to do with Google.

The latest update does not work, either. But their are a lot of workarounds you can do in order to fix some of the comments not working. Usually if you go to the comments section on Youtube, it would activate. However, that is not the case for this update, for what ever reason. You need to dismiss the add comment screen, and then you should be able to read them, because it is working on my end.

By sockhopsinger on Monday, June 20, 2022 - 01:52

Thanks for the suggestion, Andy Lane. Unfortunately, your suggestion does not work. I minimized the video then found it at the bottom of the screen. I flicked up and down through the roter actions but was not given a choice for like or unlike buttons. Is that the correct place you are supposed to do that?

By Andy Lane on Monday, June 20, 2022 - 22:07

Hey, No thats not the one I meant. If you use the original video title in your feed rather than the video expander at the bottom you’ll be able to find the like and dislike options in the list. Just navigate to the video in your feed then flick up or down.

By sockhopsinger on Monday, June 20, 2022 - 23:19

Sorry that doesn't work either. I minimize the video and then find it in the list of videos again. The only options I get are "activate, default", "go to channel", and "action menu". Even under the action menu, there are no like and unlike buttons. Thanks for trying to help.

By KE8UPE on Tuesday, June 21, 2022 - 10:23

Hi,
I am writing here, to inform everyone that as of yesterday, there’s another update.
I’m not 100% certain, as I have yet to test it myself, but it may fix the issue that some of you are having with comments.

By Andy Lane on Tuesday, June 21, 2022 - 10:59

Hi, Apologies, I just tried it myself and you’re of course right. It was working only last week, it was how I was liking video’s after the buttons disappeared and often how I’d do it even before the buttons went but now as you say the options aren’t there anymore. There used to be other options in that list I can’t be certain of what they were but there was a good 6 or 7 options, I think share was in there, go to channel and obviously like and dislike. Hopefully the above comment helps and the latest update restores the options.

By Andy Lane on Tuesday, June 21, 2022 - 11:06

Just updated to check and sadly no buttons and no option in the feed. Strangely though go to channel is now back in the list of options when flicking up and down. Doesn’t fix anything as that option is still available on the video window but at least its something back.

By sockhopsinger on Tuesday, June 21, 2022 - 19:54

The more I think about it I believe this could actually be an Apple bug regarding the like, dislike, share, etc., buttons that only randomly pop up. The reason I say this could be an Apple bug is that because if I uninstall and reinstall the Youtube app the buttons wil lwork correctly for a video or two. All of those buttons pop up. Then, for whatever reason, after I click on a video or two, they are gone again. Thoughts?

By Bobcat on Wednesday, August 3, 2022 - 23:49

I usually can open the comments by double tapping the first one..
I also lose the like and dislike buttons.
The text editor when adding comments seems to be invisible with voiceover. Cannot move focus to it. And when moving word by word using the left and right gestures with voiceover it read something else. It's very hard to get back to the editing screen when focus is lost.

The latest update still reads everybody's name in the comments twice like this:
"Bobby, Bobby, •, 4d ago, Hi… "
I don't like that bullet either. It's just too verbose.