Apple TV 3 Owners Report Issues Viewing YouTube Content

Google appears to have handicapped its YouTube support for the third-generation Apple TV, based on hundreds of user complaints on Apple’s support forums and in YouTube’s Help Center.

youtube apple tv
Multiple users are reporting problems accessing certain YouTube content such as music videos. When attempting to watch the content, viewers are being met with the message "An error occurred loading this content. Try again later."

One Reddit user who contacted Apple customer support reports that Apple claims the issue is on Google’s end, following recent changes it made to the YouTube platform. However, Google has yet to address or acknowledge the problem, despite numerous reports being filed and submitted over the course of more than two weeks.

Have you had trouble viewing YouTube content on a third-gen ‌Apple TV‌? Let us know in the comments below.

Related Roundup: Apple TV
Tag: YouTube
Buyer's Guide: Apple TV (Don't Buy)

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching in Three Months With These 12 New Features

Saturday June 14, 2025 5:45 pm PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of June 2025:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X through iPhone 14 Pro have a...
iPadOS 26 App Windowing

Apple Explains Why iPads Don't Just Run macOS

Friday June 13, 2025 7:46 am PDT by
iPadOS 26 allows iPads to function much more like Macs, with a new app windowing system, a swipe-down menu bar at the top of the screen, and more. However, Apple has stopped short of allowing iPads to run macOS, and it has now explained why. In an interview this week with Swiss tech journalist Rafael Zeier, Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi said that iPadOS 26's new Mac-like ...
iphone 16 pro models 1

17 Reasons to Wait for the iPhone 17

Thursday June 12, 2025 8:58 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you skipped the iPhone...
Logitech Logo Feature

Logitech Announces Two New Accessories for WWDC

Friday June 13, 2025 7:22 am PDT by
Alongside WWDC this week, Logitech announced notable new accessories for the iPad and Apple Vision Pro. The Logitech Muse is a spatially-tracked stylus developed for use with the Apple Vision Pro. Introduced during the WWDC 2025 keynote address, Muse is intended to support the next generation of spatial computing workflows enabled by visionOS 26. The device incorporates six degrees of...
iOS 26 Screens

Here Are All the iOS 26 Features That Require iPhone 15 Pro or Newer

Thursday June 12, 2025 4:53 am PDT by
With iOS 26, Apple has introduced some major changes to the iPhone experience, headlined by the new Liquid Glass redesign that's available across all compatible devices. However, several of the update's features are exclusive to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models, since they rely on Apple Intelligence. The following features are powered by on-device large language models and machine...
CarPlay Liquid Glass Dark

Apple to Let iPhone Users Watch Videos on CarPlay Screen While Parked

Thursday June 12, 2025 6:16 am PDT by
Apple this week announced that iPhone users will soon be able to watch videos right on the CarPlay screen in supported vehicles. iPhone users will be able to wirelessly stream videos to the CarPlay screen using AirPlay, according to Apple. For safety reasons, video playback will only be available when the vehicle is parked, to prevent distracted driving. The connected iPhone will be able to...
iOS 26 on Three iPhones

Hate iOS 26's Liquid Glass Design? Here's How to Tone It Down

Wednesday June 11, 2025 4:22 pm PDT by
iOS 26 features a whole new design material that Apple calls Liquid Glass, with a focus on transparency that lets the content on your display shine through the controls. If you're not a fan of the look, or are having trouble with readability, there is a step that you can take to make things more opaque without entirely losing out on the new look. Apple has multiple Accessibility options that ...
Mac Studio Feature

Apple Begins Selling Refurbished Mac Studio With M4 Max and M3 Ultra Chips at a Discount

Thursday June 12, 2025 10:14 am PDT by
Apple today added Mac Studio models with M4 Max and M3 Ultra chips to its online certified refurbished store in the United States, Canada, Japan, Singapore, and many European countries, for the first time since they were released in March. As usual for refurbished Macs, prices are discounted by approximately 15% compared to the equivalent new models on Apple's online store. Note that Apple's ...
iOS 26 Feature

Apple Seeds Revised iOS 26 Developer Beta to Fix Battery Issue

Friday June 13, 2025 10:15 am PDT by
Apple today provided developers with a revised version of the first iOS 26 beta for testing purposes. The update is only available for the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 models, so if you're running iOS 26 on an iPhone 14 or earlier, you won't see the revised beta. Registered developers can download the new beta software through the Settings app on each device. The revised beta addresses an...

Top Rated Comments

AdamFootUK Avatar
68 months ago
I’m also having issues as an Apple TV 4 user, but only because the app is so badly designed for Apple TV ?
Score: 27 Votes (Like | Disagree)
thequietaussie Avatar
68 months ago

I’m also having issues as an Apple TV 4 user, but only because the app is so badly designed [S]for Apple TV[/S] ?
;)
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CarlJ Avatar
68 months ago

Idk, I don't see people having as many UI issues on other devices as on 4th gen Apple TVs. I literally have to stop using the Siri Remote before I have an anxiety attack and use my iPhone as a remote because of how sensitive it is and a pain in the ass to use the app with the Siri Remote.
The YouTube app is a cross-platform mess that only begrudgingly supports the AppleTV. One of the problems is they don't really support the trackpad, it's built for a D-pad. If you stop trying to swipe, and instead just lightly tap on the top, bottom, or sides of the trackpad, it works a lot better. (Also, there's a setting in the settings app for how sensitive the Siri trackpad is.)

I've learned to operate within its limitations. The two that still frustrate me no end are:

One, every time you unpause, YouTube insists on covering the bottom half of the screen with largely unnecessary controls and "you might also like" advertisements for other videos (dammit YouTube, I unpaused this video, that means I want to watch this video - stop using half the screen to tell me about other videos), and you can't dismiss this from the trackpad, only using the menu button (or waiting), and if you hit the menu button to dismiss it just as it decides to auto-dismiss, then the menu button performs its other primary purpose and takes you out of the video. So infuriating!

And, two, when their lower-half travesty of videos and controls is on the screen, every time you move from the timeline down to the other controls, if the video is paused, IT UNPAUSES THE VIDEO FOR YOU! Dammit YouTube! I paused it to and brought up the bottom, you know, have it stay in the same place while I went to add it to a list or something - why are you starting the video back up? It's precisely what I don't want at the moment. It's like it's trying to trick you into hitting the menu button to dismiss the mess on the bottom half of the screen, and maybe jump out of the video entirely.

Also, serious points off for using the row under the video title to tell me that it's "Recommended for you". With upwards of 17 trillion videos on YouTube now, every video listed on my screen is going to be somehow recommended for me - I also don't care how many times it's been viewed. Instead, tell me the date the video was posted. Lots of times there'll be 3-4 videos from the same source, and I want to watch them in order. Armed with the date I can do that. If all 4 just say "Recommended for you", then I have to guess.

The iPad YouTube app handles the video controls at the bottom, and the date/info under the the thumbnail issues much better. I wish we could have that on the Apple TV.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
allenvanhellen Avatar
68 months ago
OK, let’s just keep buying new streaming boxes every 5 years and throwing the old ones in the trash. Great.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
iParis Avatar
68 months ago

;)
Idk, I don't see people having as many UI issues on other devices as on 4th gen Apple TVs. I literally have to stop using the Siri Remote before I have an anxiety attack and use my iPhone as a remote because of how sensitive it is and a pain in the ass to use the app with the Siri Remote.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Justin Cymbal Avatar
68 months ago
Makes sense that the third gen Apple TV is slowly losing support... After all it came out in 2012

I still have a few 3rd gen ATVs lying around - mostly just use them when I travel incase I forget it in the hotel
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)