Credit: Joe Maring / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Some YouTube Music Premium users say downloaded tracks won’t play and get stuck loading, while streaming still works.
- Complaints on Google’s support forum and Reddit indicate that the issue occurs only on Android devices.
- There’s no fix yet, and TeamYouTube has asked people to submit feedback.
Just as the time for holiday playlists to be finalized approaches, some YouTube Music Premium listeners say their downloaded tracks have suddenly stopped working. Offline songs that played normally a few days ago are now stuck on a loading spinner, even though streaming the same tracks works without issue.
PiunikaWeb spotted the growing number of complaints across Google’s support forums and Reddit. On the support forum, one Galaxy S24 Ultra user says they tried everything from clearing cache and data to rolling back to an older version, but playback still breaks the moment they download anything. Two other forum posters report the same thing, with one noting that disabling downloads entirely is the only way music will play.