YouTube "Something went wrong" with iOS 26

Question

Level 1

4 points

YouTube "Something went wrong" with iOS 26

When I play videos on YouTube connected to an external display or XR glasses, I get the "Something went wrong" error. I think this is some sort of HDCP DRM related issue.

I've tested with the following scenarios using my iPhone 15 Pro:

iPhone with YouTube alone = OK, video plays
iPhone with Dell 27" 4K USB-C monitor = OK, video plays
iPhone with my VITURE Luma Pro XR glasses = "Something went wrong"
iPhone with a 14" portable Acer USB-C monitor = "Something went wrong"

The same problem also exists for iPadOS 26.

In fact, YouTube also momentarily displayed a "YouTube crashed" prompt with the option to send a crash report. However, after killing the YouTube app and opening it again, the crash prompt does not appear again, but the "Something went wrong" still appears.

ALL of these were combinations were working fine before iOS 26.

Neither rebooting the phone, uninstalling/reinstalling YouTube works. If I play the video first before connecting the display, it works. While the video is playing, I connect the display and the video stops playing and the "Something went wrong" error appears immediately. This leads me to believe it might be a HDCP/DRM issue.

Current versions:

iOS version 26.0
YouTube version 20.37.5

iPhone 15 Pro

Posted on Sep 21, 2025 8:55 PM

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Answer 1

2uu

Level 1

8 points

Sep 22, 2025 8:36 PM in response to detach8

In my setup (iPhone 17, iOS 26, YouTube app version 20.38.3), I noticed something similar:

When connecting via USB-C to an external display, the YouTube app shows “Something went wrong.”

But in my case, if I used Bluetooth for audio output only (instead of sending audio through USB-C), playback worked.

So at least in my environment, the issue seems to occur only when both video and audio go through USB-C. When I split them (video via USB-C, audio via Bluetooth), YouTube plays normally.

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Answer 2

detach8 Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 22, 2025 4:29 PM in response to detach8

I’ve also tested the same combinations with other apps such as Netflix and Amazon Prime and even YouTube Music and they all seem to play videos fine, leading me to believe this might be a problem with YouTube App compatibility with iOS 26. Hope this gets fixed soon.

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