YouTube TV working to fix crashing issue on Apple TV as redesign rolls out more widely

Ben Schoon | Feb 21 2023 - 7:03 am PT

YouTube TV launched a UI redesign earlier this year for all platforms, but Apple TV users were left out due to some issues. Now, YouTube TV appears to be restarting the rollout while also working to fix an ongoing crashing issue.

The latest look for YouTube TV focuses on two areas of the live TV streaming service. The first is the Library tab, which now shows personalized recommendations for TV shows and movies you’ve recorded or saved with categories available further down the page. The other change comes to the live TV guide, which now shows more information about what you’re watching and makes it easier to record content by adding it to your library.

YouTube quickly rolled out this redesign to most platforms, including Android TV/Google TV, Roku, and smart TV apps, but Apple TV users had a bit of a false start.

The new YouTube TV design showed up for quite a few users immediately, but a bug with the Apple TV app specifically caused the guide to break, preventing users from scrolling. The problem led to YouTube pressing pause on the rollout, and reverting those affected back to the old design.

Now, the rollout seems to have been restarted, at least in a limited capacity. A handful of users on Reddit report that the YouTube TV redesign has arrived on their Apple TV. The folks over at CordCuttersNews also report seeing the YouTube TV redesign recently go live on multiple Apple TV devices attached to multiple accounts as the publication’s Luke Bouma said to 9to5Google.

However, with one fix seems to come another issue. Another Reddit thread spotlighted a second issue where YouTube TV crashes on Apple TV 4K before fully starting up. The issue seems to be fixed by either rebooting the device or fully closing the YouTube TV app, but it’s frustrating nonetheless. Luckily, a YouTube TV community manager has confirmed a fix is in the works, saying in a comment:

…the engineering team is actively working on a fix for the issue that’s causing the app to not start correctly on Apple TV devices. While I don’t have an ETA for when this will be fixed, I’ll definitely keep you up-to-date here with any info I receive. In the meantime, force closing the app on your Apple TV should also work as a temporary fix so you don’t have to power cycle the device.