Google has confirmed a widespread bug affecting the YouTube app on iPad that causes much of the interface below the video player to disappear after users exit full-screen mode.
The issue started appearing over the weekend, with affected users reporting the problem across Reddit and Google’s official support forums. According to Google’s support team, its engineering teams are investigating the problem and working on a permanent software fix.
The bug occurs after an iPad user enters full-screen playback and then returns to the normal viewing interface. Instead of showing the usual video title, description, channel information and comments, the entire area beneath the video remains blank.
Starting another video does not solve the problem either. Once the interface disappears, the broken layout can continue across multiple videos during the same YouTube app session.
The timing is particularly notable because YouTube has recently been making changes to its interface with the goal of reducing clutter and making the app easier to use. For affected iPad users, however, the latest problem takes that minimalist experience much further by removing essential information altogether.
Several users have tried common troubleshooting methods, including force-closing the YouTube app, restarting their iPad and completely deleting and reinstalling YouTube. None of these steps appears to permanently restore the missing interface.
The problem has also been reported on both regular iPadOS releases and recent public beta versions. This suggests that the issue is related to YouTube’s iPad app rather than a specific version of Apple’s operating system.
Reports indicate that the problem may have started after YouTube version 21.32.4 was released last week. The issue appears to be limited to the iPad version of the app, while YouTube on iPhone, Android and the web continues to work normally.
There is currently a temporary workaround, although it is far from convenient. Affected users can disable orientation lock, enter full-screen playback while the iPad is in portrait orientation, rotate the device to landscape while remaining in full screen, and then exit full-screen mode.
This forces the missing interface elements to reload, bringing back information such as the video title and comments. However, the workaround needs to be repeated for each video, making it impractical for regular viewing.
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Google has not yet explained what is causing the problem. The company says it will update its support thread when a permanent fix becomes available.
YouTube iPad Bug Makes Video Information Disappear After Full-Screen Mode
