YouTube is losing track of where to start videos after you’re done watching ads

Source: Android Authority

Overview

TL;DR

• YouTube users report videos jumping ahead tens of seconds after they finish watching ads.
• The exact length of the skipped time varies, but generally is under a minute.
• This follows several other YouTube ad glitches in recent months.

Even with its recent price hikes, YouTube Premium remains one of the best‑valued streaming options, but Google will never convert everyone to a paying customer. The rest of us have to sit through occasional ads, which in theory shouldn’t be a big deal. However, YouTube ads have a reputation for bizarre, glitchy behavior, and a new issue is teleporting viewers into the middle of clips.

Ads on YouTube aren’t supposed to be particularly onerous; most of the time we can click through to our content after watching a short clip. While sometimes we have to endure a longer one, thankfully the unskippable 90‑second ads some users reported turned out to be a glitch.

Our latest incident concerns what happens after you skip those ads. Once you’re done with your pre‑roll ads—either by skipping or watching them to the end—YouTube is supposed to take you right to the beginning of your content. Instead, some users are being bumped forward into the video already in progress, as reported by PiunikaWeb.

Are YouTube videos jumping ahead after viewing pre‑roll ads?

Just how far ahead YouTube throws you seems to vary for affected users. Reddit user Omega636 mentioned being sent between 10 and 50 seconds into the clip. On Google’s own community forums, user 4572492730870474498 saw their video start 40 seconds in after skipping ads.

These reports are almost certainly a bug, and the number of “me too” comments suggests it could be reasonably widespread.

Considering how on‑edge YouTube ads already make viewers feel—when they work properly—hopefully Google will sort this glitch out soon.