YouTube Music Premium subscribers enjoy several worthwhile perks. Among the most notable are background playback and an ad-free experience. Another top feature is the ability to download songs for offline listening. However, some YouTube Music Premium subscribers are reportedly experiencing a frustrating issue where their downloaded songs are failing to play, getting stuck in an endless loading loop.
YouTube Music offline downloads broken for some, Premium users stuck in loading
YouTube Music Premium users have taken to support forums to report the issue (spotted by PiunikaWeb). According to those affected, no standard troubleshooting steps have been ineffective. Common fixes—like clearing the app cache, deleting and reinstalling the application, and even reverting to older app versions—are not working at all.
The playback problem seems specific to the downloaded content on YouTube Music. Users note that if they delete the song and stream it immediately, playback works normally. However, the moment they re-download the track, it becomes unplayable. This suggests a problem with the local file authentication or playback mechanism rather than a simple download failure. The bug even prevents the downloaded tracks from playing while the device is connected to Wi-Fi or cellular data.
Identifying the cause
The reports suggest that this issue may primarily be affecting Android users, although a specific cause remains elusive. Community speculation points to a few possibilities. Some users linked the start of the issue to the deployment of YouTube Music’s annual Recap feature. On the other hand, others noticed the bug appearing shortly after installing the latest Android 16 QPR2 update.
Google has yet to officially acknowledge the issue on its main support channels. However, the TeamYouTube handle has been active on platforms like Reddit, advising affected subscribers to submit detailed feedback reports to ensure the correct team investigates the problem.
For now, users who rely on the offline function of their subscription are left with a single, temporary workaround: stream everything, which completely bypasses the feature they are paying for. Subscribers can only hope for a fix to this core functionality of their premium service.
