What users hate. Clustered.

1- and 2-star reviews grouped into themes with verbatim examples. Each cluster is a wedge a competitor could exploit.

158 reviews·8 themes

App crashes and fails to open after updates
Multiple users report the app crashes immediately upon opening, especially after recent updates, with some stating it won't launch at all even after reinstalling.
24
reviews
- “App Wont even open since the new update”
- “After the update I can’t open the app. If I uninstall it and reinstall it will work for a while and then crash after using it for a bit.”
- “The app closes down immediately, have deleted and re-downloaded and still continues to do the same thing”
Persistent offline playback and download issues
Users report that downloaded music fails to play offline, disappears unexpectedly, or takes excessive time to load despite having a premium subscription.
21
reviews
- “Can’t listen to music when offline”
- “My downloaded music won’t play and is making the album art flicker”
- “Downloads — My downloaded music won’t play and is making the album art flicker”
Poor CarPlay integration and functionality
CarPlay experience is severely limited—lacking search, playlist access, queue control, and often disconnects or fails to display content.
18
reviews
- “No CarPlay — Your recent updates have not only bricked this app on my older iPhone but now I’ve lost CarPlay functionality”
- “Poor Apple car play implementation — YouTube music has a very poor Apple car play implementation and limitation”
- “No search function for CarPlay — An absolute joke that there is no search function with CarPlay!”
Excessive and intrusive ads in free version
Free users face frequent, unskippable, or poorly timed ads that disrupt listening, especially during driving or focus sessions.
17
reviews
- “Two unskippable ads after every song. Going through a playlist is hell”
- “Ads — This was a great app until they added at least 2 ads every new song. Stupid. Needs to be changed”
- “Can’t use while driving — Almost all adds are a few minutes long with a 'skip' button after 5 seconds”
UI/UX degradation due to frequent redesigns
Users express frustration over constant, disruptive UI changes that remove beloved features (e.g., Speed Dial, Related tab) and make navigation unintuitive.
16
reviews
- “Constant updates — Ive had yt music since day one, it was great, though they CONSTANTLY (every three to five months) do a complete re-vamp of the visuals and UI”
- “Where did my lyrics, related and up next features gooooo?”
- “The playlist being dragged up from the bottom previously had 2 other tabs for lyrics and similar music. The lyrics is now some annoyingly small button under the player”
Core functionality broken: shuffle, repeat, queue, and playlist management
Critical playback features like shuffle, repeat, add-to-queue, and playlist editing are unreliable, buggy, or non-functional.
15
reviews
- “Shuffling n Add to Queue BROKEN — Please fix the shuffle feature. You have to click it multiple times for it to shuffle all of my songs”
- “Repeat 1 only repeats the last 5 mins of a track, making ambient audio useless”
- “Queue doesn't work — Literal unusable garbage, queuing music does not work at all”
Subscription and payment issues including unauthorized charges
Users report unauthorized payments, failed refunds, recurring billing without service, and inability to manage subscriptions.
13
reviews
- “Unauthorised payment — A payment yesterday I had to make for YouTube music. But I did not authorise”
- “It took my money when I didn’t have a subscription to premium — It took my money out when I didn’t even get the premium subscription”
- “Payment? — My payment went through but my app is still glitched on 'upgrade'”
AI-generated content and algorithmic suggestions are unwanted and intrusive
Users complain about AI music dominating recommendations, lack of option to disable it, and algorithms pushing repetitive or irrelevant content.
10
reviews
- “Terrible suggestions — Most recent update has nothing but 1 min ai slop”
- “AI Music Will Destroy This — They aren’t doing anything to stop the spread of AI music”
- “Why did they do this… — So, I’ve been using YouTube music for about like 3 or 4 years now, and I’ve loved it. But did they seriously have to make it so that when you click your favourite artist, you can’t see all their songs?”

First load takes ~60–120s. Cached after.