Are you stuck trying to stop YouTube Music from pausing randomly on you?
Get in line! You would not believe how many people experience this issue daily. And given how many factors can contribute to this, I’m honestly not surprised.
I can only imagine how frustrating it must be for you to be paying for a monthly service that is malfunctioning.
But don’t worry, we’re here to help you figure things out.
Below, you will find a list including 7 simple fixes you can try to stop the random pausing. I’m sure one of them will hit the nail on the head.
These are:
Read on to make your listening experience seamless again!
Before doing anything else, I want to address the elephant in the room.
I know you’re probably not going to like hearing this, but the best way to prevent most issues with YouTube Music is to get a Premium Subscription. This will not only offer a lot of features but also improve your overall experience.
Most of the time, upgrading makes sense, as one of the strongest points against using the free version of the app is that it’s designed to pause your music whenever you lock your phone.
It’s the same principle the YouTube app uses.
So before delving into any other potential culprits, you might want to evaluate whether being able to lock your phone without music interruptions is truly worth the price of the monthly subscription.
Assuming you’re already a YouTube Premium subscriber, the next thing we want to rule out as a potential culprit is one of your phone’s features.
Battery saving mode is great when you’re taking a plane, or going out on the road for a very long time. And the best part is that it’s almost unnoticeable, as performance decreases very slightly.
Or so we thought…
It turns out that this feature could be the reason why YouTube Music keeps pausing on you randomly. After all, your phone is doing its best to keep most apps at minimum power consumption and streaming music can be very demanding.
You might not think about this a lot, but in order to play your favorite songs, your phone needs to use its network adapter, its memory, its speakers, and its processor.
It’s certainly no easy task!
If you notice that the random pausing only happens when you have Battery Saving mode on, you might want to try disabling it while streaming.
Solution: On some rare occasions, this mode might automatically activate when you unplug your phone from the wall outlet, so if you’re unsure as to how you can activate or deactivate it manually, check out these steps.
I’ll use an IOS device as an example:
Some details might be slightly different on other operating systems, but the broad strokes should be the same across all platforms.
If you’re anything like me, you love falling asleep to your favorite music. There’s just something about going to bed while listening to the voice of your favorite artists.
And while this is wonderful, it can also cause hearing damage if you do it every night all night.
Luckily, we have sleep timer apps.
These are designed to pause your music after a certain amount of time (set by you) has passed, or at a certain point during the night. This allows you to nod off while listening to your favorite music and protects your ears from damage.
Sleep timer apps work wonders, but they could also be the reason why you’re experiencing random pausing on YouTube Music.
On some rare occasions, your favorite sleep timer app could malfunction and get in the way of YouTube Music’s playback.
Solution: Try uninstalling your favorite sleep timer app and see if you keep having issues with YouTube Music. If you’re no longer suffering from random pausing, the answer’s clear, and you’ll have to make a tough call.
You’ll have to choose between being able to keep using your sleep timer app or enjoying YouTube Music seamlessly.
Bummer, I know.
I’m all for sharing and helping out friends and family when they need it. Sharing streaming accounts has become a common practice among people worldwide, as it allows several users to enjoy the service under one membership.
But things can quickly get complicated when two people try to stream at the same time with the same account.
You probably figured this out on your own, but I still want to put it out there in case you missed it.
There’s a very good chance that the reason why YouTube Music is always pausing on you, is that someone you shared your personal account with is also trying to stream.
Now, this won’t be a problem if you have a family plan, but to be honest, very few people subscribe to it.
Solution: Try asking whoever you’ve shared your account with to stop using the platform for a couple of days.
If you no longer experience random pausing while being the only user of your account, mystery solved!
I know what you’re thinking. “I would have noticed if I had no internet”.
And while I’d normally agree with you, sometimes diagnosing a compromised connection can be trickier than you think.
Sure, there are instances where you have no access to the internet at all. But sometimes, you might still be able to do light browsing or chatting while remaining unable to stream your favorite music uninterrupted.
How come? Due to each activity’s broadband requirements.
Texting your friends about your day via WhatsApp will never be as network-demanding as streaming your favorite playlist. Especially if you have YouTube Music set to high audio quality playback.
Before canceling your account, I’d advise making sure your connection is healthy.
Solution: Give your Internet provider a call and ask if they’re having coverage issues in your area. If they tell you everything’s fine on their end you’ll likely have to reset your modem.
If you’ve never done this before, fret not! It’s really simple.
Here’s what you have to do:
Yet another reason why YouTube Music might always be pausing on you is that you need to delete your cache.
What’s that, you ask? What a great question!
Your app’s cache is where a lot of important information such as videos, audio, images, configurations, and sometimes even login credentials are stored. The purpose of saving this data is to make the loading process of the app quicker and provide you with a more enjoyable experience.
And while your cache normally works wonders, it can also interfere with the way YouTube Music operates, thus causing random pauses.
This can happen either due to a corrupted file, a bug, or even a failure to load all the necessary information. Your best bet in this instance will be to clear your cache.
A lot of devices are configured to automatically do it somewhat often, but just to be sure, I’d advise doing it manually.
Solution: Some details might vary between operating systems, but the broad strokes should be fairly similar across all platforms.
Here’s how to do it on Android systems to give you a general idea:
This one’s a bit of a Hail Mary, but hey, we want to leave no stone unturned, right?
If nothing else has worked up to this point, the last thing you want to try is closing and relaunching the app.
Why should that work? Simple! Because it does a forced restart.
You see, whenever we launch and use our favorite apps, there are thousands of simultaneous background processes being executed. We might not notice them, but they’re definitely there.
Most of the time they will work perfectly and provide us with the functionality we need. However, on some rare occasions, one or more can crash and decrease feature availability.
Closing and relaunching the YouTube Music app will get rid of any corrupted files or bugs that might have gotten in the way of its proper operation and start them from scratch.
And the best part is that this works for most technical issues out there, so don’t be afraid to try it out.
Who knew something this simple could work so well, huh?
Nothing can kill the vibe like a sudden pause when you’re singing your favorite song at the top of your lungs.
Music’s all about feeling, so being constantly interrupted can quickly turn an amazing experience, into an annoying inconvenience.
What a disappointment!
Luckily, as I hope you’ve learned in this piece, addressing most of the causes behind this situation is fairly simple and quick. More often than not, disabling the power-saving mode on your devices and getting rid of sleep timer apps, should do the trick.
Thank you for sticking with me all the way to the end. If you found this article helpful, you’ll be glad to know that we upload new content weekly. Make sure to check out our other wonderful resources below to become a Tech Detective yourself!
I wish you all the best.
Detective Anderson is a grizzled veteran of policing the internet’s cyber-streets. After decades of experience busting illegal floppy disk rings and underground dial-up connections, Anderson has now been placed in charge of the more modern Tech Detective team.
