Tushar Mehta / Android Authority
TL;DR
- YouTube Music on Wear OS appears to have a playback bug with offline playlists.
- Several users complain that downloaded playlists stop working after the first song.
- There’s currently no permanent fix to the solution, and we’re waiting for Google to respond.
One of my main reasons for owning a Wear OS smartwatch is to give my attention span a break from the constant deluge of pet videos and AI slop on my phone. In addition to the liberating feeling, I can also feed my mind with music, podcasts, or audiobooks that I find enriching. And for that, YouTube Music is usually my preferred app. But a lot of folks with expectations similar to mine are hitting a bump in the road.
That’s because YouTube Music has been acting iffy for several Wear OS users. According to a host of accounts shared on Reddit, as well as one that Android Authority received via email, offline playback in YouTube Music has been a hassle on several Pixel Watch and Galaxy Watch models.
According to one such report by Reddit user gimmick92, downloading a playlist to your smartwatch doesn’t work as it should. Per the user, even with the entire playlist downloaded, YouTube Music on Wear OS only plays the first song and then stops right after. The Next and More buttons on the YouTube Music player are grayed out, which means the user cannot even switch to another track in the queue.
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You can imagine how infuriating that can be when you’re out on a run or a hike, have intentionally left the phone behind, relying on your watch to handle your entertainment needs, and this pops up.
The user adds they’ve tried clearing the app’s cache and data, and have rebooted their Pixel Watch 4 to fix the error. While that serves as a temporary fix, there’s no permanent solution, as the issue keeps returning after a few sessions. Several other comments on the post corroborate a similar experience with the offline playback on YouTube Music’s Wear OS version. Redditors rawkinrich and cocojesvs also highlight the same issue on their respective posts.
Based on the timestamp on the Reddit posts, the issue appears to have been around for over a month, but we’ve yet to see any action from Google on the matter. There’s no related thread on the Google Issue Tracker, which suggests Google may not be aware of the issue and, therefore, not working to fix it. We’ve written to Google to ask whether it is aware of the issue and will update the article accordingly.
Despite the breadth of reports, the root cause remains unclear. I tried to replicate the issue on my 2025 Galaxy Watch Ultra, but haven’t run into it yet. We’ll keep you posted on the issue and share an update when Google’s stance changes.
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