Comment by TexanFeller
2 years ago
I’ve also noticed mysterious buffering in the iOS app for YouTube for at least a few months. Even on a Google Fiber connection many videos will take a number of seconds to start, and sometimes buffer in the middle. I also have YT Premium, so anti ad blocking shouldn’t come into the picture. Videos load right away in Safari though.
Delete the iOS app and install the Vinegar Safari extension. It will replace the hostile video player with a native HTML5 <video> element. I never see any ads, I can select the stream quality, and Picture-in-Picture works as my OS intended it to.