How to stop autoplaying videos in YouTube’s Home feed

How to disable autoplaying videos in the Home tab of the mobile YouTube app

By default, Google’s mobile YouTube app for iPhone and iPad automatically plays videos in the Home feed as you scroll through it. The video at the top starts playing on mute with captions auto-enabled. Fortunately, this is an optional feature that can be disabled at will to save data and battery life. Here’s how to adjust autoplaying videos in YouTube’s Home tab.

They’re calling this “Autoplay on Home”.

Autoplay on Home

Previously a YouTube Premium feature, Autoplay on Home is available in YouTube for iOS version 14.0 or later. To see the current version of your YouTube app, tap your profile picture in the top-right corner, choose Settings and find the version number near the bottom of the list.

Google argues that Autoplay on Home lets you easily preview different videos while exploring the app, helping you make more informed decisions about whether you want to watch a video.

Play as you browse

This isn’t as distracting as it might appear. While the video thumbnail at the top of the Home tab does begin playing from start to finish with subtitles, audio remains muted.

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On the other hand, the fact that the videos do start automatically as you browse the Home tab inevitably leads to a higher data usage in the app.

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But worry not, boys and girls, and follow along with iDownloadBlog as we explain in this short and sweet step-by-step tutorial how to adjust Autoplay on Home.

How to stop autoplaying videos in YouTube’s Home tab

This setting is opt-out rather than opt-in. By defualt, the audio is muted and the videos play automatically over Wi-Fi only. Follow the steps below to adjust the feature to your liking.

1) Open the YouTube app on your iOS device.

2) Tap on your profile image in the top-right corner.

3) Choose Settings from the list.

4) Tap on the option labeled Autoplay on Home.

How to disable autoplaying videos in the Home tab of the YouTube app
This is how you get to YouTube’s Autoplay on Home setting.

5) Decide how AutoPlay on Home should work:

  • On: Videos play with sound off as you scroll through the Home feed, irrespective of whether the YouTube app is using Wi-Fi or cellular data.
  • Wi-Fi only: On Wi-Fi only, only muted videos play as you browse the Home feed.
  • Off: Videos do not play automatically as you browse the Home feed.

6) Now close the YouTube settings screen to apply the changes.

How to disable autoplaying videos in the Home tab of the YouTube app
When a video in the Home feed starts automatically, you’ll see a waveform icon (denoting sound is off) along with the current playback position in the bottom-right corner of the live preview.

Keep in mind that Autoplay on Home is separate from YouTube’s global Autoplay setting that automatically starts playing suggested videos after the current clip finishes.

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There are certainly times when autoplaying videos are best avoided. This is especially true if you’re browsing YouTube on a poor Wi-Fi connection or are on a metered cellular data plan.

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To stop wasting precious bandwidth on these live video previews and browse your Home feed the old way, disable Autoplay on Home completely or at least make sure it’s set to Wi-Fi only.

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Of course, none of this is saying that autoplaying videos are inherently bad—scrolling through the Home feed and seeing live previews of the videos does in fact make it easier to decide which recommended clip might be worth your time without invoking the main player.

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