SOLVED! YouTube Progress Bar Won’t Go Away – Remove It Now

YouTube has been the most popular video streaming site worldwide. It’s a video platform wherein you can easily search for any video you want to watch. Likewise, it’s also a great outlet for vloggers and video creators to share every video that they can think of.

There’s no limit, no subscription required. Although it has a Premium account, YouTube is still free for everyone to watch videos or upload their own.

Yet, with this accessibility comes the problem that has been haunting YouTubers nowadays — YouTube progress bar won’t go away. It’s an issue particularly prominent in Android mobile that has become very annoying. So, find out more about this issue and how to get rid of it forever.

YouTube Progress Bar and Controls

Just like any video player, YouTube has a progress bar — the grayish-white line towards the bottom of the video. This line will slowly turn red (from left to right) as you progress and eventually finish the video. Below the progress bar are some controls to help you optimize the video you are watching.

The problem strikes when you watch the videos in full-screen mode. The progress bar, along with all the YouTube controls and the video title will be displayed. Although it seems like a convenient way to access the controls, most of the time, it’s annoying, especially for small mobile screens.

YouTube progress bar won’t just go away automatically, rather you need to tap the X button at the left to hide it. And, the worst case, each time you tap your screen, the progress bar along with all the controls will appear again and it won’t disappear until you tap the X button, again.

If you are one of many people who experience this dilemma, you can find the solution that you’ve been looking for through this article. This will explain some reasons why YouTube progress bar won’t go away and what are the quick fixes.

Why YouTube’s Progress Bar Won’t Go Away?

YouTube’s progress bar and controls are displayed for some reason — easy navigation and change of setting. However, when these always get in your way while you’re watching your favorite movie, then, it could be very annoying.

The progress bar along with the controls will appear each time you tap your screen. This setup is good because you can just tap and scroll down to access the comments and some recommended videos. Unlike before wherein you still need to exit from the full-screen mode, this one lets you easily navigate.

However, the real pain is, when you accidentally tap the screen. Unlike YouTube websites on desktop wherein the controls with just show up in seconds and then, disappear. On most Android mobiles, it won’t go away until you press the X button.

Yet, it’s not something that will haunt you forever. Among the reasons why YouTube is behaving that way are the Accessibility Settings, YouTube version, cache, the phone model, and the OS you have.

Solution and Workaround

If you search on Google for this problem, there’s not only one person who experiences this and there’s no one solution to alleviate this problem.

If you’re watching YouTube videos on a mobile phone, you might have this problem again. Although hitting the X button temporarily hides the controls, if you tap the screen to pause or if you accidentally tap the screen, the problem resurfaces. You need to hit the X button to clear the screen from the overlay controls.

To put out this problem permanently, you must know the reason why YouTube is acting that way. As mentioned previously, there are a few factors that trigger this problem. The following are the common reasons and workaround to make this problem go away — forever.

Disable Accessibility on YouTube

To permanently (or temporarily) get rid of this, you can go YouTube’s Settings > Accessibility > then, turn it off. Or, You can choose the time under the Hide player controls. Default choice under the Hide player controls is “Never,” that’s why it’ll never go away.

Update/Downgrade YouTube app

If you don’t have the Accessibility setting in your YouTube app, you can try updating the app. Some users fix this problem by getting the latest version of the app. On the flip side, some mobile phones also need to have a lower version of the YouTube app for this problem to disappear.

Clear Cache and Clear Data

Go to Settings>Apps>YouTube. Select the app and go to App Info>Storage. There, you can see Clear Cache and Clear Data buttons. You can tap these and refresh your app.

Uninstall/Reinstall App

If the above-mentioned fixes won’t work for you, then, try to uninstall and reinstall the app. It does the trick for some.

Disable Accessibility and Switch Access on Android 9 Settings

Some Android users encountered this problem after they updated their mobiles to Android 9. This is because of the Accessibility and Switch Access settings that are turned on. Go to Settings and turn these off.

Other Workaround

Turn off Picture-in-Picture: Go to Android Settings>Apps & Notifications>Advanced>Special app devices>Picture-in-picture. Go to YouTube and then, turn off this setting.

Disable Select to Speak: Open Android Settings>Accessibility>Select to Speak. Tap this setting to disable it.

Disable Dark mode on YouTube app: Tap on the profile picture of your app, go to Settings>Dark Theme. Tap it to enable/disable.

While these quick fixes work for some users, note that YouTube’s behavior also differs with the kind of mobile phone you are using. If none of these workarounds work for you, you might need to reach out to YouTube to get technical support.

The Final Say

YouTube progress bar won’t go away issue is more annoying on mobile phones than on desktop or laptop. Especially on Android mobile, you need to know the reason why your YouTube app is behaving that way, so you can try a certain solution. Yet, even though these solutions work for other people, because there are tons of mobile phones, sometimes what works for one may not work for all.

If you have a solution to this problem that isn’t mentioned here, you can share it to help other YouTube users, especially Android users.