It seems at this moment that an algorithm change has messed up YouTube recommendations for many users. Some people are seeing old videos that they have already watched and strange music playlists. Others are also seeing completely irrelevant to them videos on topics that they are not interested in.
The affected users report the weird YouTube recommendations started showing up around November 25, around noon EST. Some of the people are experiencing even 99% of recommendations being stuff they’ve watched, and on top of that, stuff they watched several years ago. Podcast playlists from channels are also shown to some users, reportedly, to users that don’t have any interaction with YouTube podcasts. At the moment, it is unclear what caused the issue and when it will be fixed.
It seems that there isn’t a workaround available for the affected users. One user states that even if you click on “Not interested” or “Don’t recommend channel”, there is no improvement in the situation and the recommendations will then be of older videos.
Strangely enough, many people report that they are seeing videos from unpopular channels or channels with very few subscribers.
It seems that not all people are affected by this bug, though. For me, my YouTube recommendations seem fine, I’m still seeing topics I’m interested in and stuff I’d like to watch. At the moment, it’s unclear whether this bug is affecting paid YouTube subscribers, free ones, or both.
So far, YouTube has not acknowledged the issue and is yet to provide a fix for the affected users. When we know more, we’ll make sure to let you know. Meanwhile, if you’re experiencing the issue, you can report the bug to YouTube.
