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Why does Firefox Android stop youtube playback now when you turn off your devices screen?

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I've been using the Firefox android app for a while, and today when I went to go play Youtube through it like i normally do, I turn off my screen, and the browser stop playback and doesn't buffer anything further than when i turned off the screen.

When it was working a couple of days ago when I used it, and plenty of times prior, there would be major buffering issues. I would be able to play 1-3 songs (The buffer rates decide how many so it's always random.) before Firefox would stop buffering the video and stop playback overall.

Being able to power off my devices screen while i'm listening not only is a big power saver for my devices battery life, but through the Youtube app you can not power down the screen to put it in your pocket without anything in your pocket pressing everything on the screen and just going random places. Through the Youtube app you can NOT turn off the screen without the Youtube app completely halting it's process.

If this could be fixed it would be a MAJOR jump for the Firefox app in popularity because people would use it not only as a power saving app for browsing Youtube, but the fact that you can turn off the display on your device while Youtube working would gain a lot of popularity if it WAS an actual feature.

I've been using the Firefox android app for a while, and today when I went to go play Youtube through it like i normally do, I turn off my screen, and the browser stop playback and doesn't buffer anything further than when i turned off the screen. When it was working a couple of days ago when I used it, and plenty of times prior, there would be major buffering issues. I would be able to play 1-3 songs (The buffer rates decide how many so it's always random.) before Firefox would stop buffering the video and stop playback overall. Being able to power off my devices screen while i'm listening not only is a big power saver for my devices battery life, but through the Youtube app you can not power down the screen to put it in your pocket without anything in your pocket pressing everything on the screen and just going random places. Through the Youtube app you can NOT turn off the screen without the Youtube app completely halting it's process. If this could be fixed it would be a MAJOR jump for the Firefox app in popularity because people would use it not only as a power saving app for browsing Youtube, but the fact that you can turn off the display on your device while Youtube working would gain a lot of popularity if it WAS an actual feature.

All Replies (2)

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This seems to be a change on the mobile YouTube site. A user in the following thread suggested the workaround of using Request Desktop Site:

https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/62t0ar/firefox_android_youtube_doesnt_play_in_background/

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jscher2000 said

This seems to be a change on the mobile YouTube site. A user in the following thread suggested the workaround of using Request Desktop Site:

I found this in my search to try and find a fix for it, but as of today this doesn't work for me anymore. I'm using the Galaxy S7 Edge if that adds at all.

I had been using this for a good while now over a year and only today has it stopped working. I guess I'll try and contact Google about it, though I hope it doesn't expose this more to them so they "fix" it.

Thank you for the information though.