YouTube defaulting to 360p on desktop for some, users demand option to enable high quality by default

YouTube is one of the go-to destinations for all those who want to enjoy watching their favorite music videos, funny clips, documentaries, and much more.

However, some are unhappy as they are experiencing some issues.

According to reports (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9), multiple YouTube users on desktop are facing an issue where the video quality keeps reducing to a resolution of 360p by default.

Due to this, the viewing experience of the users and the playback quality of the video gets affected. And understandably, they are getting annoyed as they have to manually adjust the video quality, time and again.

Some claim to be facing this problem after selecting the ‘AV1’ video codec for playback. The issue even affects those who are having high-speed internet connection installed at their premises.

And to add to one’s troubles, setting the video-viewing quality to ‘Higher picture quality’ doesn’t help solve their problem.

It’s noteworthy that some are experiencing video flickering and freezing issues on changing the quality as well. Users have taken to Reddit to complain about the same.

I’ve been noticing an issue on my desktop for a few weeks where every single video, I need to manually choose an HD option. Videos will automatically start at 360p.
Source

For some reason whenever i click any video it is always on the lowest quality, i never changed my settings so it is weird, how do I fix it?
Source

Those affected have tried tinkering with various settings and using YouTube on different browsers but without any success. They are now requesting YouTube to resolve this issue as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, YouTube has not officially acknowledged this issue. But we did come across a potential workaround that might help solve your problem.

You can install third-party extensions such as Improve YouTube or Enhancer for YouTube on your web browsers. These will allow you to set the default video resolution as per your needs.

Having said that, we do hope that YouTube will soon resolve the issue where the video resolution keeps defaulting to 360p on desktops. We’ll update this post when they do.

Note: We have more such stories in our dedicated Google section so be sure to follow them as well.

Featured image: YouTube

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