YouTube

Downloading and updating the official YouTube application on your PlayStation 5 or PlayStation 5 Digital Edition can be a little tricky if you aren’t familiar with how the console’s menus work. To find out how to properly do both of these actions, you can take a look at this tutorial from Seeking Tech. 

How to download YouTube on PS5 

In order to download YouTube for your PlayStation 5, you can take the following steps: 

1. To start off, you need to go to the home screen menu. If you aren’t there already, then you can press and hold the PS button on the controller to go home. 

2. From the home screen, press the R1 button to switch to the Media tab if you aren’t there already. From the Media tab, you need to select the All Apps option. You should then be able to find and select the YouTube App from there. 

Alternatively, you can press the triangle button and then select the Search option. Input “YouTube” in the search bar and then press R2 to start the search. In the search results page, you need to press the R1 button to switch over to the Media tab. You should then be able to get to the product page of the YouTube App from there.  

3. On the product page, you need to select the Download option. 

4. Once the download has been completed, you should be able to select the Start option from the same page.  

5. In the future, you should be able to open the same video streaming application from the Media tab of the home screen.  

How to update the YouTube PS5 App 

If you want to update the YouTube App to the latest version on your PS5 or PS5 Digital Edition system, then you need to do the following: 

1. To start off, you need to head to the home screen menu of your game console. 

2. If you aren’t in the Media tab of the home screen already, then you need to press the R1 button in order to switch over.  

3. In the Media tab, move the cursor to highlight the YouTube logo. 

4. With the YouTube logo highlighted, press the Options button on the controller to bring up a small window. 

5. Finally, select the Check for Update option to see if there is a new patch available to download. 

When watching YouTube videos on your PlayStation 5 or PlayStation 5 Digital Edition, you may notice that the HDR may not be displaying correctly. Some videos may look too dark while others may look a little bit too bright. The colors may also appear to be washed out in some cases. 

To see how you can get a better HDR picture when watching YouTube videos on your console, you can check out this article from Seeking Tech. 

1. For the first step, we recommend that you recalibrate the HDR output of your PS5, which you can do so by taking the following steps:  

• First off, you need to head to the Settings menu, which you can do by selecting the gear icon that appear on the top right side of the screen. 
• From Settings, you need to head into Screen and Video. 
• After getting to the Screen and Video menu, you need to select Video Output from the options available in the left column. 
• On the right column, make sure that HDR is set to On When Supported. 

• You then need to select the Adjust HDR option. 
• Follow the steps that appear over the next several screens to calibrate the HDR brightness output of your PS5. 

2. You can also try adjusting the RGB Range setting, which has caused issues with HDR in the past for PlayStation consoles. 

You can find it by going to the Settings menu of your PS5 and then select Screen and Video > Video Output > RGB Range. 

By default, this is set to Automatic (Recommended). If you don’t think HDR is displaying properly, then you can try changing it to Full or Limited and then test it out on a HDR video in the YouTube App.  

3. You should also make sure that you aren’t using any color filters on your PlayStation 5.  

To check, you need to go to Settings > Accessibility > Display Sound > Color Correction. In the Color Correction menu, make sure that the Enable Color Filter option is disabled. 

4. You should also look at your settings of your television set or monitor to see if you enabled anything that may be alternating how HDR is displayed. 

5. It is important to note that not all YouTube videos supports HDR even if it is mentioned in the title or description of the video.  

To see how you can tell whether or not a video is outputting in HDR, you can take a look at this post. 

6. The HDR may also be poorly implemented for some content. In this case, there is not much you can do. 

The YouTube App on your PlayStation 5 or PlayStation 5 Digital Edition console should be able to display HDR on supported videos. If there is no HDR, then you can check out this troubleshooting article from Seeking Tech to see how you can enable this feature. 

1. For the first step, we recommend looking into the Settings menu of your television set or monitor to see if you have HDR enabled.  

2. You should also make sure that you have HDR turned on for your PS5 or PS5 Digital Edition console.  

In order to do so, go to the home screen and then select Settings > Screen and Video > Video Output.

From the Video Output menu, you should then make sure that you have the HDR setting to On When Supported.  

If you have the YouTube App currently suspended while you enabled HDR, then the changes may not be applied in real time. Instead, you may have to close the video streaming application and then re-open it again to see videos being shown in HDR format. 

3. If you haven’t done so already, we also recommend that you update both the YouTube App as well as the firmware of your PlayStation 5.  

4. It is important to note that, even if a YouTube video advertises that it displays in HDR, it doesn’t necessary mean that it actually capable of displaying the format. There are two ways you can tell that a video is currently being played in HDR format. 

For the first method, you can do the following: 

• When the YouTube video is actively playing, press the X button on the DualSense to bring up an overlay menu. 
• You can then press the X button again to pause the video. 
• With the video paused, move up one time to highlight the name of the video. 
• Afterwards, mover to the right a few times and then select Settings. 
• From the Settings menu, select Quality. 
• In the Quality for Current Video menu, you should see the letters “HDR” attached to the end of the video resolutions if you are currently watching a YouTube video in high dynamic range. 

Another way to tell is by doing the following: 

• When watching a YouTube video, press the X button twice to open the overlay menu and then pause the video. 
• Next, go up one time and then navigate several times to the right so that you can select Settings. 
• From the Settings menu, make sure you enable the Stats for Nerds setting. 
• A box should then appear on the left side of the screen. Here, you need to look at the Color section. 
• If you see bt2020 in the Color section, then it indicates that you are currently watching a video in HDR format. If you see bt709 instead, then it means that the video is playing in SDR.

When watching YouTube on your PlayStation 5 or PlayStation 5 Digital Edition system, you may get a lot of buffering. To see how you can get the videos to play smoothly, then you can take a look at this troubleshooting guide from Seeking Tech. 

1. If you have been putting your PS5 in Rest Mode instead of completely turning it off, then it may be causing the YouTube videos to buffer.  

In this case, we recommend that you close the video streaming application and then open it again.  

To close it, long press the PS button on your controller to return to the home screen. From there, hover over the YouTube icon in the media tab and then press the Options button. You should then select Close App from the list of available options in the pop-up menu. 

2. If restarting the application does not work, then you can try restarting the game console or turn it off and then turn it back on again.  

If you don’t know how to do so, then you need to press the PS button and then select the Power option located on the bottom right side of the quick menu. After getting to the Power menu, you can then select the Turn Off PS5 or Restart PS5 option. 

3. You can also try re-installing the YouTube App. 

To do so, you first need to delete it from the internal SSD of your PS5 by highlighting the YouTube icon on the home screen and then pressing the Options button. Afterwards, select the Delete option from the pop-up menu. 

After the deletion, you can re-download the same video streaming application from the All Apps section of the Media tab in the home screen of your PS5.  

4. You should also make sure that the YouTube App has been updated to the latest version (you can check by selecting the Check for Update option in the small pop-up menu that appears when you press the Options button with the YouTube icon highlighted on the home screen). 

5. Of course, you should also check to see if you have your PS5 updated to the latest firmware as well. 

6. If the YouTube videos are still buffering, then make sure that you have a stable enough internet connection.  

To watch 1080p videos in the YouTube PS5 App, you will need at least 5 Mbps of internet download speed. For 4K videos, you will need at least 20 Mbps. 

To test your internet connection speed on your PlayStation 5, you need to head over to the home screen and then go to Settings > Network > Connection Status > Test Internet Connection.  

7. If you are using Wi-Fi to connect your console to the Internet, then it may get interrupted occasionally, causing videos to buffer in the YouTube App.

To prevent this from happening, make sure that there aren’t any physical objects that could block the wireless communication between your game console and Wi-Fi access point. Other wireless devices may also interfered with the Wi-Fi speed.  

8. If possible, we recommend using a wired Ethernet when it comes to connecting your PS5 online as you should end up with a faster and more stable connection for YouTube videos.

When watching YouTube videos directly from your PlayStation 5 or PlayStation 5 Digital Edition gaming system, you may notice that the audio is slightly delay. This can become apparent when you see someone talking as the voice does not match the lip sync.  

To see how you can fix this sound delay issue with the YouTube PS5 App, you can take a look at this troubleshooting article from Seeking Tech.  

1. For the first step, we recommend taking a look at the HDMI connecting between your game console and your TV or monitor.  

You should make sure that the PS5 is directly connected to the screen. A HDMI splitter or pass-through may cause the audio to lag behind the video. 

2. If you are using a wireless headset or connected a wired headset to the DualSense controller, then we recommend using a different audio source. This is because the wireless communication will add audio delay.  

If you are using wired speakers, the audio or HDMI cable may be too long. 

In order to switch to a different audio source, you need to head over to Settings > Sound > Audio Output > Output Device. From there, you can select a different audio output source (the sound will only come from one source at a time).  

For best results when it comes to YouTube audio sync, we recommend using the TV speakers.  

3. You can also try testing out other videos from the YouTube PS5 App to see if you are also getting out of sync audio. 

If the problem is only limited to just one video, then you can try watching it on another device. If the audio lags in the other device as well, then the audio delay may be due to how the video was encoded.  

4. If you are experiencing out of sync sound on multiple videos in the YouTube App on your PlayStation 5 or PlayStation 5 Digital Edition, then you can try restarting the application. 

5. You can also try restarting your PS5 console. 

6. Of course, you should also make sure you have the latest versions of the YouTube App and PS5 firmware installed. 

7. Unplugging and then re-plugging the HDMI cable may fix the audio delay. 

8. You can also try changing the video quality. In order to do so, you can take the following steps: 

• When the out of sync video is playing, press the X button on the DualSense two times. The first press should bring up the overlay menu while the second press should pause the video. 
• Next, you need to navigate upwards one time and then to the right several times.  
• Select Settings from the overlay menu. 
• In the Settings menu, select Quality. 
• From the Quality for Current Video menu, you should see a list of available video resolutions. 
• Select a resolution and then play the current video again to see if it fixes the audio sync. 
• If it doesn’t, then you can try a different resolution.  

9. You can also try fresh installing the YouTube PS5 App. To do so, you need to first delete the application from the internal SSD of your console and then re-download it again.

When using the official YouTube application on the PlayStation 5 or PlayStation 5 Digital Edition, you may notice that it may be running slowly. To see how you can make the video streaming application faster, you can take a look at this guide from Seeking Tech. 

1. If you have been putting your PS5 console in rest mode instead of shutting it down completely, then it may be causing the performance issues with the YouTube App.  

In this case, you can try shutting down your gaming system. In order to do so, you need to press the PS logo button on the DualSense and then select Power at the menu located at the bottom of the screen. In the pop-up menu, you need to select the Turn Off PS5 option. 

2. While your PlayStation 5 is turned off, you can try power cycling it.  

In order to do so, unplug its power cord from the power outlet. Afterwards, wait for at least 20 minutes before plugging it back into the power outlet and turning it back on. You can then open the YouTube App and test to see if it is running faster than before. 

3. The internal solid state drive of your PlayStation 5 may be too full, potentially causing the slow performance issues when using YouTube as well as other apps.  

To see how much space the SSD has, go to the Settings menu of your PS5 and then select Storage. From the Storage menu, you need to select Console Storage on the left column. On the right side, you should see the amount of free space available.  

Make sure you leave at least 20% of free space, which is around 165 GB, if you want the SSD to load efficiently. 

4. Rebuilding the database of the SSD can also help with making the YouTube App run faster. In order to do so, you need to take the following steps:  

• Make sure that your PS5 is completely turn off. 
• You then need to press and hold the power button located on the console until you hear two beeps. 
• After the second beep, you should see a message saying to plug your controller to the PS5 by using an USB cable and then press the PS button. 
• Once you connected the controller, you will be in the Safe Mode menu. Here, you need to select Clear Cache and Rebuild Database.  
• In the next screen, you can then select Rebuild Database. 
• 

5. You should also make sure that your internet is fast enough for the YouTube PS5 App. At the minimum, you should have at least 1 Mbps for streaming videos.  

To check your connection speed on the PlayStation 5, go to Settings > Network > Connection Status > Test Internet Connection. 

If you are having problems trying to connect to this video streaming application from your PS5, then you can check out this troubleshooting guide. 

6. If your PS5 feels hot, then you can try turning it off and unplugging it from the power outlet. Once it has cooled down, turn it back on again to see if the application will start running better.

7. Make sure you have the latest versions of the YouTube App software and PlayStation 5 system software as these updates may help improve performance.

When watching videos on the YouTube App on your PlayStation 5 or PlayStation 5 Digital Edition system, you may see some areas of the video, or the entire picture, flicker. In some cases, you may also see green or other color lines appear at the bottom of the screen.  

To see how you can potentially fix these visual glitches, you can take a look at this troubleshooting article at Seeking Tech.  

1. Before doing anything else, we recommend that you try watching a different video in the app. If the playbacks for the other videos are fine, then it may indicate that the issues may be related to just the single video.  

You can also try playing the problematic video on a different device to see if you are able to replicate the flickering and/or green line bugs. 

2. If you are seeing the glitches across multiple videos in the YouTube PS5 App, then we recommend that you change the 4K Transfer Rate of your gaming system. In order to do so, you need to take the following steps: 

• To start off, head over to the Settings menu of your PlayStation 5 or PlayStation 5 Digital Edition. 
• From there, go to Screen and Video. 
• After getting to the Screen and Video sub-menu, you need to select Video Output on the left side. 
• On the right side, you then need to select the 4K Video Transfer Rate option. 
• In the pop-up menu, change the transfer rate to -1.  
• After you made the change, open the YouTube App and then play the problematic video to see if the flickering and/or green lines have gone away. 
• If you are still experiencing problems, then you can try changing the transfer rate to –2 and then re-test. 

3. You can also try changing the resolution of the video to see if doing so fixes the visual bugs. To find out how you can do so in the YouTube PS5 app, you can follow the steps laid out in this tutorial.

4. Restarting the YouTube App may also help. 

To restart, you need to do the following:

• Press and hold the PS button to being up the home menu. 
• From there, hover over the YouTube icon and then press the Options button. 
• Inside the pop-up menu, you then need to select the Close App option. 
• Once the YouTube PS5 App has closed, open it again. 

5. You can try restarting your PS5 console as well since doing so may help clear out any temporary bugs when watching YouTube videos. 

6. If restarting the application or game system did not work, then make sure you have the latest YouTube App patch and PlayStation 5 firmware installed.  

7. You can also try switching to using a different HDMI cable as the current one you are using may be defective. 

8. If possible, you can connect your PS5 to a different television set or monitor to see if the flickering and/or green lines may stop appearing.

If you have been using the official YouTube application on your PlayStation 5 or PlayStation 5 Digital Edition system, you may notice that the videos are streaming in a bad or low-quality resolution.  

To see how you can potentially fix this issue, you can follow the steps laid out in this troubleshooting article from Seeking Tech. 

1. For the first step, you should make sure that you have a fast enough Internet. If you have network connection is slow, then you will be limited to streaming video at a lower resolution. 

To test the connection speed on your PS5, you need to take the following steps: 

• Open the Settings menu of your PlayStation 5 or PlayStation 5 Digital Edition. 
• In Settings, you need to go to Network. 
• From the Network menu, you first need to select Connection Status. 
• On the right side of the same menu, you then need to select Test Internet Connection. 
• In the pop-up menu, select the Start Test option. 
• Once the test has been completed, pay attention to the Connection Speed (Download) category. 

To play YouTube videos at the highest quality, you will need at least 20 Mbps when it comes to the download speed. 

If your internet isn’t fast enough and you are using Wi-Fi, then you can try switching over to a wired Ethernet connection if possible. Otherwise, you may need to get a faster internet connection service. 

2. You should also make sure that your game console is displaying at the highest compatible resolution of your television set or monitor. 

To check, you need to do the following: 

• Go to the Settings menu of your PS5. 
• Select the Screen and Video option from the Settings menu. 
• Inside Screen and Video, select Video Output from the left column. 
• On the right side, you then need to Resolution. 
• In the Resolution drop-down menu, make sure you select the bottom-most option. 

3. You can also try manually changing the resolution while a video is playing. In order to do so, you need to take the following steps: 

• While the video is playing (make sure that it is the actual video and not an ad), press the X button to bring up the overlay menu and the X button again to pause the video. 
• With the video paused, go up one time. 
• Afterwards, go right a few times and then select Settings.  
• In the Settings menu for the video, you need to select Quality. 
• You should now be in the Quality for Current Video menu. Here, select the top most option in order to get the best video streaming quality. 

It is important to note that some YouTube videos may be uploaded in a bad or low resolution. Therefore, you may not see higher quality options from the Quality for Current Video menu.

When trying to watch YouTube videos on your PlayStation 5 or PlayStation 5 Digital Edition system, you may see a black or blank screen instead. To see how you can get the vids to play properly, you can check out this troubleshooting article from Seeking Tech. 

1. The black or blank screen problems are most likely to related to using the Rest Mode of your PS5.  

In this case, you can try restarting your console by pressing the PS button on the DualSense controller and then selecting the Power icon located at the bottom side menu. From the Power menu, you then need to select Restart PS5.  

2. You can also try power cycling your console as it will clear out its cache of temporary files that may be causing the videos not to play correctly. To do so, you can try taking the following steps: 

• Turn off your PS5 by pressing the PS button, selecting the Power icon and then picking the Turn Off PS5 option. 
• Unplug the power cord of the console from the power outlet. 
• Wait for at least 20 minutes. 
• Plug the power cord back in. 
• Turn on your PS5 console. 
• Open the YouTube App. 

3. If you are still seeing a black or blank screen instead of the actual video, then the next potential solution you can try is to reset the app.  

To find out how to do so, you can follow the steps laid out in this tutorial. 

Keep in mind that resetting the YouTube PS5 App will log you out of your YouTube account. Therefore, you will need to sign back in again. 

4. If resetting the video streaming application does not work, then you can do a fresh install by taking the following steps: 

• Delete the YouTube App from your PS5. 
• Download the same application again from the All Apps menu in the Media section of the PS5’s home screen. 
• Test a YouTube video to see if you are still seeing a black or blank screen. 

5. You should also check to see if there is a new software update available for the YouTube App on the PlayStation 5.  

In order to do so, hover over the YouTube icon on the home menu and then press the Options button on your controller. In the pop-up menu, you then need to select the Check for Update option. 

6. If you haven’t done so already, you should also make sure that your PlayStation 5 or PlayStation 5 Digital Edition has been updated to the latest firmware.  

7. Factory resetting your console may also help fix the black or blank screen. By doing so, however, you will also delete all the other data, including game installs, save files and login information, from the system. Therefore, we only recommend doing this as a last resort.  

If you are interested in this method, then we recommend doing the following: 

• First off, you need to go to the Settings menu of your PS5 and then select System > System Software > Back Up and Restore. 
• You then need to plug in a compatible USB storage drive to your console. 
• Once you are ready, select the Back Up Your PS5 option from the Back Up and Restore. 
• Next, you need to go to Settings > System > System Software > Reset Options. 
• You then need to select the Reset Your Console option. 
• Once your console has been factory reset, go back to the System > System Software > Back Up and Restore menu and then select the Restore Your PS5 option.