According to reports, the error began appearing around 12 noon on November 25 and has attracted the attention of the community through posts on Reddit.
Reports suggest that YouTube's recommendation algorithm is currently malfunctioning, resulting in many users receiving old videos they watched a long time ago, or music playlists unrelated to their interests.
Some users even report that 99% of the recommended videos are content they watched years ago.
Podcast playlists from channels with no user interaction also appear in the recommendations list, which is confusing for people who have never watched podcasts on YouTube.
The cause of this issue is currently unknown. Notably, although many people have tried using the "Not Interested" or "Don't Recommend This Channel" features, the error situation has not improved.
Recommended videos continue to be previously viewed videos, rather than new content or content relevant to the user's current interests.
Curiously, many affected users are seeing videos from channels with few followers or channels without a large number of subscribers, which raises suspicions about a change in YouTube's recommendation algorithm.
Not all users were affected by the bug, however. Some reported receiving accurate video recommendations that matched their tastes and viewing habits. At this point, it's unclear whether the issue only affected free YouTube users or paid users as well.
YouTube has yet to provide an official explanation for the issue and there is no word on when it will fix the problem, if any.
Users experiencing issues can report them to YouTube, but no workarounds have been suggested yet.
