This article explains a couple of different ways to fix any video playback stuttering, when watched on YouTube, on your OnePlus phone.
I first ran into this on OnePlus 8 Pro, but according to the chatter online, there are plenty of other OnePlus handsets with the same… Well, I’m not sure if it’s a bug or issue, so let’s call it a feature.
Let’s get to it.
Problem
Whenever you’re watching YouTube – especially if your trying to get the audio through Bluetooth – there’s an incredibly noticeable, annoying, stuttering in the video playback.
Every few seconds or so, there will be a tiny pause of 200-500 ms, or something along those lines. Certainly not dramatic by any means, but very noticeable.
Changing settings in the YouTube app makes no difference. Changing the audio device makes no difference. Changing any performance-related settings in your phone’s settings makes no difference.
The stuttering remains.
Solution
I’ll make an exception to my normal flow, and explain my solutions first. Because revealing the reason too early would spoil a surprise.
So please humor me, skim over the basic troubleshooting steps below, until you get to number 4. See if that helps!
1. Make sure you have plenty of RAM available
This has never really been an issue for me – RAM management on Android is great – but try closing your other apps just in case.
Does it still happen? It probably does. Eh, it was worth a shot!
Check out the next step.
2. Reboot your phone
Another potential cheap win. Give it a try.
Didn’t help? The next one is the last “generic” fix, and then we get to the occult and unintuitive stuff, I promise!
3. Clear the cache for YouTube app
Go to Settings > Apps > App management > YouTube > Storage Usage > “Clear cache“.
Probably not worth it to Clear data.
Didn’t help? I figured it wouldn’t, but it’s so quick, easy and safe I thought you should try it first.
And now, on to the weird stuff…
4. Remove the Alibaba app
If you happen to have the Alibaba app installed, remove it.
I know this is weird. I thought so as well, but it did work for me.
OnePlus lets the Alibaba app do something that messes the audio output, even if you have not given the app any permissions. As long as it’s installed, it can run some weird background service that is probably watching you watch that one reel where catgirls are dancing on repeat.
I don’t know what kind of a deal Oppo and Alibaba have behind the scenes and what exactly the app is doing, but I don’t exactly like it. And I don’t like them having that data.
Weirdly enough – the AliExpress app (also by Alibaba) is fine.
Now – if this didn’t help (and it did for me), you can try the following, which other people have claimed will help:
5. Developer mode tweaks
I know, I know. You should not do this.
I know. And I agree.
But what if Oppo is making us do it?
Anyway – if you end up following the steps below, proceed with caution.
5.1 Unlock Developer Mode
What Android workaround article WOULDN’T have this step? Well, I wish fewer of them did.
But as luck would have it, I have written an article about this earlier: How to enable Developer Mode on Android?
5.2 Navigate to Developer options
On OnePlus at least, this can be found under Additional Settings > Developer options
5.3 Enable HW overlays
Hardware accelerated rendering > Disable HW overlays: true
Reason
To be fair, I’ve seen the same issue being reported on different OnePlus phones a lot. I suppose it’s more a feature of their buggy Android version, OxygenOS. OnePlus Community as well as Reddit have numerous threads where people try to tackle this issue – seems really widespread, and for most people (like yours truly), the phone has been laggy from the get-go. It never worked properly.
So much for the “Flagship Killer” phone, I guess. Although sometimes running into stuff like this makes one wonder, how it escapes detection in the QA-phase.
Unless… Oppo has got to have some sort of weird deal with Alibaba, and some hiccups are simply ignored because whatever the arrangement is, it takes precedence?
Because how else can an app, that is supposed to be not running, without any permissions interfere with Bluetooth connections?
I don’t know. I’ve had it with this brand though. I’m moving away from Oppo/OnePlus phones just in case.
Practically everything is made in China nowadays, but maybe I can find a phone that only has some more polite spyware that bothers my YouTube-watching less.
Alright. That’s all she wrote – hope the guide was as helpful to you as it was for me!
And golly do I hope to never have to write an article about OnePlus ever again.
He's been a developer from 2004 (starting with PHP and Java), and he's been working on .NET projects, Azure, Office 365, SharePoint and a lot of other stuff. He's also Microsoft MVP for Azure.
This is his personal professional (e.g. professional, but definitely personal) blog.
