YouTube Shorts Users Frustrated by Unresponsive Video Player Controls

Many YouTube Shorts users are encountering a bug where video controls become unresponsive or missing, disrupting the viewing experience. The issue appears tied to a 'Sign in to confirm you’re not a bot' prompt that can block playback and hide standard options like pause, rewind, and settings. Users report that the player fails to load correctly, and tapping to unmute or adjust playback speed sometimes has no effect. This glitch has been noted across multiple devices and browsers, with the error message appearing even when users are already signed in. YouTube has not yet issued a statement or fix for the problem.