Apple Forces Brave Browser to Pull Free Offline YouTube Video Feature From iOS
Apple ordered Brave to strip its free offline YouTube video download feature from its iOS browser or face removal from the App Store, the company confirmed.
Brave support acknowledged the move in a post on Reddit, saying Apple required the removal of offline playback from the browser’s built-in Playlist feature. “Apple required Brave to remove offline playback for Playlist on iOS in order to remain on the App Store,” the company said. “We’re appealing Apple’s decision and hope to restore this functionality to Playlist in the future.”
The feature had let iPhone users save YouTube videos for offline listening without a YouTube Premium subscription — a direct workaround to Google’s paid tier.
Feature Had Become a Marketing Weapon
Brave had leaned into the Playlist tool aggressively after YouTube raised its Premium subscription prices, positioning the browser as a free alternative for users unwilling to pay.
The offline download capability drew significant user interest and became one of Brave’s most-cited selling points on iOS.
That pitch is now gone. Users began flagging the disappearance of the “Download” option from contextual menus across Reddit threads and Brave’s own community forums before the company confirmed Apple’s role.
A Second Problem Compounds the Damage
Separate from Apple’s mandate, Brave also faces a technical bug tracked in its open-source repository as GitHub issue #55010.
Some iOS users running recent versions of the browser encounter an error popup reading “Sorry, there was a problem loading the resource!” when attempting to play previously cached videos.
The issue stems from how Brave captures media. When a user adds a video directly from YouTube’s home feed or Search Results — without first opening the video’s own page — the browser fails to parse the underlying media stream correctly.
That failure produces a broken playlist entry: a generic thumbnail and a video that will not play.
Temporary Workaround Available
Brave’s development team has pointed users to a short-term fix while it pursues both the Apple appeal and the software patch.
Activating “Request Desktop Site” within Brave before adding any video to a playlist forces the browser to cache the file properly, the team said. The workaround does not restore the full offline download experience Apple removed, but it addresses the separate playback-failure bug for videos added through the feed or search.
Brave has not given a timeline for resolving either issue.
Apple’s App Store Rules in Focus
Apple maintains strict rules over what iOS apps can do with third-party content, particularly around media streaming and downloads. Developers who fall outside those boundaries face suspension or removal from the App Store — the only way to distribute apps natively on iPhone.
Brave, which markets itself on user privacy and independence from Big Tech platforms, built its iOS Playlist feature as a direct challenge to both YouTube’s monetization model and Apple’s Safari browser dominance.
