[Updated] YouTube TV says 'Outside your home area' or asks to verify area? Google responds and shares how to fix this issue

New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…

Original story (published on April 14, 2021) follows:

Several users are now unable to use the YouTube TV app on various TV models and Android TV devices. Upon opening up the app, an ‘Outside your home area’ message pops up which prevents users from proceeding any further.

This error message usually shows up when a change in the location is detected and is actually meant to be a safety measure to prevent hackers from remotely accessing your Google account.

I have a black screen that is saying I am outside your home area and I cannot watch until I return to my home area. I click on the box “I’m in my home area” but then I get a spinning circle telling me that it is waiting for my device. It still will not allow me to watch YouTube TV.
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Hey guys. Can anyone help? My app on my Roku says I’m not in my home area but I am home and I’ve never traveled with it. It worked fine until tonight. The zip code is the right one I’m in and the other family profiles work in the house.
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However, users [1, 2, 3, 4] have specified that they haven’t moved anywhere recently and that the prompt is a false alarm. Also, the issue seems to have begun only recently as most of the complaints have materialized within the last 12 hours or so.

But what’s worse about the matter is that the message refuses to go away even after going through the verification process.

Several others have reported that they’re unable to even initialize the verification process as clicking on the “I’m in my home area” results in an infinite loading spinner telling that it is “Waiting for your device…”.

Judging by some user reports, it appears that YouTube has made some changes to the existing verification method – changes that have seemingly not gone as planned.

Affected devices include Roku, Chromecast with Google TV, Amazon Fire TV Stick, Nvidia Shield, and probably others. This further confirms that the issue is indeed at Google’s end.

Thankfully, YouTube has given out an official solution for the YouTube TV ‘Outside your home area’ issue.

1. Open the YouTube TV app on your smart TV, gaming console, or streaming device
2. Select Profile Icon > Location > Current Playback Area > Update
3. Then on your mobile device, open the YouTube TV app
4. Go to Profile Icon > Location > Current Playback Area > Update
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Do keep in mind though that you may have to repeat the above process a couple of times before the verification actually gets registered.

If the above does not help, then you may also try the following as an alternative:

Jumping in here to clarify – if you’re receiving a message that you’re ‘Outside your home area’ when watching YouTube TV, you can go through 2-factor authentication at tv.youtube.com/verify on your mobile device and verify your location, thus resolving the issue. Hope this helps!
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If neither of the above solutions failed to do the job for you, then your best bet would be to pass feedback for the issue by following these steps.

Or you could just wait as YouTube is already working on a fix, as clear from above. Still, we will continue to track the issue and update its status on our YouTube bug tracker.

Update 1 (May 19)

YouTube TV users are getting “An error occurred, please try again later” notification. What’s appeasing is that support is looking into the matter.

Update 2 (August 17)

As per recent reports, the YouTube TV team has finally fixed the location issues on iOS 15 beta. The latest YouTube TV iOS app update with the fix for the location issues is now available as version 5.32.

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