I opened YouTube to watch one Grammy performance. Two hours later I was watching a backstage interview from 2019.

Quick answer: YouTube Autoplay starts the next video automatically when the current one ends. For ADHD, the last frame of a video is the natural exit: it’s over, so you can close the app. Autoplay pulls in the next video before you reach that moment. To turn it off: open YouTube, tap your profile picture (top-right), go to Settings → Playback, toggle Autoplay next video off. Five taps. Not in Digital Wellbeing.

What’s happening

Stopping things is hard for ADHD for the same reason starting them is: both require executive function — the cognitive effort to initiate a new action. The end of a video solves that. You didn’t decide to stop; the video just ended. That’s a natural exit. Autoplay removes the ending before you can use it.

Grammy season is when this compounds. YouTube’s recommendation engine connects the performance you watched to every adjacent piece of content: interviews, rehearsal footage, previous ceremony appearances. The queue is deep. And you can’t stop because the next one has already started.

How to turn it off

  1. Open YouTube
  2. Tap your profile picture (top-right)
  3. Tap Settings
  4. Tap Playback
  5. Toggle Autoplay next video off

Why it’s buried

It’s in Settings → Playback, where YouTube keeps video quality and resolution controls. Nothing about that label suggests it affects how long you stay in the app. It’s not in Digital Wellbeing, and it’s not in notifications. “Autoplay next video” is a toggle inside a menu that sounds like it’s about picture quality. That’s why nobody finds it.

Turning it off means videos end. The exit point comes back.

The bigger picture

YouTube Autoplay is one of 26 settings in TrueTo’s ADHD configuration. The others include Spotify Canvas, DND scheduling, and WhatsApp Read Receipts — all chosen because they reduce the gap between what your instincts leave on and what your attention can actually sustain. The full list is at /settings-for-adhd.

The Grammys were February 2. The queue is still going.