diff --git a/packages/playwright/src/matchers/toMatchAriaSnapshot.ts b/packages/playwright/src/matchers/toMatchAriaSnapshot.ts
index 0d862e8ff8..c187f155fd 100644
--- a/packages/playwright/src/matchers/toMatchAriaSnapshot.ts
+++ b/packages/playwright/src/matchers/toMatchAriaSnapshot.ts
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ import { escapeTemplateString, isString, sanitizeForFilePath } from 'playwright-
 
 import {  kNoElementsFoundError, matcherHint } from './matcherHint';
 import { EXPECTED_COLOR } from '../common/expectBundle';
-import { callLogText, sanitizeFilePathBeforeExtension, trimLongString } from '../util';
+import { callLogText, fileExistsAsync, sanitizeFilePathBeforeExtension, trimLongString } from '../util';
 import { printReceivedStringContainExpectedSubstring } from './expect';
 import { currentTestInfo } from '../common/globals';
 
@@ -79,6 +79,13 @@ export async function toMatchAriaSnapshot(
       }
       const fullTitleWithoutSpec = [...testInfo.titlePath.slice(1), ++snapshotNames.anonymousSnapshotIndex].join(' ');
       expectedPath = testInfo._resolveSnapshotPath(pathTemplate, defaultTemplate, [sanitizeForFilePath(trimLongString(fullTitleWithoutSpec)) + '.snapshot.yml']);
+      // in 1.51, we changed the default template to use .snapshot.yml extension
+      // for backwards compatibility, we check for the legacy .yml extension
+      if (!(await fileExistsAsync(expectedPath))) {
+        const legacyPath = testInfo._resolveSnapshotPath(pathTemplate, defaultTemplate, [sanitizeForFilePath(trimLongString(fullTitleWithoutSpec)) + '.yml']);
+        if (await fileExistsAsync(legacyPath))
+          expectedPath = legacyPath;
+      }
     }
     expected = await fs.promises.readFile(expectedPath, 'utf8').catch(() => '');
     timeout = expectedParam?.timeout ?? this.timeout;
diff --git a/packages/playwright/src/util.ts b/packages/playwright/src/util.ts
index 317465e49d..223b37f034 100644
--- a/packages/playwright/src/util.ts
+++ b/packages/playwright/src/util.ts
@@ -203,9 +203,10 @@ export function trimLongString(s: string, length = 100) {
 function findNthFromEnd(string: string, searchString: string, n: number) {
   let i = string.length;
   while (n--) {
-    i = string.lastIndexOf(searchString, i - 1);
-    if (i === -1)
+    const pos = string.lastIndexOf(searchString, i - 1);
+    if (pos === -1)
       break;
+    i = pos;
   }
   return i;
 }
@@ -219,6 +220,7 @@ function multiExtname(filePath: string, maximum = 2): string {
 export function parsePathMultiExt(filePath: string, maximum = 2) {
   const startOfExtension = findNthFromEnd(filePath, '.', maximum);
   const result = path.parse(filePath.substring(0, startOfExtension) + '.ext');
+  result.base = filePath.substring(0, startOfExtension);
   result.ext = filePath.substring(startOfExtension);
   return result;
 }
@@ -414,6 +416,15 @@ function fileExists(resolved: string) {
   return fs.statSync(resolved, { throwIfNoEntry: false })?.isFile();
 }
 
+export async function fileExistsAsync(resolved: string) {
+  try {
+    const stat = await fs.promises.stat(resolved);
+    return stat.isFile();
+  } catch {
+    return false;
+  }
+}
+
 function dirExists(resolved: string) {
   return fs.statSync(resolved, { throwIfNoEntry: false })?.isDirectory();
 }
diff --git a/tests/playwright-test/aria-snapshot-file.spec.ts b/tests/playwright-test/aria-snapshot-file.spec.ts
index a8fe9fc442..38d3422f1f 100644
--- a/tests/playwright-test/aria-snapshot-file.spec.ts
+++ b/tests/playwright-test/aria-snapshot-file.spec.ts
@@ -130,6 +130,24 @@ test('should generate snapshot name', async ({ runInlineTest }, testInfo) => {
   expect(snapshot2).toBe('- heading "hello world 2" [level=1]');
 });
 
+test('backwads compat with .yml extension', async ({ runInlineTest }) => {
+  const result = await runInlineTest({
+    'a.spec.ts-snapshots/test-1.yml': `
+      - heading "hello old world"
+    `,
+    'a.spec.ts': `
+      import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test';
+      test('test', async ({ page }) => {
+        await page.setContent(\`<h1>hello new world</h1>\`);
+        await expect(page.locator('body')).toMatchAriaSnapshot();
+      });
+    `
+  }, { 'update-snapshots': 'changed' });
+
+  expect(result.exitCode).toBe(0);
+  expect(result.output).toContain(`A snapshot is generated at a.spec.ts-snapshots${path.sep}test-1.yml.`);
+});
+
 for (const updateSnapshots of ['all', 'changed', 'missing', 'none']) {
   test(`should update snapshot with the update-snapshots=${updateSnapshots} (config)`, async ({ runInlineTest }, testInfo) => {
     const result = await runInlineTest({