2022-10-29
YouTube is the largest online video platform, with over 1.5 billion visitors each month. About 400 hours of content is uploaded every minute, and more than a billion hours of video are viewed per day. At some point YouTube stops working and this becomes a big problem for users.
As a general rule, the most up-to-date news on YouTube is accessible at @TeamYouTube, and developers reported on this channel when problems occur.
There's also a useful service for tracking the status of video hosting: downforeveryoneorjustme.com/youtube.com. If YouTube is up and running but the video is not playing, you will receive notifications from this site.
Content :
There are some common problems that may interrupt the service on your devices. The most common problem is that the video does not play. This can be understandably painful, especially for those who regularly use YouTube. Below you will find a number of fixes for Android devices as well as PC (Chrome browser) for the most common problems you may encounter with YouTube.
Methods for Android devices
Method #1: Restart your phone
Many smartphone-related problems are fixed by rebooting the device.In doing so, applications running in the background are closed. Some of them cause system conflicts leading to the crash of the Youtube application.
This is a simple and quick solution that takes only a minute of your time. If you find that YouTube is not working,
- Press and hold the power button on the device.
- Tap the Restart item that appears on the screen.
- After your smartphone reboots, open the YouTube app.
- Check if the problem has been resolved.
Solution #2: Check your internet connection
The reason why videos are not playing on YouTube may be due to connection problems. If you notice that YouTube isn't working, the first thing you must do is check if you're connected to the internet by opening your settings menu - Wi-Fi or cellular.
If you're connected to a network, try searching for something on Google to see if you have access to the internet. In some cases your Wi-Fi connection works but you are still unable to access the Internet for various reasons - router problems, ISP failure.
Step-by-step instructions:
Step 1: Go to your device settings menu.
Step 2: Connect to your Wi-Fi or your carrier network - if you are not already doing so.
Step 3: Open YouTube app and try to play video.
Solution #3: update your operating system
It is possible, though not very likely, that Youtube crashes due to outdated Android version. To fix the bug, open the settings menu on your device, select "System Updates" and download the update (if available). Note that the item "System Update" may be located in the "About Phone" section of the settings menu.
After downloading the update, press the "Install" button, the update will be installed and then rebooted. Then open YouTube and check if the video content is available.
Step-by-step instructions:
Step 1: Open your device settings menu.
Step 2. Find and tap "Software update" - probably in the "About phone" folder.
Step 3: You will download and install the update, if available, by tapping on "Download & Install".
For more details on updating your phone refer to the article.
Method #4: clearing Youtube app cache
The next fix in the list of basic options is to clear YouTube cache and data. The cache stores the app's temporary /files, the data stores all the settings.
Open the settings menu on your device, tap "Apps" and select YouTube. The next step is to select the "Memory" section, which will display the two options we need: Clear Data and Clear Cache. First, clear the cache and make sure the YouTube service is working. If not, go back and clear the data to see if that solves the problem.
Read on: How to clear cache on your phone
Step-by-step instructions:
Step 1: Open your device settings menu.
Step 2. Press "Applications" and select YouTube from the list (for a faster search, you can enter "You").
Step 3: Select "Memory"
Step 4: Successively press the "Clear data" and "Clear cache" buttons.
Step 5: Perform reboot on the device.
Method #5: Update the YouTube mobile app
The last thing to try if YouTube is not working is to update the YouTube app on your device. To check if an update is available, open the Google Play Store app, select "My apps and games" from the menu and check if YouTube is listed as "Update".
If it is, just tap the "Update" button and wait about a minute to wait for the update. After that, launch the YouTube app and check if it works.
Step-by-step instructions:
Step 1. Open the Google Play Store app by clicking on the Play Market icon.
Step 2: Bring up the side menu and click on "My apps and games".
Step 3. Press the "Update" button next to the YouTube application to install the update.
YouTube does not work on your PC (Chrome browser)
Method #1: Updating Chrome
If you cannot watch YouTube videos in the Chrome browser, the first step is to update your browser. It's a simple task: click the icon (three vertical dots) in the upper right corner, select "Help" and select "About Google Chrome Browser". A special page will open and if an update is available, just click on "Install" (or Restart - if the update is already downloaded) and follow the instructions in the browser.
Step-by-step instructions:
Step 1. Click on the icon (three vertical dots) in the upper right corner of the browser.
Step 2. Select "Help" > "About Google Chrome Browser".
Step 3: Click "Install" (or "Restart"). Then follow the instructions provided.
Method 2: Enable JavaScript in your browser
The JavaScript technology is necessary to view YouTube videos. To verify that JavaScript processing is enabled, go to Chrome settings, click on "Privacy and Security" > "Site Settings". After that, click "JavaScript" and enable "Allowed (Recommended)".
After that, go back to the YouTube video page and refresh it.
Step-by-step instructions:
Step 1: Click the icon (three vertical dots) in the upper right corner of your browser and select "Settings".
Step 2: Click "Privacy & Security" > "Site Settings".
Step 3: Set "JavaScript" to "Allowed (Recommended)".
Solution № 3: Check Extensions
There are many useful extensions in Chrome but some of them are harmful to the browser. To find out if extensions are responsible for your YouTube problems, try to play your video in incognito mode.
Incognito mode extensions do not work. So if your Youtube video is being played in anonymous mode, find out which extension you installed around when the problem started and uninstall it. You can do this by clicking the icon (three vertical dots) in the top right corner, selecting "Advanced Tools" and clicking "Extensions". This will open a page where you may disable or remove extensions in use.
Step-by-step instructions:
Step 1: Click on the menu icon (three vertical dots) in the top right corner of your browser.
Step 2: Click "Advanced Tools" > "Extensions".
Step 3: Sequentially disable the extension, to see if this solves the problem.
Solution #4: Clear the cache and cookies
Removing the cache and cookies is one way to recover Youtube in Chrome browser on PC.
Click the icon (three vertical dots) in the top right corner of the browser, select "Advanced Tools" and then select "Remove data about pages viewed". Select the "All Time" range from the drop-down menu and clear the cache by clicking "Delete Data".
Step-by-step instructions:
Step 1: Click the icon (three vertical dots) in the upper right corner of the browser.
Step 2: Click "More Tools" and then "Delete Crawl Data".
Step 3: Select the "All Time" option and click "Delete Data".
See also : Clearing Browser History
So we have covered all the measures that help fix YouTube on Android and in Chrome browser on computer.
We hope these methods help you. There may be more, but the ones described in this post are the most common.
Failed to fix the bug? Let us know about it in the comments.
