Have you ever tried watching YouTube videos and found the loading icon keeps spinning or the video is completely blank?
What are the reasons YouTube is down? In this article, we’ll take a look at over 15 things you can try when you find YouTube just isn’t working. At least one of these tips should solve your problem.
Is YouTube down?
If you can’t even navigate to YouTube, the problem might be with the site itself.
This is always the first thing you should check. Because if there is a problem with YouTube, it will most likely affect many thousands of users around the world. It is best to check this on two sites: Downdetector or Outage.Report
On Downdetector, you will see a graph showing the number of users who have had problems with YouTube in the last 24 hours. There is also a problem with the Youtube button that you can use to report your problem.
Outage.Report displays a world map with a heatmap showing which regions of the world have the most problems with the site.
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Is YouTube Having Technical Issues?
The next thing to check is, even if you have access to YouTube, are there internal technical issues on the site? This happens more often than people think.
Some problems that may be internal technical problems:
- Some buttons do not work.
- Strange menu behavior.
- Video control buttons are not working properly.
- White or black video when the play button is pressed.
The Youtube help page is where you can find the specific issue you are experiencing.
You may find that other users have had the same problems in the past, and you may find out about solutions in the community.
You may also find that the problem is an internal YouTube technical glitch and all you have to do is wait.
YouTube ads causing the problem?
Another common problem that can occur when trying to play a YouTube video is that the video won’t play. Or it will play after several tries and then stop playing again.
Before trying to fix any of the steps below, it’s a good idea to make sure the video ads aren’t causing the problem. To check if this is the case, select the link to the channel page that contains the entire video playlist, including the one you cannot play.
This issue can occur if your Google account is configured to block YouTube ads. To test if this is the case, create a new test Google account and see if it plays the video normally. If so, most likely it is.
To fix this YouTube not working issue:
- Open Google.com in your browser and make sure you are signed in to the same Google account that you use on YouTube.
- Click the Google profile icon in the upper right corner and select “Manage Google Account”.
- Select Data & Personalization from the menu on the left.
- Scroll down to “Personalize Ads” and select “Go to” ad settings.
- Make sure the ad personalization switch is turned on.
If this setting is disabled, it may affect the ability to play some YouTube videos with ads. Enabling may fix this problem.
Is it a private video?
If you’re trying to watch a private video, make sure you are invited to watch before you can play it.
Make sure the person who created the private video knows how to change the privacy settings of the video.
To be able to watch the private videos that you have been invited to watch:
- You need to have your own YouTube account and sign in to it.
- If you have multiple YouTube Accounts, make sure you are signed in to the account that shared the video.
- You will need a direct link to your personal video when it is shared with you.
Update YouTube app on mobile devices
If YouTube videos are not showing on your mobile, you may need to update the YouTube app. This is because some updates may break older versions of YouTube on mobile devices where the app has not yet been updated.
Updating the app can fix these problems.
To do this on Android:
- Open the Google Play Store app.
- Tap the menu icon and select My Apps & Games.
- Click Refresh to the right of the YouTube app.
To update the YouTube app on iOS devices:
- Open the App Store app on your phone.
- At the bottom of the screen, select Updates.
- Next to the YouTube logo in the list, select Update to update the application.
After updating the YouTube app, restart your mobile device. Then open the app again and try watching the YouTube video again.
Make sure the browser is not causing problems
If you’re using Chrome to watch YouTube videos, there are a number of Chrome settings that might cause YouTube to stop working.
Try all of the following fixes in your Chrome browser to resolve this issue.
Clear cookies and cache
Clearing all cookies and cache in Chrome often fixes multiple YouTube problems.
To do this:
- Click the three dots in the upper right corner of the Chrome browser to open the menu.
- Select More Tools from the menu.
- Select Clear Browsing Data.
- Make sure Cookies and other site data and cached images and files are selected in the Clear Browsing Data window and select Clear Data.
- Click the three dots in the upper right corner of the Chrome browser to open the menu.
- Select Help and select About Google Chrome.
- On the About Chrome page, Google will check if you have the latest version. If you don’t, the update will be done automatically.
- Enter chrome: // settings / system in the browser URL field.
- Select “Open your computer’s proxy settings.”
- In the proxy settings window, make sure that Use a proxy server in the Manual proxy settings section is set to Off and the Auto detect settings in the Automatic proxy settings section is set to On. “.
- Select the three dots in the upper right corner of the Chrome browser and select “Settings”.
- Scroll down to the Privacy & Security section and select Site Settings.
- Scroll down to JavaScript.
- If the status is not currently Allowed, select it and enable the radio button to the right of Allowed.
- On Windows or Mac, you can open Command Prompt (Windows) or Terminal (Mac), type ping google.com and press Enter. If you see a response with IP address and time in milliseconds, your internet connection is fine.
- Try opening your browser and visiting another website, such as Google.com or Facebook.com. If you can load the web page and follow the links normally, your internet connection is fine.
- Click the Start menu, type Run, and select the Run application.
- Type devmgmt.msc and press Enter.
- In Device Manager, expand Display Adapters.
- Right-click the graphics card and select Update Driver.
- Select “Search Automatically” And Windows will search the Internet for the latest drivers and install them automatically.
- Enter chrome: // settings / system in the browser URL field.
- Uncheck the toggle on the right or Use hardware acceleration if available.
- Select Restart to restart Chrome.
- Right-click the time and date on the Windows taskbar.
- Select “Set Date / Time”.
- In the Date and Time window, set the Automatically Set Time switch to On.
- Also set the Automatically Set Time Zone switch to On.
- Open System Preferences.
- Select Date & Time.
- Under Time Zone, select Automatically Set Time Zone Using Current Location
- Click the Start menu, type Run, and select the Run application.
- Type appwiz.cpl and press Enter.
- Select the Installed When heading to sort applications in the order of the most recently installed.
- Select any applications you have installed that may be causing problems and select “Uninstall” at the top to uninstall this application.
- Open Chrome, type chrome: // settings / cleanup in the browser URL field and press Enter.
- In this window, click the “Find” button to have Chrome scan for malicious applications and remove them.
Update Chrome
Sometimes, due to the latest Chrome updates, there may be problems playing YouTube videos in older versions of Chrome. You can fix this problem by updating your version of Chrome to the latest version.
To do this:
Check proxy settings
Sometimes, malicious applications or browser extensions can update your proxy settings and cause problems using YouTube.
To revert to the default Chrome proxy settings:
If you are using a browser on a company network that uses manual proxy settings, contact your IT department to find out what it is and get help getting it back to the correct settings.
Enable Javascript
For YouTube to function properly, Javascript must be enabled in your Chrome browser
To do this:
Disable ad blocking and use a different browser
Ad blockers usually do not cause problems on YouTube, but depending on which ad blocker you are using and what settings you have enabled in the ad blocker, it is worth trying to disable it to make sure the problem does not occur.
Apart from ad blockers, other plugins like Disconnect, Privacy Badger, ScriptSafe, etc. may block certain elements on YouTube that may interfere with video playback.
Finally, if you use a browser like Brave, it has very strict privacy features by default that can cause problems with YouTube. Try a different browser and see if that solves the problem. If so, try disabling all add-ons and any browser privacy features.
Check your internet connection
It seems obvious, but many people do not realize that YouTube is down because they have lost their internet connection.
If you have a bad internet connection, you need to troubleshoot your internet connection before you can test YouTube again.
A couple of quick fixes that can get your internet working properly again is to clear your DNS settings and reset your network settings
Graphics Driver Update
If you see a black, white, or green screen when you play YouTube videos, the problem might be with your graphics driver.
To quickly fix this, make sure you have the latest driver for your graphics card installed.
After updating the drivers, restart your computer.
Disable hardware acceleration
For the best video quality when watching YouTube, enabling hardware acceleration is a good option. However, on older computers, this can cause performance issues.
To see if this is the problem, try disabling hardware acceleration.
Time, Date, and Region Sync
Not many people think about one weird behavior that happens when your computer has the wrong time zone. Doing so can cause YouTube videos to not work properly and the download icon may be displayed permanently.
You can quickly check this setting to make sure it isn’t causing the problem.
Mac:
Reboot the system with your time and time zone so that the system updates automatically.
Remove Conflicting Applications
Sometimes, malicious applications that you recently installed can cause problems with YouTube videos. Often after uninstalling these apps, the YouTube issue doesn’t work.
You can check for recently installed apps and uninstall them.
Also let Chrome search and remove all malware on your system.
To do this:
The scan only takes a few minutes, but it is worth doing to make sure your system is free of malware that could cause conflicts with YouTube video playback.
Other fixes when YouTube not working
Otherwise, the viewing of the YouTube video you are trying to watch may be restricted in your area.
A good workaround is to try using a VPN service to access the YouTube video you want to watch. This tricks YouTube into thinking you are connecting from another country, which could allow you to watch the video.
Another fix that has worked for different people is to make sure you have the latest Windows updates installed on your system. We recommend that you turn on automatic updates so that you don’t have problems watching YouTube videos.
Hopefully one of these fixes solved the issue you were experiencing with YouTube videos not working. Please let us know which fix worked for you, or if you still have issues, in the comment section below.
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