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YouTube Not Working? Here’s How To Fix It

YouTube is currently the largest online video-sharing platform, logging in over two billion monthly visitors per month from across the globe. The service counts more than a billion hours of watch-time every day, with an average of 400 hours of videos uploaded each minute.
Even with such astronomical numbers, YouTube manages to stay online pretty much all the time. That said, the service also has a history of massive outages, lasting several minutes to roughly an hour.
Google’s Workspace Status Dashboard doesn’t show YouTube’s status, so it can sometimes be difficult to find out whether the problem is on your end. We generally rely on downforeveryoneorjustme.com/youtube to check if the service is down or not.
If YouTube is up and running globally, but you are unable to access the library or play any videos, it’s most likely a problem on your end. There are a few things that can cause interruptions like this, but you can also get around them quickly.
In this guide, we will walk you through some of the issues users commonly encounter with YouTube and show you how to fix them on Android and PCs (Google Chrome).

How to fix YouTube not working on Android

If you are facing problems trying to access YouTube and watch videos on your Android device, read on through the fixes below and try them out.

Reboot your Android device

Typically, a simple reboot can fix many problems on Android devices. It closes all the apps and services running in the background, even those that might be the culprit behind the issues you are having with YouTube.
Rebooting your Android phone or tablet only takes a minute or so. All you have to do is press and hold the power button on your device, then tap the Restart option in the power menu.
Once it finishes rebooting to Android, connect your device to the internet, and launch the YouTube app to verify if the issue has been resolved.

Check your network connection

Network connection issues can also result in YouTube videos buffer or not play at all. In that case, you should go to your device’s network settings to check whether it’s connected to the internet over Wi-Fi or cellular. On stock Android, the options are found in Settings > Network & internet
If you are not connected, there’s the problem. But if you are connected, try loading a webpage from the web browser on your Android device to see whether you even have internet access.
Sometimes, you might be connected to a Wi-Fi or mobile network, but it won’t give you internet access due to problems with your internet service provider, network router, or an expired internet plan.
In case you can make Google searches, visit social media services, and do pretty much everything else except accessing YouTube, your network connection isn’t the root of this problem.

Update the YouTube app

Although the chances are pretty small, an outdated version of the YouTube app can limit your access to the video library and cause video playback errors. To make sure it’s updated to the latest version, follow the below steps.

  1. First, launch Play Store from your app drawer.
  2. Tap your profile icon next to the search bar above the app window or the three-lined burger () button.
  3. Select My apps & games in the following menu that appears on the screen.
  4. If you see an update pending for the YouTube app, tap the Update button next to it. The update process should take a minute or so to complete.

After you follow the steps, open the YouTube app to see if everything works correctly now.

Clear the YouTube app’s cache and data

Assuming you have the latest YouTube app version installed on your Android device and it still doesn’t work, try clearing the app’s cache and data. Clearing cache only gets rid of temporary files that the YouTube app stores, whereas clearing app data wipes everything, including offline videos and settings.

  1. First, open the Settings app on your Android phone or tablet.
  2. Head over to the Apps & notifications menu and select YouTube under the “Recently opened apps” section.
  3. On the App info page, find and tap the Store & cache option.
  4. After that, tap Clear storage (Clear data) or Clear cache, depending on what you’d like to do.

Once you clear the app cache/data, check whether YouTube works as intended on your phone or tablet. It’s worth mentioning that the steps may vary based on the Android device you use.

Verify your date and time settings

Believe it or not, some of the core functions and apps on Android rely on the system date and time. If none of the above fixes work out, maybe consider checking out your device’s date and time settings once. It could be an incorrect value causing YouTube’s servers to not sync up with the app properly.
Simply head over to Settings > System > Date & time and enable the toggle switches next to the “Use network-provided time” and “Use network-provided time zone” options. Again, the process varies depending on the Android device manufacturer.

How to fix YouTube not working on PC (Google Chrome)

If you can’t watch YouTube videos in the Chrome browser on your PC, we recommend checking out the following fixes:

Update Google Chrome

In case you still have an older version of Chrome installed on your computer, consider updating it to get access to YouTube again. It’s just a matter of a few steps:

  1. Click the three-dot kebab () icon on the far-right corner of the navigation bar.
  2. Choose Help at the bottom of the drop-down menu, followed by selecting the “About Google Chrome” option.
  3. When the “About Chrome” page opens up, your browser will automatically check for the latest update and download it. After that, all you need to do is hit the Relaunch button.

Check your internet connection

As we already described earlier in this guide, your network connection might be the actual problem. Hence, we recommend visiting other websites and making Google searches to check whether they work.
If they don’t, verify your Wi-Fi or Ethernet settings and ensure everything is working as it should be. Otherwise, try restarting your home router or ask your ISP for additional assistance.

Enable JavaScript

You must have JavaScript enabled on the Chrome browser to watch YouTube videos. If you face video playback errors, perform the following steps:

  1. Open Chrome’s action () menu and go to the Settings page.
  2. Click Privacy and security on the left pane, then expand the Site Settings options.
  3. Scroll down to the “Content” section at the bottom and select JavaScript.
  4. Make sure the toggle switch is turned on, and it says “Always (recommended).”

Once you finish the steps, relaunch the Chrome browser and visit youtube.com to check if it’s working again.

Clear cache and cookies

If you can access YouTube from an incognito tab but not from a regular window, it could be the stored cache and cookies causing the issue. Here’s how to clean them:

  1. First, go to Chrome’s Settings page from the action menu.
  2. Scroll down to the “Privacy and Security” section and select Site Settings.
  3. Now click View permissions and data stored across sites under the “Recent activity” section.
  4. Search for youtube.com in the list of websites and click the three-dot action () icon next to it.
  5. Select Clear data in the drop-down box, then hit the Clear button.

That’s it! You can now try visiting YouTube from a new browser tab to check if you can access the library and watch videos again.

Final words

These are the fixes you should try when having trouble accessing YouTube on an Android device or Chrome web browser. If you have any other solutions in mind, let us know in the comments so we can add them to this guide.

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