Cannot Watch Videos on YouTube? Here’s The Fix

So, you just got home from work and want to watch a couple of videos to relax, but found out that you cannot watch videos on YouTube? 

Through the years, YouTube has been one of the primary sources of videos online. For entertainment or information purposes, there is a good chance that YouTube has it for you. Even the most prominent news outlets around the globe already have a YouTube account. 

If you love watching YouTube videos, it can be frustrating if the platform doesn’t work, and you have issues watching videos. 

Most of the time, an issue with your network connection is the primary cause of this problem, but it may also be server related. 

To help you address the issue, we’ve decided to make a simple guide on what you should do if you cannot watch videos on YouTube. 

Let’s get started!

• 1. Check YouTube’s Servers.
• 2. Turn Off VPN.
• 3. Change Your Region Manually.
• 4. Try Using PureVPN.
• 5. Lower the Playback Quality.
• 6. Check for Updates.
• 7. Clear Your Browser Cache and Cookies.
• 8. Disable Browser Extensions or Try Another Browser.
• 9. Check and Reset Your Internet.
• 10. Block CDN IP Addresses.

1. Check YouTube’s Servers. 

To keep their services running correctly, YouTube may conduct maintenance on their servers. If you cannot watch videos on YouTube, check their servers’ status to see if it is currently offline. 

You can use third-party websites like Downdetector to view the current state of YouTube’s servers and as well as the issues it has encountered for the last 24 hours. 

If YouTube’s servers are down, the best thing that you can do for now is to wait until they get everything sorted on their end. However, you can still try the other methods below to help alleviate the situation. 

2. Turn Off VPN.

If you are running VPN services on your device, consider turning them off if you encounter problems on YouTube. 

To protect your data, VPNs masks your actual IP address with a dummy one and redirects your traffic to one of their servers before passing it to YouTube’s servers. Although VPNs work well for providing security on your home network, it can also cause instability and delays. 

To fix the issue, disable your VPN first and try to watch videos on YouTube again. 

3. Change Your Region Manually. 

The servers dedicated to your region could be having issues at the moment, which is why you cannot watch videos on YouTube. To fix this, you can try connecting to a different region for the meantime. 

To do this, follow the steps below to guide you on the process. 

1. First, open YouTube on your browser and navigate to a video that you want to play. 
2. After that, click on the URL box of your browser. 
3. Finally, change ‘www’ to ‘ca’ and hit Enter to continue. 

After the page has reloaded, try playing the YouTube video again. 

4. Try Using PureVPN. 

 

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5. Lower the Playback Quality. 

If you cannot watch YouTube videos, it can be a sign that your network is struggling to handle the video’s bandwidth requirement. To fix this, try to lower the playback quality on YouTube to reduce the load. 

On mobile devices, follow the steps below to change the playback quality on YouTube. 

1. First, open YouTube from your home screen and navigate to the video that you wish to play. 
2. After that, tap on the More button and select Quality. 
3. Lastly, select 720p or lower from the selection menu. 

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If you are on a browser, you can change the playback quality on YouTube by doing the following: 

1. On your browser, go to YouTube and click on a video that you want to watch. 
2. Now, click on the Gear icon from the video controls tab. 
3. Finally, click on Quality and change the resolution to 720p or lower. 

Once done, try to play the video again on your device. 

6. Check for Updates. 

In some cases, the problem may lie in the version of YouTube installed on your device. Like any applications, the YouTube app can also suffer from random glitches and bugs, which can be addressed with an update. 

On Android, see the steps below to update the YouTube app on your device. 

1. First, open Google Play Store and access the side drawer by tapping the Menu icon inside the search bar. 
2. After that, tap on My Apps & Games, and the Play Store will automatically check for available updates. 
3. If available, tap on the Update button to install the latest version of YouTube. 

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If you are using an iOS device, check out the steps below to update YouTube. 

1. On your home screen, locate the App Store and open it.
2. Next, tap the Updates tab from the bottom navigation bar to check for updates. 
3. Finally, tap on Update if the App Store detected an update for YouTube. 

After updating YouTube, go back to the video you are trying to watch and see if it will now play. 

7. Clear Your Browser Cache. 

Browser cache is temporary data stored on your device locally to cut down loading times of websites. Although it boosts your browser’s performance, it can also cause your browser problems if it got corrupted during run time. 

Thankfully, this can be fixed by simply clearing your browser cache. Check out the steps below to guide you on the process. 

1. First, fire up the browser on your computer and navigate to its History tab. 
2. Inside the History tab, click on Clear Browsing Data from the side menu, opening a new tab. 
3. After that, click on the checkbox next to ‘Cached Images and Files’ and ‘Cookies and Other Site Data’. 
4. Finally, change the target Time Range to All Time and hit the Clear Data button. 

Once done, go back to YouTube and try to watch a few videos. 

8. Disable Browser Extensions or Try Another Browser. 

If you use extensions that enhance video quality on your browser, try to turn them off. While browser extensions bring extra features, it can also disrupt the flow of some websites like YouTube. 

If you cannot watch videos on YouTube, disable your browser first and see if the problem goes away. 

1. First, open your default browser and navigate to its settings page. 
2. Now, open the Extensions tab from your browser’s settings. 
3. Lastly, turn off your extensions that are related to video playback. 

On the other hand, you can also try using a different browser. Your current browser may be having issues at the moment. Preferably, try using browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Opera, which have engines that most web developers support. 

9. Check and Reset Your Internet. 

A slow internet connection could also be the reason why you cannot watch videos on YouTube. To check your network’s status, try to run a speed test using Fast.com to measure its bandwidth. 

If your connection is indeed the problem, try to re-establish the link with your service provider’s servers by giving your router a restart. Find the power cable of your router and unplug it for about 10 seconds. Now, plug back in the power cable on your router to restart it. 

After the restart, run another test to confirm if your network is now running correctly. If you continue to suffer from network-related issues, contact your ISP immediately and let them know about the issue on their service. 

10. Block CDN IP Addresses. 

CDN or Content Delivery Networks are services that are used when you stream videos online. Although there is nothing wrong with it, your ISP may throttle your connection when using these services and cause videos not to load or buffer. 

To fix this, try to block CDN IP addresses from your system to connect directly with YouTube’s servers when watching videos. 

1. On your computer, click on the Start Menu and search for Command Prompt. 
2. Now, click on Run as Administrator to open CMD as an admin. 
3. After that, enter the following commands on the command line and hit Enter. 

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name=”YouTubeTweak” dir=in action=block remoteip=173.194.55.0/24,206.111.0.0/16 enable=yes

4. Finally, close the Command Prompt and restart your system. 

Once done, go back to YouTube and try watching videos. 

This ends our guide on what to do if you cannot watch videos on YouTube. If you know other ways to address this matter, kindly share them in the comment section below. We’d be glad to give credit to anyone who can provide a helpful solution to this issue once this article gets updated. 

 If this guide helped you, please share it. 🙂