YouTube Website Not Loading or Working? Here’s The Fix!

So you’ve come home from a long day at work and found out that the YouTube website is not working? 

YouTube is home to the most significant content creators like Pewdiepie, Vlad and Niki, LinusTechTips, and more. Aside from news and information, there is a lot of entertaining content on YouTube. 

If you rely on it for day to day tasks and entertainment, you might get frustrated if the YouTube website is not working. 

Most of the time, a problem with its servers or scheduled maintenance is the leading cause of this issue. Since YouTube is an online platform, having its servers available all the time is critical for the website to work. 

To help you fix this issue, we’ve listed a few useful methods in resolving the YouTube website that is not working. 

Without further delays, let’s get started!

 

1. Check YouTube’s Servers. 

If nothing happens when you access YouTube’s website, try checking their servers. Their team may be conducting system maintenance, or an unexpected issue occurred. 

To check YouTube’s servers, you can use third-party sites like Downdetector that give out information about the current status of websites and its problems for the past 24 hours.

 

2. Turn Off VPN. 

Do you have a VPN service running on your device? Try turning it off. 

While VPNs work great for privacy and security purposes, they can also cause delays and instability on your network. VPN services work by masking your IP address with a dummy one and filters your data before sending it to website servers. 

This process can make it hard for your device to communicate with YouTube’s servers, which explains why the website won’t load. 

 

3. Try Using PureVPN. 

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4. Clear Your Browser Cache and Cookies. 

Internet browsers use temporary data called caches and cookies to improve their performance. However, this data can accumulate over time and get corrupted. If this happens, your browser would have a hard time loading websites and encounter errors. 

Try clearing your browsing data if the YouTube website is not working. 

  1. First, go to your browser and press CTRL + H on your keyboard to open the History tab. 
  2. After that, click on Clear Browsing Data inside the History tab. This should open a new page on your screen. 
  3. Now, click the checkbox next to ‘Cookies and Other Site Data’ and ‘Cached Images and Files’ to include them in the process. 
  4. Finally, click on Time Range and select All Time before hitting the Clear Data button. 

YouTube website not working

Try loading YouTube’s website afterwards. 

5. Try Another Browser. 

Web browsers use engines to render the contents of a website and display it on our screen. However, each browser doesn’t use the same render engine, which may interpret the codes on a website differently from one another. 

In this case, some websites may work without problems on one browser, but another browser may struggle to load it. 

If the YouTube website is not working on your browser, try using a different browser. 

6. Disable Browser Extensions. 

Some browser extensions can interfere with how websites work and cause them not to load. If you have extensions installed on your browser, try to disable them and see if the YouTube website will load. 

Check out the steps below to guide you on the process. 

  1. First, open your preferred browser and navigate to its settings page. 
  2. After that, click on the Extensions tab to open it. 
  3. Lastly, turn off all browser extensions installed on your system. 

YouTube website not working

7. Check and Reset Your Internet Connection. 

If the YouTube website is not working, your network may be running into problems. Try to run a test using Fast.com to measure its current speed bandwidth. 

YouTube website not working

Restart your router if the test result shows that your network connection is running slow or unstable. Unplug your router’s power chord from the wall outlet for about 10 seconds before plugging it back in. 

YouTube website not working

Once done, run another speed test to check the quality of your connection. If you continue to experience network issues, contact your service provider and report the problem. 

8. Turn Off Hardware Acceleration and Enable Javascript. 

If you see problems on YouTube, you might want to check if hardware acceleration is enabled on your browser. Although turning it on or off has a different effect on every system, you can try turning it off and see if YouTube will work. 

  1. First, open your browser and click on the Options button located at the top right corner of your screen. 
  2. After that, click on Settings
  3. Inside your browser’s settings, click on the Advanced tab and select System
  4. Finally, click the toggle switch next to ‘Use hardware acceleration when available’ to turn it off. 

YouTube website not working


On the other hand, make sure that Javascript is enabled on your browser. YouTube requires Javascript to play videos on the platform. 

  1. On your browser, go to the settings page again. 
  2. Now, scroll down to the Privacy and Security tab and click on Site Settings
  3. Lastly, go to the Content tab and make sure that Javascript is allowed. 

YouTube website not working

Once done, try using YouTube to see if it is now working. 

You can also check our guide in fixing YouTube videos that are loading slow if you experience playback issues on the platform. 

9. Block CDN Addresses. 

Content delivery networks are services used by your device when you watch videos online. Although there’s nothing wrong with it, your ISP might throttle your network when using CDNs, which can cause issues. 

To fix this, block CDN addresses on your device to directly connect with YouTube’s servers. 

  1. First, go to the Start Menu and search for Command Prompt
  2. After that, open CMD with administrative privileges by clicking on Run as Administrator
  3. Now, type the following command on CMD

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

  1. Finally, hit the Enter key on your keyboard. 

YouTube website not working

After blocking CDN addresses, go back to YouTube and see if it is now working. 

This brings us to the end of our guide in fixing the YouTube website that is not working. If you have other questions or concerns, kindly let us know in the comment section below, and we’ll do our best to assist you. 

 If this guide helped you, please share it. 🙂

Author

  • John Sixto

    John is a staff writer at Saint and comes from a SAP ABAP development background. He has a Bachelors in IT and has been writing since 2018, with over 500 posts published. He loves to build PCs and has a deep curiosity in understanding how different components and configurations work. John spends hundreds of hours at a time, researching and testing the software and apps, before he proceeds to write about it. LinkedIn X (Twitter)

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