YouTube has become a platform for everything, both to be informed of the latest news (as long as we inform ourselves through reliable sources), as well as to learn how to do anything that comes to mind by enjoying our favorite music, watching movie or video game trailers in addition to being an important source of tutorials of this type.
But what happens when YouTube doesn't work? Absolutely nothing happens. Man does not live on YouTube alone. Just as some users affirm that Instagram is the social network for those who cannot read, the same is also said about YouTube, so in case YouTube does not work, we can search for information like this, in text format.
The reasons why YouTube does not work can be of all kinds, since they are not only service related, but they vary depending on whether we are accessing from a computer or a mobile device or tablet, it also depends, although to a lesser extent, on the operating system.
Here are the steps to follow to find out what happens when YouTube not working and how to fix it.
Check if servers are working
In YouTube's more than 15 years of operation, this platform has only completely stopped working worldwide on two occasions, one of them in early 2021 and was for about an hour. By this I mean that it is very, very rare that YouTube's servers stop working.
However, it is likely to happen. In order to rule out this option, the first thing we must do is visit the Downdetector website. This web page allows us to see the number of related incidents with the operation of most online platforms, either WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter...
If the number of reports is very high, a graph will be displayed with the indices above normal, thus confirming that servers have stopped working. However, we must look at the rest of the information shared by this website, since the problem can only occur in certain regions, not in the whole world.
Turn off airplane mode
Although it may seem like an absurd solution, it is likely that without realizing it, we have activated airplane mode on our mobile device. If so, none of the applications that require an internet connection will work.
If in addition to YouTube, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram it does not work either, everything seems to indicate that the airplane mode of your smartphone is activated, a mode that shows the icon of an airplane at the top of the screen. In order to disable airplane mode, we must slide the control center from the top of the screen and press the icon represented by an airplane.
If it still doesn't work, let's move on to the next section.
Check our internet connection
If we do not have airplane mode activated, but YouTube still does not work, the first thing to check is that we are connected to a 3G / 4G or 5G network. If so, the type of network to which we are connected will be displayed along with the coverage level of the smarpthone.
If not, we already know what the problem is. To solve this, we must change our location to improve the coverage of our smartphone. If when changing position, the type of network to which we are connected is shown, but we still do not have an internet connection, the solution is through restart the smartphone.
Internet connection on a PC or Mac
If it is Windows (regardless of which version it is), we have to go to the lower right corner of the screen and look for an inverted triangle oriented to the right, a triangle that represents the Wi-Fi connection.
If it is an RJ-45 cable connection, a computer is represented with a cable on the right side in parallel. If both icons are shown with an X, it means that we don't have internet connection.
Si we use a Mac, we must make sure that an inverted triangle is shown in the upper right part of the screen that represents the Wi-Fi connection. If it leaves with an X, it means that we do not have a connection via Wi-Fi.
In both cases, we must check with other devices if we really have an internet connection in our home to rule out that it is a problem with our internet provider. If the internet works without problems on other devices, this problem is solved restarting both the router and the equipment.
Restart device
When restarting the smartphone, it will connect again with the closest telephone tower correctly and we will have internet again to connect to YouTube, Instagram, Facebook ... Sometimes the most absurd solution is the simplest.
In addition, all the applications that were running in the foreground or background will also be closed, so when you run the YouTube application again, this should not present any malfunction, unless the problem is in the system.
Force close the app
If we have an internet connection through our mobile line and through the Wi-Fi connection, the only reason why YouTube does not work and the rest of the applications that they depend on the internet if they do, we can find it in the application itself.
To solve this problem, we must force the application to closeIn this way, when we run the YouTube application again, it will start from scratch, so if it had a functioning problem, it will be solved.
To force close the application, we must access device multituarea (sliding from bottom to top, look for the YouTube application) and slide it up, as if we were going to remove it from the top of the smartphone.
Clear the app cache
If there is still no way for YouTube to work, the next step to take is clear app cache, a cache in most cases is the main problem of operation of many applications, especially in Android, since it is not deleted automatically as if it happens in iOS.
Clear the cache on a computer
Clear YouTube cache on a computer, not possible. The only thing we can do is delete all the cache stored in the browser, which will cause all the web pages that we visit regularly, to take a little longer to load, at least the first time we visit it again once we have deleted the cache.
For clear a browser's cache, we must write in the search box the word "cache" without quotation marks so that the direct access to this option is displayed, available in the browser's configuration options. With this method we will avoid navigating between the configuration options of each browser, since unfortunately they are all different.
Clear cache on Android
To delete the YouTube cache on Android, we must access the YouTube application settings and click on the option Delete data. Within this menu, the option Clear cache along with the space it occupies.
Clear cache on iPhone
iOS, except for a few applications, does not allow you to delete the cache of the applications that are installed, since this operating system takes care of carry out the process automatically, without the user having to intervene at any time.
Update the app
When a serious security flaw is detected in an application, some developers may block the app from working while updating to the new version in which the problem has been fixed.
If our iOS or Android app doesn't work, we should take a look at the App Store and Play Store to check if there is no new update available in the respective app stores.
Update the operating system
If our team has pending to install a system update, we should proceed to install it first, since sometimes, the problem may be precisely in it. If it is not the first time that YouTube stops working, it is possible that by installing the update or updating Google Services, you will be able to find the error that does not let you use the application.
Remove and reinstall the app
When none of the solutions that we have proposed works, the last chance we have to make YouTube work again is through remove and reinstall the app, not without first restarting the device once we have eliminated the application. In this way, all the application files that may be interfering with the operation of the application will be eliminated.
Other solutions
If we cannot find the problem that is affecting the operation of YouTube on our smartphone, the most radical solution is to restore our device from scratch, not without before make a backup, in order to eliminate the rest of each and every one of the applications that we have installed on our mobile device.
Every time a new app is installed, the device registry is modified (as in Windows), so in the long run, it is possible that an application makes a change that affects the operation of a specific application, which in this case would be YouTube.
If we take into account that it never hurts to restore our smartphone in order to eliminate garbage that our smartphone returns to function like the first day, this solution is not very far-fetched, although it requires some downtime on our part, since the process can take us about an hour, not counting the time to reinstall the applications that we usually use.