My iPhone won’t play YouTube videos: 14 fixes

YouTube is one of the most used online platforms for various purposes. There is no limit to the purposes for which it can be used, be it outsourcing, marketing, earnings, entertainment, etc.

But there were times when your favorite YouTube video didn’t play as usual, especially on iPhone. And you wonder why my iPhone won’t play YouTube videos.

If you are experiencing the same situation, don’t worry. You are in the right place. In this article, you will learn about proven solutions to solve this problem. So, without further ado, let’s get started.

What are the common problems with YouTube on iPhone?

iPhone users have recently noticed an issue with YouTube where their videos are not playing and showing a number of errors. When we discuss fixes, it’s important to understand common issues. They are:

Playback error, click to replay
Black screen
Video unavailable
Video not loading

1. Playback error, click to repeat

This is the most common problem on your YouTube iPhone. You will see a blank screen with a warning “Playback error, click to try again”. There are several fixes you can try for this situation.

Sign out of your Google account and sign in again.
Check for updates on YouTube in the Apple App Store. If yes, install the update immediately.
Try reconnecting to the Wi-Fi network. If possible, switch to mobile data.
Try uninstalling and reinstalling YouTube.

2. Black screen

You may also encounter a black screen when playing YouTube videos on their official website. The main reason for this is the lack of a stable internet connection.

For this, you can try the following fixes.

Check your Internet connection.
Try refreshing the browser in which you opened the site.
Check for web browser updates.
Switch to the YouTube app instead of the website.

3. Video not available

Sometimes you may receive a notification on the screen while playing a YouTube video in a web browser that the video is not available on this device.

For this, you can try the following fixes.

Update your web browser.
Find Settings.
Choose the desktop version.

4. Video won’t load

This issue only occurs if there is a problem with the Internet connection. This may be due to an unstable or weak internet connection. You can try changing your connection from Wi-Fi to mobile data or vice versa. Or you can try reconnecting by turning Wi-Fi off and on again, the same with a mobile data connection.

We have discussed some general issues above. But that doesn’t mean they cover all the reasons why YouTube doesn’t reproduce the video situation. There could be many other reasons behind this. Therefore, we have put together a few of the most useful fixes that will work with any cause leading to the situation.

What should I do if my iPhone won’t play YouTube videos?

Restart your iPhone
Troubleshooting YouTube
Update the YouTube app
Update to the latest version of iOS
Uninstall and reinstall the YouTube app
Turn your Wi-Fi network off and on again
Switch to Cellular Data
Check YouTube Server Status
Turn off your VPN
Reset network settings
Turn off Bluetooth
Clear YouTube/Safari App Cache
DFU Restore your iPhone
Repairing your iPhone

Let’s discuss each of these solutions in detail below.

1. Restart your iPhone

We think that no explanation is needed to try these fixes. Rebooting the iPhone has been responsible for fixing several issues. So why not try in this situation too?

Follow these steps to restart your iPhone X, 11, 12, or 13.

Press and hold the volume button or side button until the power off slider appears on the screen.
Drag the slider to the right. Wait about 30 seconds for your device to turn off. Force a device restart should be used in case your device is frozen or unresponsive.
Press the device’s side button to turn it on. Hold the button until the Apple logo appears on the screen.

To restart iPhone SE (2nd and 3rd generation), 8, 7, or 6, follow these steps.

Press and hold the side button until the power off slider appears on the screen.
Drag the slider to the right. Wait about 30 seconds for your device to turn off. Force a device restart should be used in case your device is frozen or unresponsive.
Press the device’s side button to turn it on. Hold the button until the Apple logo appears on the screen.

To restart iPhone SE (1st generation), 5 or earlier, follow these steps:

Press and hold the top button until the power off slider appears on the screen.
Drag the slider to the right. Wait about 30 seconds for your device to turn off. Force a device restart should be used in case your device is frozen or unresponsive.
Press the device’s top button to turn it on. Hold the button until the Apple logo appears on the screen.

2. Troubleshoot YouTube

After restarting, try troubleshooting if your iPhone still won’t play YouTube videos. If there is something wrong with the app you are using to play YouTube videos; this will interfere with video playback.

If you want to know if the YouTube app is causing the problem, try closing the app and then reopening it after a few seconds. This will give the app a fresh restart in case the app finds it difficult to work properly the first time.

To do this, follow these steps.

Double-click the Home button.
Swipe up on your YouTube app in the app switcher.

If your device does not have a home button:

Open the app.
Swipe up from the bottom of the screen.

These steps will close the YouTube app.

3. Update the YouTube app

Your YouTube app may not have been updated to the latest version. So make sure your app is up to date. These updates make the platform error-free and error-free.

To update the YouTube app, follow these steps:

Open the App Store on your device.
Click on the account icon.
Scroll down to see the updates section.
A blue update button will appear on the screen if any new update is available for the application.

Install the latest update. Check it out now and you won’t complain anymore that my iPhone won’t play YouTube videos.

4. Update to the latest iOS version

If your device is missing the latest iOS update, this may cause an issue with the app. Hence, this might be the reason why YouTube videos are not playing on your iPhone.

You can check for the latest iOS updates by following these steps.

Open “Settings”on your device.
Click on General.
Select Software Update.
Click Download and Install. After that, the latest version of your iOS will be installed.

5. Uninstall and reinstall the YouTube app.

Your YouTube app may have serious software issues. Therefore, we recommend uninstalling and reinstalling it from scratch. This will delete all app data and settings. And it will be reinstalled as a new app, just like you downloaded it for the first time.

Follow the steps below to uninstall the Youtube app.

Press and hold the app icon on the home screen for a second.
The popup menu on your screen will be attached to the app icon.
Click on the “Uninstall Application”option.
Click on Remove app to confirm your action.

Steps to reinstall the YouTube app:

Launch the Apple App Store.
Enter YouTube in the search bar at the bottom of the display.
Click on the “Get”option.
Click on the “Install”button.
The application will be reinstalled after a few seconds or minutes.

6. Turn your Wi-Fi network off and on again.

The problem of YouTube not playing videos also occurs if you have an unstable or slow internet connection over Wi-Fi. You can try to turn it off and back in such a case. This will fix the Wi-Fi bug that was causing the issue.

To do this, follow the steps below.

Launch the Settings app on your iPhone.
Click on WiFi.
Tap the switch next to Wi-Fi to turn it off. It will be off when the switch turns gray.
Wait a few seconds or a minute.
Then press the button again to turn on Wi-Fi. It will turn on when the switch turns green.

Now check if your iPhone plays YouTube videos or not.

7. Switch to Cellular Data

If you’ve tried the Wi-Fi fix above and still won’t play YouTube videos, try switching to a different connection.

For example, you can switch to mobile data.

Turn off Wi-Fi and then connect iPhone to mobile data. After that, check if the videos are playing. If yes, the problem is due to a faulty Wi-Fi connection.

You should try the following fix if your iPhone won’t play YouTube videos over cellular data.

8. Check YouTube Server Status

This should be your immediate fix after doing all the above fixes because there was an incident where the server crashed and resulted in issues like videos not playing on YouTube. Whatever fix you try, it won’t work until the server is up again.

Therefore, you should check the YouTube server status if it is running. Otherwise, if multiple users are experiencing this issue at the same time, it has something to do with the server.

9. Disable VPN

It has been observed that disabling VPN on iPhone solved the issue that my iPhone won’t play YouTube videos. VPNs are important for protecting identity and maintaining online privacy.

If they are configured incorrectly, this can cause problems. Also, chances are they are connected to the internet in a country where YouTube is restricted.

Therefore, you should TURN OFF your VPN to see if it solves the problem. For this, here are the simple steps.

Launch the Settings app on your iPhone.
Click on VPN.
Turn off the VPN by clicking the switch next to the status.
If it shows up as not connected, it means you have turned off your VPN.

After that, if the issue is resolved, the problem is with your VPN and not with the phone or app.

10. Reset network settings

If you try this fix, all VPN, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi settings will be removed from your phone. So keep that in mind. Resetting network settings is useful when it becomes nearly impossible to identify the software problem that caused the problem.

Hence, with this fix, you will erase the network settings on your phone.

But before proceeding, you should write down the passwords of your network, since after the reset they will need to be reconnected.

After that, follow the next steps.

Launch the settings app on your phone.
Click on General.
Click Transfer or Reset iPhone.
Click Reset.
Click Reset Network.
Enter password.
Confirm your action by clicking Reset.

Once the reset is complete, your iPhone will restart.

11. Turn off Bluetooth

We’ve discussed disabling the Wi-Fi fix, but that’s not all. It would be helpful if you also tried disabling Bluetooth, as that might solve your problem.

For this, the following steps are performed.

Open the Control Center by swiping up from the bottom of the screen.
Look for the Bluetooth icon.
Click on it to turn it off.

Check if the issue is resolved. If not, you can turn Bluetooth back on by following the same steps.

12. Clear YouTube/Safari app cache.

The presence of caches leads to several issues on your phone, due to which YouTube videos may not play as well. Therefore, you should clear YouTube app on iPhone or Safari cache.

To clear the Safari cache, follow these steps.

Go to Settings.
Click on Safari.
Click “Clear History and Website Data”.
After that, your data, cache and cookies will be deleted.

To clear the YouTube cache, follow these steps.

Open the YouTube app on your device.
At the top left of the screen, tap the Menu option.
Click on the gear icon to open settings.
You can select options under “Privacy”to delete data in accordance with your consent.

13. DFU Restore your iPhone

Restoring DFU will remove the problematic code in the software that may be causing the problem. The code will be updated to its original state when you first purchase the phone.

Follow the steps below to DFU restore your iPhone.

For iPhone SE, 6s or older, follow these steps.

Connect your iPhone to your computer with a USB cable.
If you have a PC or Mac running Mojave 10.14, open iTunes. If you have a Mac with Catalina 10.15 or later, open Finder.
Press and hold both the Home and Power buttons.
After 8 seconds, keep pressing the Home button but release the Power button.
Release the Home button when your iPhone appears in iTunes or Finder.
If you successfully entered DFU mode, your phone screen will be black in the opposite scenario. Try again from the first step.
Then use Finder or iTunes to restore your iPhone.

For iPhone 7 or 7 Plus, follow these steps.

Connect your iPhone to your computer with a USB cable.
Open iTunes if you have a PC or Mac running Mojave 10.14. Open Finder if you have a Mac with Catalina 10.15 or later.
Press and hold both power and volume down buttons.
After 8 seconds, keep pressing the Volume Down button but release the Power button.
When your phone appears in iTunes or Finder, release the volume down button.
If you successfully entered DFU mode, your phone screen will be black in the opposite scenario. Try again from the first step.
Then use Finder or iTunes to restore your phone.

For iPhone 8 or later, follow these steps.

Connect your phone to your computer using the charging cable.
If you have a PC or Mac macOS 10.14, open iTunes, and if you have Mac macOS 10.15 or later, launch the Finder.
Press and release the volume up button.
Press and release the volume down button.
Press and hold the side button until the screen goes black.
After that, press and hold the volume down and side buttons.
Hold both for 5 seconds. Then release the side button but keep holding the volume down button.
Hold down the volume down button until your phone shows up in Finder or iTunes.
Use Finder or iTunes to restore your phone.

You shouldn’t complain about my iPhone not playing YouTube videos.

14. Repair your iPhone

Try this fix only if you are willing to spend a lot of money on a phone. iPhone can be repaired at an online mail repair service or at an Apple Store. But out-of-warranty repairs are expensive, while the above fixes will cost you next to nothing.

But if there is no other option than this fix, you can try to repair your iPhone.

With Apple Mail-in:

Visit the Apple Support website.
Or you can dial 1-800-692-7753

At the Genius Bar in the Apple Store:

Make an appointment at the Genius Bar before shopping. Otherwise, you can wait for hours for your turn.
Stop by Genius Bar to check your appointment.
A few repairs can be done on the spot if you’re under warranty, and if not, the genius will tell you the cost of the repair.

Hence, we have mentioned all possible fixes that can be done to solve the problem. We always advise you to use the latest fix if nothing works for you. Otherwise, you can ignore it.

Conclusion

So we hope you now have an answer to your question about why my iPhone won’t play YouTube videos. We understand the gravity of this situation. YouTube is involved in several important activities that are part of our daily lives. And when these situations arise, it can be quite annoying.

Before taking your phone to a service center, you should try some of the above fixes as they work more than 90% of the time.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

My iPhone won’t play YouTube videos. Why is it so?

There can be many reasons why your iPhone won’t play YouTube videos. For example, there may be problems with the Internet connection, the application is not updated, etc.

What is DFU Recovery on iPhone?

DFU is responsible for removing all codes leading to the management of your iPhone, hardware and software. It erases everything on the device and restores it to its original state.

What are the common problems with YouTube on iPhone?

Below are some common problems with YouTube on iPhone. – Playback error, click to try again – Black screen – Video not available – Video not loading To find out how to fix them, see the sections above.

How to clear YouTube cache on iOS?

Follow these steps to clear the YouTube cache on iOS.– Open the app on your device. – In the upper left corner of the screen, tap the Menu option. – Tap the gear icon to open settings. – You can select options under “Privacy”to delete data in accordance with your consent.