How to Fix the YouTube Not Working in Chrome browser

YouTube is a significant source of entertainment, knowledge, and skill enhancement. It caters to users’ needs globally with a wide variety of content. However, you may experience occasional hiccups where YouTube fails to function as expected.

Many users have highlighted online that YouTube videos can struggle to load or play on Chrome. The videos either load too slowly or they don’t load at all.

Addressing this issue is crucial to enjoying a smooth YouTube browsing experience. If you’ve encountered this problem frequently, we have some troubleshooting tips that can help you restore normalcy.

Everyone knows that a seamless online streaming experience depends highly on YouTube videos loading correctly. If this isn’t happening and Chrome encounters loading issues, follow these troubleshooting steps:

Restart the Browser

The first course of action is to ensure your internet connection functions as it should. You can verify this by opening another app or a different website to see if it loads correctly.

If the problem seems to persist exclusively with YouTube on Chrome browser, then:

1. Close all the open tabs in Chrome.
2. Quit the Chrome app, ensuring it’s not running in the background.
3. Reopen Chrome and try to play the YouTube video again.

This action can often refresh the browser and fix minor loading or playback issues.

You can use the Task Manager on Windows OS and Force Quit on macOS to kill the Chrome running process.

Update Chrome browser

An outdated version of Chrome can sometimes cause problems with YouTube videos. Here’s how to check for updates:

1. Launch the Google Chrome browser on your computer.
2. Hit on More  for options and select Settings from the list. It will open the Chrome Settings page.
3. Switch to the About Chrome tab on the Settings page.
4. Google Chrome should automatically start looking for the latest updates.
   

Chrome will check for updates and automatically download and install the latest version if available. You may need to relaunch the browser to make for successful updates and removal of old browser files. You can check if YouTube is working after the browser update.

Clear Browsing Data

Over time, your browser accumulates cache and cookies, potentially hindering the smooth loading of YouTube videos. Here’s how you can clear cookies and cache data:

1. Open Chrome browser on your computer.
2. Click on the More for menu options and hover on the More Tools menu.
3. Select the Clear Browsing Data menu from the list. It will open the Clear browsing data settings window.
4. Choose the Time Range from the drop-down and select the checkboxes for the ‘Cookies and other site data‘ and ‘Cached images and files‘ options.
5. Finally, hit the Clear Data command button.

Once done, the browser will remove all accumulated cache and cookies. This might help in fixing the YouTube loading issue on Chrome.

Note: Clearing the cache and cookies will log you out of most websites. Make sure you have your login credentials handy.

Disable Extensions

Extensions can enhance your browsing experience, but sometimes they can interfere with how YouTube works on Chrome browser. Here’s how you can disable extensions:

1. Open Google Chrome on your computer.
2. Click on the More for options menu.
3. Hover on More Tools and select the Extensions option. It will open the Chrome Extensions Manager page with install extensions.
4. Disable the toggle option against each extension.
5. Restart the browser and check for issues.

If YouTube works fine now, it indicates that one or more extensions were causing the problem. Enable them individually to identify the culprit and replace it with an alternative if required.

Clear DNS Cache

The DNS cache stores web servers’ IP addresses containing recently viewed web pages. If an IP address changes before your DNS cache updates, it could cause loading problems. Here’s how to clear DNS cache data:

1. Launch Google Chrome on the computer.
2. Type in chrome://net-internals/#dns in the address bar, and hit Enter key.
3. Hit the Clear host cache button.
   
4. Restart the browser.

Once you’ve done this, try opening YouTube on Chrome to see if the problem persists.

Change DNS Address

The DNS (Domain Name System) address can sometimes cause YouTube not to load correctly on Chrome. Altering this address might help solve the issue. Follow these steps:

To change DNS Address in Windows OS

1. Open the Control Panel via the Start menu, and go to Network and Sharing Center.
2. Click on Change Adapter Settings from the left menu bar.
3. Right-click on your current network and select Properties.
4. Double-click on the Internet Protocol Version 4 option.
5. Select Use the following DNS server addresses option, and input the following Google DNS values.

   Preferred DNS Address: 8.8.8.8
   Alternate DNS Address: 8.8.4.4

   

6. Hit the OK button to save the changes.

It will alter the DNS server with Google’s DNS on Windows OS. Any changes on the network level are applied across all the applications and software.

To change DNS Address in macOS

1. Click on the Apple menu, and choose the System Settings menu.
   It will open the Settings window with the list of options.
2. Switch to the Network settings tab and select the Network Adapter (say Wi-Fi) connected for internet access.
   
3. Click the Details button to open the network configuration window.
   
4. Switch to the DNS tab, then click the Plus button at the bottom of the DNS Servers list.
5. Enter the Google DNS Server addresses: 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 and hit the OK button to save.
   

Try reloading YouTube on Chrome to see if it’s working as expected.

Reset Browser Settings

Sometimes, misconfigured Chrome settings can lead to YouTube not functioning correctly. Resetting Chrome settings to default can resolve this issue. Perhaps, you should consider it the last option since it will wipe out the entire browser’s data and settings.

Here are the steps to reset the Chrome settings to default:

1. Launch the Chrome browser on the computer.
2. Click on the More menu for options, and select the Settings menu from the list.
   It will open the Chrome browser’s settings page.
3. Switch to the Reset settings tab in the sidebar and select Restore settings to their original defaults option.
4. Hit the Reset settings command button to continue the browser reset.
   

Note: Resetting will turn off all the extensions, clear temporary data, and remove cookies. However, your bookmarks, history, and saved passwords will not be cleared.

Now, restart your browser and check whether YouTube is back to normal.

Bottom Line

These are some of the troubleshooting tips that you can use to fix the problem of YouTube not working or loading on the Chrome browser. Restarting the browser or clearing the cache will resolve the issue in most instances.

Always exercise caution when making changes to system settings.

Lastly, if you've any thoughts or feedback on How to Fix the YouTube Not Working in Chrome browser, then feel free to drop in below comment box. You can also report the outdated information.