YouTube is a famous video platform, where users can upload content for revenue or watch videos for entertainment. They target a wide audience, with their videos ranging from cooking tutorials to music videos. You can also have an issue where YouTube won’t play videos, but that’s a different topic altogether. And if you’re not an iPhone user, then check our YouTube not working guide for Android instead.
So, we do know that the YouTube app can stop working, even if you’ve got a relatively new iPhone. So, what can you do when this happens and you want to play YouTube videos? Here’s what to consider.
YouTube app not working on iPhone? – What to do
If your YouTube app stops working on your iPhone, this usually comes down to one of three things; an issue with your internet connection, an issue with the YouTube servers, or in some cases, a simple issue with your mobile device and the application itself. Here’s how to run through the potential issues you may face.
Internet problems & issues
As you’ve probably expected, YouTube needs access to the internet for it to work properly (unless you’re trying to access downloaded videos, that is). It’s a good idea to check how good your internet connection is, and you can do this by using another app on your iPhone.
Once you’ve done this, you can also try turning off the Wi-Fi on your phone and turning it back on again. And as an extra precautionary measure, you can also turn your Wi-Fi router off and back on again. You can also reset network settings on your router too – your network settings may be preventing your phone from connecting properly.
If you keep finding that there’s an issue and resetting your router doesn’t fix things, then you can check the Down Detector to see whether there’s a specific issue with your broadband company. If there’s been any outages recently, it’ll be reported there. If this is the case, then there’s actually not much you can do about it aside from wait until the next day to see whether it’s been resolved, or switch over to mobile data.
Though a poor network connection is common from time to time, there are other reasons why YouTube may not be working. You may also want to check your iPhone isn’t in Airplane mode, as this is often a quick fix that people haven’t noticed.
Server Issues
If it’s not an issue with your connection, you’ll also want to check to see whether the problem is actually with YouTube’s servers and not your own. You can do this by heading to https://www.isitdownrightnow.com/youtube.com.html, which will show you the status of the YouTube server and whether it’s having problems.
If the server is still up (which is probably will be), you can rule this out as a reason why your Youtube app isn’t working on your iPhone.
Restart Device
YouTube may not be working due to an issue with your device. Try restarting your device, and using the app again.
Last of the three, but typically the most common issue with YouTube and most apps, you may have an issue with your device. The first thing you should do if you think this may be the issue is to restart your device.
iPhone users
First, hold the lock button down on the right hand side of your mobile device, and the “Power off” at the top of your display will appear.
After you’ve waited for ten seconds, then drag the power button to off at the top of your display to turn your phone off.
Update Device
After you’ve reset your device, you’re also going to want to make sure that it’s updated to the latest software. Doing this can ensure that there are no bugs preventing your YouTube app from working.
iPhone users
Head into Settings, then General, and then select Software Update. You’ll quickly be able to see whether there’s an update there for you to install on your iPhone.
Update App
As well as your device being outdated, the apps on your iPhone can also become outdated if you don’t update them frequently. So, you should also think about updating the app itself.
iPhone users
Head into the app store, and then go ahead and press on your profile picture. When you’ve done that, select purchase. Here, you’ll be able to see a full list of all the apps that you’ve downloaded onto your iPhone. You’ll be able to see the YouTube app there – go ahead and select update.
Log Out
Something else you can try on your iPhone is to log out of your email account in the YouTube app, and then log back in again afterwards. You can do this by pressing onto your profile picture in your YouTube settings.
After you’ve logged out, then just go ahead and log back into your device again.
Reinstall App
If you’ve tried everything else here without any luck, then it could be that you just need to uninstall the app and then re-install it again.
iPhone users
You can start this process by holding down the YouTube icon app on your home screen, which should give you a list of options to pick from with Remove App being one of them.
After doing this, you should be able to see the Delete app option, which will confirm you uninstalling the app.
You may have to repeat this and enter Delete again.
After you’ve done this, go into the app store and press onto your profile picture to see a list of the apps you’ve downloaded to your device. Here, you’ll find the YouTube app, which you can easily re-install by selecting the cloud symbol.
Contact Customer Support
If you’ve tried all of the solutions above and nothing has helped, then try using YouTube’s help centre. Go to https://support.google.com/youtube#topic=9257498 and type your query or issue into the search bar. You can look through the results to see if there are any that are helpful to you.
Alternatively, you can send your query to the support team through either the app or website. If you have access to your app, then press your profile icon. Then, scroll down and press ‘help and feedback’.
Then, press ‘send feedback’.
Finally, fill in the form to send your issue to the support team.
If you don’t have access to the app, then go on youtube.com and sign in. Then, click on your account icon and click ‘send feedback’.
Finally, fill in the form to send your issue to YouTube’s support team.
Conclusion
There are various different reasons why you may find that the YouTube app isn’t working on your iPhone – if it’s an issue with the servers or with your broadband, you’ll likely need to wait until they’re back online.
However, in many cases the cause of the issue is actually your device and the YouTube app itself – follow the instructions above and you should be able to resolve. If not, then you may need to get in touch with the customer support at YouTube to find a solution.
