Why YouTube is not Playing Videos on iPhone and How to Fix It?

| Updated on March 1, 2024

YouTube has become the top source of entertainment as it holds a lot of quality videos. You can even make money on YouTube by creating quality videos.

Watching YouTube videos on your iPhone or iPad is quite fun and is one of the favorite pastimes of most people. Also, bumping into some unexpected error is quite common as at times YouTube starts behaving abnormally or it can be your device as well that is why YouTube is not working on your iPhone. No matter for whatever reason YouTube is not playing videos, this guide is going to help you a lot. 

Troubleshooting YouTube Videos Won’t Play on iPhone Issue

1. Check the Network

The most common reason for which YouTube videos keep pausing or won’t load on your iPhone is the network it is connected to. Slow internet, unstable connection, or no Internet connection at all are the latent causes. You can try restarting your wireless connection or reboot the wireless router or modem. 

You can also go through the given steps to re-start your phone’s wireless internet connection:

  • Tap the ‘Settings’ option provided on the Home page
  • Then tap Airplane mode; toggle the switch to turn it on 
  • Do a soft reset on your phone keeping the airplane mode enabled
  • Let your phone reboot and then go back to the ‘Settings’ to disable the Airplane mode.
  • Now, reconnect your device to Wi-Fi and after then try to play YouTube videos on the app and see if it is working.

2. Restart Everything

For the next step, restart the YouTube app as well as your iOS device. It is possible that you have made some changes on your iPhone and that is making the YouTube app face glitches but that can be simply resolved by simply restarting the application. Exit all the running apps on your iPhone including YouTube and after that clear the iPhone’s memory cache through a soft reset as follows:

  • Keep pressing the Side/Top button together with either Volume button
  • Then leave both the buttons when you see the ‘Slide to Power Off’ option on the screen
  • Drag the slider rightwards to power off your iPhone
  • Let your phone off for a few seconds and then press and hold the Side/Top button again until you see the Apple logo.
  • Free the button and let your phone reboot completely.
  • Now you can try playing videos on your iPhone to check if it is working or not.

3. Turn off App Restrictions 

Next, to fix YouTube videos not working on iPhone, you need to lift app restrictions that can also stop the YouTube app from playing videos. Disable app restrictions on your device by following these steps:

  • On the Home Screen, tap the ‘Settings’ button
  • Then tap ‘Screen Time’
  • Tap ‘Content & Privacy Restrictions’
  • Enter your password to proceed
  • Finally, toggle the switch next to the option ‘Content & Privacy Restrictions’ 
  • This will disable the app restrictions

4. Install Unfinished Device Updates

You must update the apps on your device routinely to get the significant updates on time. If you don’t update them for a long time, this can be one of the reasons why YouTube won’t work on your iPhone device. You can set YouTube to auto-install updates and if you haven’t, you can do it manually:

  • Tap on the ‘App Store’ icon from the Home screen
  • Tap on the ‘Today’ tab
  • Next, tap on the user profile icon and you will see the account details.
  • In the ‘Available Updates’ section, tap on ‘Update’ next to the YouTube app
  • Let all the updates get installed completely and then reboot your iPhone to update the changes. 

5. Reset the iPhone Settings

You may also need to reset all your settings on the iPhone to fix the ‘YouTube videos are not playing’ issue. This will restore all the original settings and maybe videos start playing on your device.

  • Tap ‘Settings’ from the Home screen
  • Tap ‘General’
  • Then tap on ‘Reset’
  • Tap the option to reset all settings.
  • Enter the password to proceed
  • Tap the option to confirm your action of resetting the settings
  • This will restore all the original settings including network preferences of your device and to use the features of your iPhone, you will need to enable them manually and also reconnect your device to Wi-Fi; then try to play a YouTube video.

Troubleshooting Additional Errors while Playing YouTube Videos

There can be several other errors that can surprise you while playing a YouTube video. Here you will find a list of errors that won’t let you play YouTube videos on your iPhone and what you can do to fix them:

1. Playback error, Tap to Retry

If you are also getting this error while playing YouTube videos on your iPhone or iPad, use these steps to fix it:

  • Log out and log in again to your Google account
  • Connect your device to Wi-Fi
  • Make sure the YouTube app is updated or update it now.
  • You can even try uninstalling and reinstalling the YouTube app
  • Also, clear the cache and cookies of the YouTube app
  • Update the IOS firmware and restart your iOS device

2. Video Not Available Error

Another error that may arise while playing YouTube videos on a browser on your iPhone is ‘Video not available’; to fix this:

  • Upgrade the browser you are using
  • Go to Settings and look for the desktop version

3. Black Screen Error

When a YouTube video is linked to a website and you try to play it on your iPhone, the black screen error can appear; there is something you can do to fix it:

  • Try connecting your device to a stable network
  • Select the default video quality by YouTube
  • Make sure the browser is up-to-date and refresh it as well
  • Try to copy the link and play the video on the YouTube app.

Conclusion

Hopefully, this guide will fix all your issues if YouTube doesn’t work on your iPhone. Try using the updated version of the app or the browser that you are using to play the video and also ensure that your device is not infected with viruses.


Khushboo Chhibber

Senior Web Writer and Video Creator


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