10 Practical Solutions for “YouTube Not Playing on iPhone” (iOS 18 Included)

YouTube is a wonderful place to bring inspiration into your personal life or work. We used to watch YouTube on a Windows PC or Mac, but days are different now, we can access to any online sources on our iPhone or Android phone. And today, regarding the issue “YouTube Not Playing on iPhone”, we sort out 10 practical solutions and an ultimate way to fix the problem.

Possible Reasons of Why YouTube Not Playing on iPhone

Causes to lead to “YouTube Not Playing on iPhone” can be various, but generally are divided into following categories:

• Network Connection: poor, broken even inappropriate network settings may lead to YouTube not open, not load on iPhone;
• Web Browser: Different web browsers works differently when opening or loading YouTube videos;
• YouTube App: YouTube may crash or won’t open when the YouTube app on your iPhone is not updated to the latest version;
• iPhone: The running of YouTube app on iPhone requires enough space, you may need to release more RAM, or quit some unwanted programs. Or, there is a compatibility problem between the YouTube App and your iOS version, you will need to update to the latest iOS version;
• YouTube Service: Though less likely to happen, a YouTube server problem can cause such a problem, or you are not allowed to access to some video contents due to service limit;

No matter which reason it is, we here list all possible solutions according to different symptoms, you can try according to our guide, or mix the solutions if a certain fix doesn’t help.

10 Solutions for "YouTube Not Playing on iPhone"

Fix 3. Check the Network Connection

Situation 1. For Wi-Fi users

Most of YouTube watchers use Wi-Fi to play videos, if YouTube won’t load or load slowly on your iPhone, that might be network issue.

Method 1: Turn Wi-Fi Off, then Turn ON

1. Go to Settings>Wi-Fi;
2. Tap on the Wi-Fi switch to turn Wi-Fi Off;
3. Then tap again on the Wi-Fi switch to turn Wi-Fi ON;
4. Play YouTube videos in the app or web browser.

Method 2. Disconnect Wi-Fi, then Reconnect

1. Go to Settings>Wi-Fi;
2. Find the Wi-Fi you connect to, tap on the “i” button;
3. Tap “Forget This Network”;
4. Go to Wi-Fi, choose your router and enter password to reconnect to Wi-Fi.

Method 3. Reset Network Settings

If above 2 methods fail to work, you can now reset network setting.

1. Go to Settings>General>Reset>Reset Network Settings.
2. Enter your password and confirm to reset.

Situation 2. For Cellular Data Users

If you are using cellular data to play YouTube videos, you need to allow the web browser or YouTube app use your cellular data first.

Method 1. Enable YouTube App or the Web Browser to Use Cellular Data

1. Go to Settings>Cellular Data;
2. Swipe down to the app list using cellular data, find the YouTube App or the Web browser you use to watch YouTube online;
3. Tap on the switch of YouTube app or the preferred Web browser, allowing them to use cellular data.

Method 2. Turn Cellular Data Off, then Turn ON

1. Go to Settings>Cellular Data;
2. Tap on the switch to turn OFF;
3. Then tap again on the switch to turn ON.

Method 3. Turn Airplane Mode ON, then Connect to Cellular Data

1. Swipe up the iPhone screen, tap on the airplane icon to turn Airplane mode ON;
2. Tap again on the airplane icon after about 30 seconds or more, to turn the AirPlane mode OFF.

Fix 4. Release More Space on iPhone

If there is no enough space to run an app or load sources for online playing, YouTube cannot open or work neither. You need to make sure there is enough space, at least 500MB for your YouTube video playing.

Method 1. Clear History/Cache/Cookies in Web Browser

1. Go to Settings, find your Web Browser App and tap;
2. Tap “Clear History and Website Data”.

Also, you can open the web browser app, go to History and clear.

Method 2. Clear Cache in YouTube App

1. Open YouTube App, and go to your Profile;
2. Tap on Settings, Tap “Clear watch/search history”, then tap “OK”.

 

Method 3. Clear Cache in Other Apps

To free up more space on iPhone, users can also clear cache in other apps. First, we need to find out which program is eating up the largest space.

1. Go to Settings>General>iPhone Storage;
2. Swipe down to check which app uses the largest space on iPhone;
3. Open the App, go to your account, and tap Settings to clear cache.

Of course, you can choose to delete some unwanted photos or large files to get more space on iPhone.

Fix 5. Remove Unwanted Video App or Widget

Sometimes, Apps especially similar applications conflict and may lead to a crash, for the possible reason of using the same source at the same time. In this case, you can remove unwanted or unused apps to avoid such a problem.

1. Find the App, tap and hold until the “X” icon appears;
2. Tap on “X”, and the app will be removed.

Fix 6. Reinstall

In the case your Web Browser or YouTube won't open or doesn’t work properly (no responding, cannot navigate, no sound, cannot exit), you can choose to reinstall the app, this solution is always a highly successful way to fix “YouTube Not Working on iPhone”.

1. Find your Web Browser App/YouTube, tap and hold until the “X” icon appears;
2. Tap on “X” to uninstall the app;
3. Go to AppStore, search the Web Browser/YouTube app and tap to download.

Fix 7. Update App or iOS

If your Apps are not updated to the latest version, you may run into problems such as improper working, slow response, and crash for no reason. In these cases, you can update the applications on iPhone.

Situation 1. Update Web Browser/YouTube App

1. Open AppStore, find the “Updates” icon at the bottom;
2. Tap on “Update” to upgrade the App to latest version.

Situation 2. Update iOS

1. Go to Settings> General>Software Update;
2. Tap on “Download and Install”, it may take some time, please wait patiently.

Fix 8. Restart iPhone

We all may have done this before: power off the computer when something wrong happens and cannot be fixed easily. Similar to this, we can restart iPhone when YouTube is not working or playing on iPhone.

Situation 1: For iPhone X or newer

1. Press and hold the Side button and one of the volume button;
2. Drag the slider to turn the iPhone off;
3. Then press and hold the Side button again to start the iPhone.

Situation 2: For iPhone 8 or earlier

1. Press and hold the Top or Side button;
2. Drag the slide to turn the iPhone off;
3. Then press and hold the Top or Side button again to start the iPhone

Fix 9. Subscribe YouTube Premium

YouTube offers both free and paid contents, if you cannot play YouTube video on iPhone, you may open YouTube original contents and not allowed to access without a YouTube Premium subscription.

YouTube Premium is the paid membership allowing YouTube users to watch videos ad-free and offline, to access to YouTube original contents, to play videos in the background.

If you open the a YouTube URL for the video requiring a YouTube subscription, you won’t be able to play this video. The only solution is to subscribe it.

Fix 10. Go to YouTube help

If none of above-listed solutions help, the “YouTube Help” center maybe your last straw to fix the issue. Go to “YouTube Help”, you can check those popular questions on the page and look for a solution for your case, or you can input your issue in the field “Describe Your Issue” to find possible solutions fast.

Ultimate Fix to “YouTube Not Playing on iPhone or iPad"

In fact, there is an easy and once-for-all way to solve the problem of “YouTube Not Playing/Working on iPhone or iPad”---download the YouTube videos and play in YouTube or other video players.

Why Better to Download YouTube Videos to iPhone for Player?

• Watch and play YouTube videos offline without Internet connection;
• Watch and play YouTube videos ads-free;
• Repeated playing anytime anywhere;
• Play YouTube videos in different video players;
• Save YouTube videos in batch;

How to Batch Download YouTube Videos to iPhone or iPad for Playing?

First, we need a tool---Cisdem Video Converter for Mac, it is a mac program allowing users to download YouTube videos fast and easily, also combines the feature to convert video/audio/dvd/blu-ray, to edit videos, and to compress videos.

Free Download

Extended: Can You Run YouTube in the Background on iPhone?

Many YouTube users are wondering if we can run YouTube in the background on our iphone, the answer is YES, and there are 2 ways to achieve this.

Method 1: Free

The first method we use to run YouTube in the background is utilizing a web browser app, it can be Safari, Firefox, Opera or other preferred web browsers.

1. Open your web browser app;
2. Go to YouTube website and open the video you want to play;
3. Press the Home button;
4. Swipe up on the iPhone screen to bring up Control Center;
5. Tap “Play” icon to continue the YouTube playing in the background.

Method 2: Paid

As we mentioned above, the YouTube Premium allows users to play YouTube videos in the background, so if you would like to, you can subscribe the YouTube Premium to enjoy this and other abundant features contained in its services.

Conclusion

Ways to solve “YouTube Not Working/Playing on iPhone” can be various, which depend on what kind of symptoms you run into. But if are a heavy YouTube video audience, you can download them into your iPhone to watch offline and anytime, even with your preferred video player.