All you wanted is to stream some cool YouTube videos on your new iPad Air but for some reason, the app won’t load or unable to play those videos via YouTube app. Now, you’ve got a problem to fix. Read on to learn what to do if you can’t play YouTube videos or can’t load YouTube app on your iPad Air slate.
Among the factors that you need to consider ruling out in this case would include app glitches, particularly with the YouTube app, minor software errors on the iPad, bad updates, corrupted files, and incorrect settings on the device. To get this done, you can use the following troubleshooting procedures whenever you’re all set to fix your iPad Air.
First solution: Quit YouTube then restart.
For first instances, minor app glitches are usually the culprits. This is usually transpiring if you’ve previously opened YouTube on your iPad Air and you’ve left it suspended for long until it crashed. To deal with this problem, all you have to do is to quit and then restart the app. Here’s how it’s done:
- From the Home screen, swipe your finger upward and then pause in the middle.
- Swipe either left or right and look for the YouTube app card or preview.
- Once you found the app’s preview, swipe it up to close it.
If you see any other running apps, clear them all using the same method. Doing so will help refresh and free up your iPad’s memory space. It can also prevent any other background apps from causing conflict to App Store downloads.
After clearing out all background apps and quitting the App Store, reboot/soft reset your iPad Air with these steps:
- Press and hold the Top or Side button until the Power Off slider shows up.
- Drag the slider to turn your iPad completely off. Keep it off for about 30 seconds.
- After the elapse time, press and hold the Top or Side button again and then release when the Apple logo appears.
Wait for your iPad to finish restarting and then you can try to open YouTube again and play videos to see if it’s already working.
ALSO READ: How to fix Facebook that doesn’t load properly on Apple iPad Air 2019
Second solution: Restart your Wi-Fi Internet.
Minor internet problems are also among the factors to consider ruling out in this case. YouTube app is an online platform and therefore requires stable Internet connection in order to work. If your Internet connection is very slow, chances are that high-quality videos or full HD videos won’t be able to load, or worst, the YouTube app would crash and stops working. To clear this out, you can restart your Wi-Fi Internet using any of the following methods.
- Go to Settings-> Wi-Fi menu then toggle the Wi-Fi switch to turn the feature OFF and then back ON again.
- Go to Settings-> Airplane mode menu then toggle the switch to turn Airplane Mode ON. While it’s turned on, restart your iPad then head back to the Airplane mode menu to turn the feature OFF again.
- Turn your wireless router/modem off for about 30 seconds to 1 minute and then turn it back on.
Forgetting your Wi-Fi network and then adding it back is also another way to restart and refresh your Wi-Fi internet connection.
To do this, go to Settings-> Wi-Fi menu and make sure that it’s turned on. Select your Wi-Fi network from the list then tap on the information icon (i) next to it. Tap on the option to Forget This Network then confirm action when asked to proceed.
Any of the above procedures can help clear out minor errors that might have caused online apps like YouTube to stop working as intended.
Third solution: Update YouTube to the latest version available.
Installing the latest update for YouTube app can also help get rid of in-app errors that caused the app to fail. If you’ve set your device to auto-install updates for your downloaded apps including YouTube, then you’re all good. But if you haven’t, you may have to consider manually installing pending app updates on your device. Here’s how it’s done:
- Open the App Store.
- From the App Store main screen, scroll down to the bottom section.
- Then tap on the Updates tab to open a new screen containing a list of apps with pending updates.
- Find YouTube on that list then tap the Update button next to it to trigger update installation.
- If multiple updates are available, then you can just tap the Update All button to install all app updates at once.
Wait until all app updates are completely installed and by then you can restart your iPad. Restarting is imperative to ensure that all recent system changes are properly applied. Doing so will likewise allow your apps to refresh.
ALSO READ: How to fix Wi-Fi signal drops on Apple iPad Air 2019, keeps disconnecting from Wi-Fi network
Fourth solution: Uninstall then reinstall YouTube app on your iPad Air.
Like other apps, the YouTube app also needs updates in order to stay optimal and functional. If the app isn’t up-to-date, there is a tendency for it to become corrupted. If this is what happened to your iPad Air’s YouTube app, then you will have to uninstall the corrupt version of then app and then install the latest version from the App Store. Here’s how it’s done:
- From your Home screen, scroll to and find the YouTube app icon.
- Once you found it, touch and hold on its icon for a few seconds until the icons wiggle.
- Then tap on the X at the top-left side of the YouTube app.
- If prompted, tap Delete twice to confirm that you want to delete YouTube app from your iPad.
To stop the app icons from wiggling and to get them back to their normal state, simply tap on an empty portion of your Home screen.
After deleting the application, restart your iPad and the reinstall the YouTube app from the App Store. You may have to search the latest version of the app using the search tab.
Fifth solution: Reset all settings on your iPad Air.
Performing software resets can be considered among the last options if the problem continues after performing the previous methods. You could be dealing with a complex problem inflicted by invalid settings or incorrect customization. To correct these errors, follow these steps to erase all customized settings on your iPad Air and then restore the default options and values:
- Go to your Home screen then tap on Settings.
- Tap General.
- Scroll down then tap on Reset.
- Select the option to Reset all settings.
- If prompted, enter your passcode to continue.
- Then tap the option to confirm all settings reset.
Also check and ensure that restrictions for YouTube videos are not restricted on your iPad Air. To check and manage this setting, simply follow these steps:
- From the Home screen, tap Settings.
- Select Screen Time.
- Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions.
- Scroll to the Allowed Apps section and make sure that App Store downloads are not restricted.
Turn off restrictions completely can also be considered an alternative to make sure that nothing is restricted on your device.
- To do this, simply toggle the Content & Privacy Restrictions switch to OFF.
This will lift all restrictions and limits set to certain apps and services including YouTube streaming and downloads.
Still cannot load YouTube app to load or play videos on your new iPad Air?
Performing the basic troubleshooting procedures as demonstrated above would usually be enough to get rid of the usual triggers including app glitches, random firmware errors, and network connectivity issues. But since the problem continues up to this point, escalating it to Google-YouTube support would be necessary. There might be some complex errors from within the YouTube application or internal server errors that require more advanced solutions that only Google’s technical support team can offer.
If the problem only occurs when trying to load a specific YouTube video or attempting to access a specific YouTube channel, then that could only be an isolated problem with that channel or video file/URL. In that case, there’s not much can be done on your end. But you can submit a report on the issue via comments section or using the report option, if available.
I hope that we’ve been able to help you fix the problem with your device. We would appreciate it if you helped us spread the word so please share this post if you found it helpful. Thank you so much for reading!