How to fix an iPhone 11 YouTube app that keeps crashing

by George updated   

One of the most popular and widely used apps among smartphone users to date is YouTube. Through this app, you can enjoy streaming various types of video clips as pastime or as visual guides. Aside from being a popular app, YouTube is also among the most trusted platforms given that it’s backed and maintained by the internet giant. But despite all these, there are still some instances when the app would bump into some issues and stop working. Emerging among the widespread YouTube app problems faced by iPhone owners is on random to frequent app crashes. If you’re reading this post, then you’re probably enduring the same problem. To give you some inputs, I’ve mapped out some of the most effective solutions to YouTube app problems. Read on to find out what to do if your iPhone 11 YouTube app keeps crashing and stops working.

Before moving on, feel free to browse through our troubleshooting pages to find potential solutions to other problems with your other Apple devices. If your iPhone is in the list of our supported devices, then you can visit its exclusive troubleshooting page and find the problem that you need help dealing with. You can refer to or use our provided solutions and workarounds if needed. In the case where you’d prefer to get direct assistance from us, simply fill up our iOS issues questionnaire and hit submit to contact us.

Troubleshooting an iPhone 11 YouTube app that keeps crashing

Network connectivity issues, random in-app glitches, and minor software errors are usually the underlying causes. To eliminate each of these possible triggers, try carrying out the following procedures whenever you’re all set to troubleshoot your device.

But before you do, check your internet connection and make sure your iPhone has internet access. Like any other web-based applications, YouTube requires a fast and stable internet connection in order to work as it should. If the internet is fine but the app is still crashing, then you may now begin troubleshooting.

First solution: Force close YouTube app then restart your iPhone.

Apps that you’ve recently used will stay open and running in the background until you trigger them to close. While keeping apps in this state would benefit in terms of reloading of the same applications when multitasking, it can also cause you some troubles at some point. Keeping apps suspended for long will increase the chance of these apps to crash and stop working. And this is when force closing the app is needed. That said, consider this as the first possible solution to try. Here’s how to force close YouTube app on your iPhone 11:

  1. Swipe up from the bottom of the screen then stop when your finger reaches the middle and pause until the app cards/previews show up.
  2. In the app switcher, swipe sideways to find the YouTube app card/preview.
  3. Swipe up on the card preview to force close the app.

If you see any other apps running in the background aside from YouTube, repeat the same procedures to end all other background apps from your iPhone. After ending YouTube and other background applications, restart or soft reset your iPhone. Doing so can help get rid of minor system flaws that might have caused conflicts to apps like YouTube. Just follow these steps to soft reset your iPhone 11:

  1. Press and hold both the Side and Volume Up buttons for a few seconds.
  2. Release both buttons when the Slide to Power off bar appears.
  3. Swipe or drag the bar to turn your device off.
  4. After about 30 seconds, press and hold the Side button and then release when the Apple logo appears.

Allow your phone to finish rebooting and then reconnects to the internet. When it’s connected, launch YouTube app again and see if it’s still crashing or not.

Try playing as much YouTube videos from different channels to determine whether or not the problem is isolated to certain videos or YouTube channel. For example, if YouTube app only crashes when playing certain videos or visiting certain channels, then the problem might be just isolated to those videos or channel and not with the entire application. In that case, reporting the problem to the YouTube channel or video owner is what you need to do then. Otherwise, continue troubleshooting.

Second solution: Refresh your internet connection.

Random internet problems like intermittent Wi-Fi connection or Wi-Fi drops can also cause problems when using online apps. To make sure this isn’t what’s causing YouTube app to crash randomly, refresh your phone’s internet connection. You can start by the standard procedure which is through the Wi-Fi toggle. Here’s how:

  1. Tap Settings from your Home screen.
  2. Select Wi-Fi.
  3. Tap the Wi-Fi switch to the OFF position.
  4. After about 30 seconds, tap the switch again to turn Wi-Fi back ON.

Another way to refresh wireless connections on your iPhone is using the Airplane mode trick. This method works by simultaneously turning off the phone’s wireless radios and associated features and then turning them back on. Here’s how it’s done:

  1. From the Home screen, tap Settings.
  2. Select Airplane Mode.
  3. Toggle the Airplane Mode switch to turn the feature ON. Doing so disables your iPhone’s wireless radios and associated features like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
  4. While Airplane Mode is turned on, reboot or soft reset your iPhone to clear out network cache.
  5. After it reboots, go back to Settings-> Airplane Mode menu.
  6. Then toggle the Airplane Mode switch to turn it OFF again.

Wait for your phone to re-establish wireless signal and when the signal becomes stable, reconnect to your Wi-Fi network and get back online. Then retry loading YouTube app on your iPhone and see if the problem is gone.

Third solution: Turn off app restrictions on your iPhone.

Apps that are restricted from running on your device may also end up crashing. This is usually the case if your iPhone’s restriction feature is enabled. To clear this out, try disabling the feature and see how YouTube app works with restrictions turned off. Just follow these steps to manage this privacy feature on your iPhone:

  1. From the Home screen, tap Settings.
  2. Select Screen Time.
  3. Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions.
  4. Toggle the switch next to Content & Privacy Restrictions to turn the feature OFF.
  5. If prompted, enter your passcode to confirm and apply the changes.

After making necessary changes, try to open YouTube app and see if it’s still crashing or not. If the app stops crashing when restrictions are enabled, go back to your iPhone settings and re-enable restrictions but set some exceptions to allow YouTube app.

Fourth solution: Install pending app updates.

Installing app updates can also be the key to resolving the issue if in-app bugs and malwares are the main triggers. Like software updates, app updates also embed some dedicated patches to fix existing in-app bugs. If you haven’t set your third-party apps to auto-update, then follow these steps to manually check and install pending app updates on your iPhone 11:

  1. From the Home screen, tap on the App Store icon to open the application.
  2. Tap on Today tab at the bottom.
  3. Then tap on the user profile icon (Apple ID header) on the top right corner of the screen. You should see the account details.
  4. Scroll down to the Available Updates section.
  5. Tap on Update next to the YouTube app to install pending update for the app.
  6. If multiple app updates are available, tap on Update All to update all apps at once.

Restart your iPhone after updating your apps. This is recommended to ensure that all new software changes are properly applied. After restarting your iPhone, launch YouTube again to see how it works.

Also care to check if a new iOS version is available for your device. Software updates may also contain the required fix patch, thus updating your iPhone software to the latest version available is also recommended.

Fifth solution: Reset all settings to fix your iPhone 11 YouTube app that keeps crashing.

To eliminate incorrect system settings and errors from the underlying cause, you can try resetting all settings on your iPhone 11. This will erase all your current system configuration and personal preferences along with any associated errors. There’s no need to back up files from your iPhone storage as this reset does not affect the internal data. Just follow these steps whenever you’re all set to try it:

  1. From the Home screen, tap on Settings.
  2. Select General.
  3. Scroll down and tap on Reset.
  4. Tap Reset all settings from the given options.
  5. Enter your passcode if prompted to continue.
  6. Confirm action by tapping the option to reset all settings on your device.

Wait for your iPhone to finish resetting and then reboots when done. After it reboots, re-enable necessary features so you can use them again on your phone.

Last resort: Uninstall then reinstall YouTube on your iPhone.

The worst possible reason as to why an app wouldn’t be able to work as intended and just keep crashing instead is because it’s been totally corrupted. Corrupted applications need to be reinstalled in order to get back to their normal state. That said, try to uninstall then reinstall YouTube app on your iPhone 11. Here’s how it’s done:

  1. Go to the Home screen to get started.
  2. Scroll to and find the YouTube app icon.
  3. Tap and hold on the app icon for a few seconds. Keep holding the app icon when the pop-up menu appears and then release when the app icon starts to jiggle.
  4. Tap Delete from the warning message.
  5. Finally, tap Done on the top-right corner of the screen once you’re done deleting the app.

When the app is completely uninstalled, reboot or soft reset your iPhone to clear errant junk files from the internal memory and likewise to refresh the operating system. After it reboots, continue with these steps to download and reinstall YouTube app on your device:

  1. Tap the App Store icon from the Home screen. Doing so will launch the App Store main screen.
  2. Scroll down to the bottom right corner of the screen and then tap Search.
  3. Tap the Games, Apps, Stories, and More field then type in YouTube.
  4. Tap the Search key on the onscreen keyboard to begin the search for the keyed in application.
  5. Tap the GET button on the upper-right side.
  6. Tap Install to instigate installation of the app. You can use your Face ID to authenticate App Store purchase, if necessary.
  7. Enter your Apple ID password to continue.
  8. Then tap the Sign In button.

After installing the app, tap the OPEN button to launch it and see if the problem is gone already.

Does your iPhone 11 YouTube app still keep crashing?

You can use downdetector.com to view which websites are currently experiencing troubles. If YouTube server is having some temporary issues, it will show up in the list of troubled sites. Another way to determine whether or not YouTube server is down, open your browser app and then navigate to YouTube.com. If the site is able to load as expected and there’s no problem playing YouTube videos and contents, that denotes the problem is most likely from within the application. In this case, you can seek further assistance from Google’s YouTube Support team in carrying out more advanced solutions to fix complex in-app glitches that might have caused the app to crash and stop working.