YouTube not working or loading in Chrome on PC

Google Chrome is the world’s most used web browser which is available on a number of platforms including Android, MacOS, iOS, Linux and Windows 11/10. At times, it could display errors and unusual behavior. One of these unusual behaviors is when you find that YouTube is not loading or working on Google Chrome. This is weird because YouTube is owned by Google and the browser is built by Google as well. The probable causes for this issue are-

• Issues with Hardware Acceleration.
• Conflicting cached data.
• Issues with Graphics Rendering Drivers.
• Conflicting installed Google Chrome extensions.

YouTube not working or loading on Chrome

Before trying any fixes, try to access the same website from a different browser and preferably a different connection. Try to access the website from the browser in Incognito mode may help too. If still YouTube is not working on Chrome for you, try these suggestions:

1. Disable Hardware Acceleration.
2. Clearing Browser Data.
3. Force close and restart Google Chrome using the Task Manager.
4. Manage the conflicting extensions.
5. Fix the Graphics Card Drivers.
6. Reinstall Google Chrome.

1] Disable Hardware Acceleration

To disable Hardware Acceleration in Chrome, open Google Chrome and click on the Menu button (by clicking on three dots button on the top right corner). Next click on Settings

After the Settings page opens, scroll down to find the button that is labeled as Advanced and click on it. Under the section that goes by the name System, turn off the toggle of Use hardware acceleration when available.

Restart Google Chrome.

When it starts up again, type in chrome://gpu/ in the address bar and hit the Enter key.

This will now display if Hardware Acceleration or GPU Rendering is disabled or not.

2] Clearing Browser Data

There are high chances that some browser data is conflicting with the loading of the website. This might be a very basic fix, but in this case, it can be proved a highly reliable one.

For this, start by opening Google Chrome. Now hit the CTRL + H button combination on your keyboard.

This will open a new panel to delete your browsing history and other data.

Select every checkbox that you see and finally click on Clear browsing data.

Restart your browser and check if your error is fixed or not.

Read: YouTube videos not playing on Microsoft Edge

3] Force close and restart Google Chrome using the Task Manager

Start by opening the Task Manager by hitting the CTRL + Shift + Esc button combinations. Click on the button called More Details.

From the populated list of running processes and programs, select Google Chrome and click on the button called as End Task.

Reopen Google Chrome and check if you can access YouTube now.

4] Manage the conflicting extensions

There are high chances that the extensions and toolbars installed on your browser might be conflicting with the loading of your website. So, in order to fix that, you need to remove or disable these extensions and toolbars.

Read: YouTube videos not playing in Firefox

5] Fix the Graphics Card Drivers

Now, the best practice for you should be to go to the website of your manufacturers like NVIDIA, AMD or Intel. Go to the section called Drivers. And download the latest definitions from there.

After the download has been completed, just install the graphics driver and reboot your computer.

Alternatively, after booting into the Safe Mode, open Device Manager.

The main drivers that might be a cause for this particular file will be listed under the section of Display Adapters inside of the Device Manager. So if you recently updated these drivers, roll back and see. If you did not, then we suggest you Update these drivers.

6] Reinstall Google Chrome

If all the methods that are mentioned above do not work properly, the last and the ultimate fix would be reinstalling Google Chrome.

First, you will have to uninstall Google Chrome fully from your computer. This should also include all the leftover folders with browsing data, user data, etc.

Now, make sure you download the latest version of Google Chrome from its website.

I hope some of these fixes help you!