YouTube is a super popular service with more than 2 billion monthly active users. People use Youtube to watch a wide range of videos, including music videos, comedy skits, vlogs, educational videos, news, and more. According to recent reports, an average user spends more than 40 minutes per session watching videos on YouTube.

YouTube is a great source of entertainment and knowledge, but sometimes it experiences crashes and other problems. This can be frustrating, especially when you are in the middle of watching your favorite video.

There are several reasons why YouTube apps can crash, such as outdated app versions, network issues, insufficient storage space, device-related issues, and more. However, in most cases, these issues can be easily fixed if you follow simple troubleshooting steps.

In this guide, we’ll go into more detail about the reasons why the YouTube app crashes on your device and show you how to fix YouTube app crash issues on your Smartphone easily. Let us start without any delay.

Possible Causes of YouTube Crashing on Your Smartphone

• Outdated YouTube app: the most common problem why the YouTube app crashes on your smartphone is when the app is outdated. The older version of the YouTube app may not be compatible with your device or optimized for the latest hardware and software and may also contain bugs that prevent the YouTube app from working smoothly.
• Insufficient storage: Insufficient storage is another common issue that can cause YouTube crashes on your smartphone. This is because the app requires a certain amount of storage space to run. If the storage space is limited, the system will automatically stop the app from running.
• Network-related issues: The YouTube app requires a stable internet connection to work. If you have network issues, it may cause the YouTube app to become unresponsive or crash while trying to load the content.
• YouTube is down: When YouTube is down, you may experience a number of issues, such as not being able to play videos, error messages, or crashes when you try to use the app. YouTube downtime is usually caused by problems with the YouTube server. In some cases, YouTube may also go down due to cyber attacks or security breaches. In most cases, the downtime is temporary, and the platform will return to normal once the issue is resolved. As users, there’s not much we can do until the problem is fixed.
• Third-party apps: Another reason why Youtube apps may crash on your smartphone is due to interference from third-party apps. This can be the case when other apps installed on your smartphone conflict with YouTube and cause the app to malfunction.
• Device software issue: Device software can also cause the YouTube app to crash on your smartphone. This may be because you are using outdated system software, incompatible device hardware, or corrupted system files.

Troubleshoot YouTube App Crashing Issue The Right Way

Restart Your Smartphone

Let’s start with the simple troubleshooting techniques first. Restart your smartphone. Restarting your smartphone will clear the device memory and all processes currently running on the smartphone. This can help fix temporary glitches or conflicts that cause the YouTube app to crash on your smartphone.

If the app crashes repeatedly, a simple restart can often solve the problem. However, it’s important to know that restarting your phone may not always fix the crashing problem. If the problem persists, you can try other troubleshooting techniques listed in this article.

Android

• Press and hold the power button until the Power menu appears
• Click on Restart from the list of menu options or swipe to restart.
• Your smartphone will now begin to restart. This may take some time to restart your device, depending on your smartphone.

iOS

• Press and hold the power button located on the right side of your iPhone and the volume down button on the left side of your iPhone.
• Keep holding the buttons until the power of the slider appears. Drag the slider
• Drag the slider and then wait for a few seconds until it’s turned off
• Now press and hold the side button until you see the Apple logo. The device will boot and enter the password or Face ID.

Update YouTube App

Update your YouTube app on your smartphone. As mentioned earlier, using an outdated YouTube app can cause a variety of problems, including crashes, slow loading times, and video playback issues. To avoid these problems, you can update the YouTube app to the latest version. To do so, go to the app store on your device. Learn how to update the YouTube app on your Android and iOS device here.

Android

• Open your smartphone and open Google Play Store
• Click on your profile picture located in the top right corner of your smartphone
• Now tap on Manage apps and devices and click on See details under Updates available.
• Now search for YouTube and click Update to update the YouTube app to the latest version.

iOS

• Open the App Store on your smartphone
• Tap on your profile picture located top right corner of the screen
• Scroll down and find the YouTube app from the list of apps available for update
• Click on the Update button next to the YouTube app.

Insufficient Storage Space

Your mobile operating system will automatically stop running the YouTube app when the storage space on your device is exhausted. Most apps, including YouTube, require a certain amount of storage space to function. When storage space is limited, to avoid other problems, your device’s operating system prevents apps from running to prevent adding additional data.

To avoid these problems, you can free up the system memory on your smartphone. When the storage space on your device is exhausted, a warning is displayed in the notification bar stating that the system storage space is exhausted.

You can free up system storage by deleting unwanted files and apps on your smartphone or transferring files to an external storage or cloud storage. You can use apps like the Google Files app to manage and free up storage space on your smartphone. Here’s a quick and easy step-by-step guide on how to free system storage space with the Google Files app.

• Download and Install the Google Files app on your smartphone.
• In the bottom navigation bar, go to the Cleanup tab.
• Now you will see different sections like clean junk files, Large files, Delete unused apps, and more.
• Depending on your preference, go to any section and clean up the unwanted files on your smartphone.
• The Files by Google app is currently only available for Android.
• You can use alternative apps like Cleaner for iPhone, and Smart Cleaner app to clean up junk files on the iPhone app.

If you have limited storage space on your smartphone, you should also limit the number of videos you download from the YouTube app and delete videos you have already watched. This is because YouTube downloads can take up additional storage space on your device.

Network Issues

Network issues on your smartphone can also cause the YouTube app to crash and other performance issues such as slow video loading, buffering, and other network errors in the YouTube app. Some of the most common network codes in the YouTube app are 500 internal server errors.

To fix this issue, check if your device has a good internet connection. You can do this yourself by using free tools like speed test.net. Just type the speed test URL into your browser and click on the test after you visit the website. Make sure you have a download speed of at least 1 Mbps.

• Open your favorite browser and enter the URL https://www.speedtest.net/. This works on both Android and iPhone
• Click Go to start the speed test of your connection.
• Wait for some time until the test results are displayed. You will see the upload and download speed of your network connection.
• As mentioned earlier, make sure you have at least a download speed of 1 MB per second.

You can watch YouTube even on very slow Internet connections with speeds below 1 MBps, but it’s important to have faster and more reliable connections for better video speed and quality.

In some cases, your modem or router may cause network-related problems. Therefore, try resetting your modem or router to see if that fixes the problem.

Check YouTube Status

Another good troubleshooting method is to check the status of the YouTube app. Sometimes, it may happen that YouTube is unavailable. This can be due to server maintenance or updates, or in some cases due to cyberattacks or security breaches.

During these times, the YouTube app may be temporarily unavailable or have degraded performance. You can use websites like Down Detector to check the status of the YouTube app.

• You can check YouTube downtime on both smartphones and PC. Just open your browser and go to the URL https://downdetector.in/status/youtube/
• On the home screen, you will now see the main text indicating the current status of the YouTube app. You can also scroll down and see the number of user-reported outages in the last 24 hours.
• Alternatively, you can also install the Downdector app on your iPhone and Android to see the status of the Youtube app.

If the YouTube app is currently facing the issue, there is not much you can do as a user to fix the problem. Once the issue is fixed on YouTube’s side, the platform will be restored and you will be able to access the YouTube app again. All you can do is wait for some time until the problem is fixed.

Force Stop the YouTube App

Another easy way to fix YouTube crashing on your smartphone is to force-stop the YouTube app. This will not only help you solve the crash problem but also delete all the running processes that cause the YouTube app to crash on your Android or iPhone. You can force-stop the app easily.

Android:

• Open your smartphone and search for the YouTube app, long press the app and click the I button.
• In the App info section, click the Force Stop button to stop the app from running. Depending on the smartphone brand, this varies a bit, but most of the time, the Force Stop text is the same.

iOS:

• On iOS, there is no direct option to force-stop an app. You can simply close or force-stop the running apps by swiping them from the Recent screen.

Clear YouTube Cache

If forcing the YouTube app to quit doesn’t work, try clearing the YouTube app cache on your smartphone. Clearing the cache frees up space on your device and also cleans up unwanted files stored by the app on your smartphone. How to clear the YouTube app cache.

Android:

• Unlock your smartphone and locate the YouTube app. Long press the app and click the info button.
• Now you’ll find the Storage usage. This may vary depending on your smartphone.
• Now click on Clear Cache to clear the cache of YouTube.

iOS:

• Open the Settings app on your smartphone and go to General settings
• Tap on the iPhone Storage and select the Youtube app.
• Now click on the “Clear” app to clear the Youtube app cache.

Uninstall and Reinstall the App

If the YouTube crashing issue still occurs, try uninstalling the YouTube app and installing the latest version of the YouTube app on your smartphone. Uninstalling the app will delete its cache files and other files related to the app that may be corrupted or conflicting with the data causing the problem.

Reinstalling the app will give you a reboot, and the app will create new cache files and settings if needed. Uninstalling the app will also remove all YouTube downloads and videos stored offline on YouTube. Your subscriptions and other settings associated with your YouTube account are not removed in the process.

To delete the YouTube app, long-press the YouTube app and click the delete icon to uninstall the YouTube app from your smartphone.

Update Your System Software

If your smartphone has outdated software, it may not be fully compatible with the latest version of the YouTube app. Updating your system software to the latest version can sometimes help fix the problem. This is because system updates include bug fixes, performance improvements, and other updates that can help resolve the issues that may cause the YouTube app to crash on your smartphone. Here’s how you can update your system software on your Android and iPhone.

Android:

• On your Android smartphone, go to Settings and go to About
• Now look for Software Update and tap on it. This may vary depending on your phone brand. If you cannot find it, use the search bar and check for a software update.
• If an update is available, download the update and install it on your smartphone. This may take some time, depending on your smartphone and the size of the update.
• Once the update is complete, open the YouTube app on your smartphone and check if the problem persists.

iOS:

• Open the Settings app on your smartphone and go to General settings
• Next, select “Software Update” and check if there is an update available.
• If the update is available, click “Download and install on your iPhone”
• Depending on your iPhone and the size of the update, it may take a few minutes to update the system software.
• Once the update is complete, open the YouTube app on your smartphone and check if the problem persists.

Reset Your Smartphone

If none of the steps work, try resetting your smartphone. This should fix the YouTube app crash on your Android or iPhone. When you fully reset your smartphone, all the errors and incompatible issues on your smartphone will be removed, and you will get a clean and fresh look.

Make sure you have backed up your important files when you reset your smartphone. Resetting will remove all the files on your device and give you a fresh start. So it is highly recommended to back up or copy important files to another device.

Android:

Here you can learn how to reset your Android smartphone and iPhone in simple steps. It varies from device to device; here is the most common method you can use. Remember that resetting your Android smartphone to factory settings will erase all the data on your smartphone. It is highly recommended to backup your important data before you do this action

• Open Settings on your Android smartphone
• Now, navigate to System Settings, look for Reset options and tap Erase All Data. When prompted, enter the PIN and click Next. Resetting your smartphone will take a few minutes.
• Once the process is finished, set up your smartphone as new.

iOS:

• Open the settings on your iPhone and tap on General
• At the very bottom, click Transfer and Reset iPhone
• To reset to factory settings, tap Erase all content and settings
• Tap Continue and enter the passcode.
• An iCloud backup will be created automatically. It is highly recommended to create a backup to ensure that no data has been lost. If you have already created a backup, tap “Skip Backup” at the bottom.
• Finally, tap on Erase iPhone to delete all content and settings. This might take some time, depending on your iPhone and the data stored on your iPhone.

FAQ on How to Fix YouTube Crashing Issue

Further Reading:

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• How to Fix It When Apps Keep Crashing on Android
• [How to] Prevent your Web Browser from Crashing
• [How to] Fix Chrome Keeps Signing Me Out Issue
• [FIXED] Unfortunately Google Play Services Has Stopped Error on Android
• What to Do if Spotify Keeps Crashing or Closing Itself