YouTube is the most popular free video-sharing platform. You can watch, upload and share videos with your friends and family or with the whole world. You need a stable internet Connection to watch Youtube videos unless you have downloaded them.

Despite being connected to the Internet, some users see the error message “You’re Offline. Check your connection.” when they try to play videos. This can be a discouraging problem. Fortunately, we have several ways to help you fix the error and watch your favorite videos. Read the full guide to learn the methods and how to implement them.

Why Does YouTube Keep Saying You’re Offline Check Your Connection?

There are several reasons why YouTube keeps saying, “You are offline. Check your internet connection.” The following are the most important reasons you should know.

• Bad Internet connection: It could be that the internet connection you are using is unstable, and the speed is not enough.
• Network connection issues: The device you are using to watch YouTube might have network connection issues. These problems can also affect the Internet connection.
• Outdated browser or YouTube app: The web browser or YouTube app you are using might be outdated or have a bug that is interfering with the YouTube connection.
• YouTube server issues: Even if there are problems with the YouTube servers, you may see this error.

How to Fix “You’re Offline. Check Your Connection” Error on YouTube

Check Your Internet Connection

Check how your internet connection is working. It could be unstable or not working. You can use speed tests to check if the Internet is working well or not.

If the Internet is not working properly, get it fixed by your ISP or switch to other connections like WiFi or mobile data, whichever works well at the moment.

Check YouTube-Server Status

There are several tools like Downdetector that can help you find out if there is downtime on YouTube or another service. Check if there is downtime on YouTube.

Alternatively, you can also check the official YouTube social media handles to know if there is an announcement regarding downtime. If there is downtime, wait for the servers to become available again. If they are not, follow the methods below.

Check the Network

Check if the device you are using is well connected to the network. If the signal strength is not good, find a place where there is a good connection to fix the problem.

You can also put your device in airplane mode and turn it off to refresh the network connection. A bad network connection does not just affect YouTube. It affects everything.

If you are on a PC, make sure your system has an IP address assigned to it if it gets an IP from a DHCP server. When the DHCP server fails to provide an IP address, the internet stops working in the system. If this is the case, you can first try restarting your network connection and see if that helps. Otherwise, you’ll have to restart your network adapter as well.

In some cases, even if your IP is assigned correctly, YouTube will not open, so in those cases, you should run the following commands in administrator mode:-

netsh int ip reset
netsh winsock reset
ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
exit

Once the above commands have been run, click on the Network and Internet Settings icon at the bottom right of the screen. Navigate to the Properties of the currently active Network Adapter. Select Internet Protocol version 4 and assign the following Google DNS Server IP address:

Preferred DNS Server: 8.8.8.8
Alternate DNS Server: 8.8.4.4 

Select the validate settings option, then click OK to save and continue. Once the new changes have been applied, restart your system.

Clear YouTube app cache

The YouTube app’s cache may be corrupted. You need to clear the cache so that the Youtube App can store new data in the cache on your device.

To clear the YouTube cache on Android:

• Open the Settings app.
• Select Apps and find YouTube in the list.
• Click YouTube to open the App info.
• Select Storage.
• Click Clear cache.

This will clear the YouTube cache on your phone and make room for a new cache, which should fix the problem.

Clear Cache and Cookies on Web Browser

There is a possibility that the cached site data and cookies of your web browser are the cause of the problem. You need to clear the cache and cookies to fix the problem on YouTube.

Go to the History page on your web browser and click Clear History. There you will find options to clear the browsing history, cookies, cache, and others. Select Cookies and Cache and delete them.

Check Date and Time in Your PC

Another very important reason why you’re getting “You’re offline. Check your connection” on YouTube is the incorrect date and time settings in your system. Set your system date and time as per your local time zone and see if the problem is indeed caused by that.

Update YouTube App

The YouTube app is updated regularly to fix old bugs and bring new features to users. The YouTube experience may not be the same on old versions of the app.

Go to the Google Play Store or App Store and search for YouTube. If there is an update pending installation, you will see the Update button. Click it to update the YouTube app.

Disable VPN

If you use a VPN to connect to the Internet, disable it to see if it fixes the problem. Sometimes the servers are not as fast to connect you to the Internet when you use a free VPN.

Or change the server location to a country with better speeds and latency so you can connect to YouTube and play videos without errors.

Uninstall Third-Party YouTube Apps

If you use third-party YouTube apps like YouTube Vanced or others to get a few extra features that are missing in the official app, you need to uninstall them and use the official app to fix the bug.

The third-party apps block ads and allow you to download videos to your devices. This is against YouTube’s policies. There is a possibility that YouTube has blocked access to these apps.

Connection issues on YouTube

It can be frustrating to deal with the “You’re Offline. Check Your Connection” error.

Luckily, Internet connection problems on YouTube are easy to fix. You just need to have a good Internet connection and use YouTube as it should be, without ad blockers through third-party apps, etc.

FAQs on “You’re Offline. Check Your Connection” Error on YouTube