So, you sat down after a tedious day at work, trying to make the best out of the situation, only to realize that your YouTube search isn’t working. Kind of frustrating, isn’t it? Well, don’t worry though because such situations are very common and can be fixed with the right methods. It could be an issue with your phone, an even bigger issue with YouTube’s bug fixes, or something that needs your phone or desktop a quick restart to bump up its performance.
If you are worried that something is seriously wrong and can’t be fixed altogether, we have a few ways you can rectify the issues in no time at all.
How To Fix YouTube Search Not Working
- Start with your browser’s cache and cookies
These temporary data hiders are here to make your user experience worthwhile but they are also responsible for slowing down your phone exponentially. And, if that is an issue you are consistently facing, we’d highly recommend you clear out all the accumulated cache and cookies before they take a turn for the worse.
If you open YouTube from your browser, this is the first step to fixing the search option malfunction. It is easy and gets the job done without any complications at all. You will find the cookies and cache under your browser’s settings and you can delete them for the last 24 hours, last 7 days, or even the whole month. The choice is yours.
- Update your browser
We are all guilty of not doing this, more than once. Yes, you got a notification asking you to update your browser for the ultimate user experience but then you forgot to do it. Whatever the reason be, you must update the browser if your associated apps on the browser like YouTube aren’t working.
If you are using Chrome, follow the steps to update your browser:
- Open Chrome and navigate to the Help button
- From there, click on About Google Chrome and the browser should automatically start updating itself
- Once the update is successfully installed, it will ask you to Relaunch the application to enable you to start using it again
If the issue is still persistent, you might want to get the YouTube troubleshooting done.
- Open the browser in Incognito mode
Another effective way you can fix your YouTube search not working issue is by opening YouTube on the Incognito mode instead of the standard one. Once you have opened in the said mode, you can open YouTube on your search bar and then search for the video that you are looking for.
If it is available then, chances are there are some restrictions put on the video that is preventing it from being searchable or YouTube has found something wrong with the video and is limiting its reach.
- Switch to another browser
If it doesn’t work on Google Chrome, try Firefox. This is a mantra that works like a charm and is used way more often than people would like to admit. Just ensure that whichever browser you are using, should have the details updated and if the app isn’t in its latest version, first update it, and only then should you try opening it up. The process is just that simple.
So, when you open the YouTube webpage via a different browser, it does become a lot easier and effective in searching for the specific video that you are likely looking for. Sometimes, the issue is with the browser and this fixes the issue effectively.
- Focus on the data and cache on the YouTube app
While we talked about clearing out the cache and cookies from the browser’s settings, you need to do the same thing with the YouTube app as well because the problem is persistent there too. If you are an avid YouTube user, it is common for the app to collect the data and store the cache to make your user experience streamlined.
In such cases, you need to delete them to free the RAM and have a clean slate, to begin with. Sometimes, the excess storage is what causes the YouTube search to lag and not work, so make sure you fix that issue while it’s evident.
You can delete the data and cache by following the steps mentioned:
- Go to your phone’s Settings
- Navigate down to Storage under that and select Apps
- From there, select YouTube and clear out the data and the cache present there
Doing so will get rid of the personalized videos that you were getting on your explore page, so you need to sacrifice that.
- Fix your device’s time and date
Although it might seem and sound not related, unfortunately, they are. Google is working on a real-time basis and if your device’s time and data aren’t synced with the actual time, it becomes difficult for Google apps to function optimally. This means that if you are opening YouTube from your Chrome browser, you will witness glitches and not find the video that you are searching for.
You can easily modify your device’s time and date from the settings, so that shouldn’t take you long. Just navigate down to the Settings and Select Date and Time and change them to the correct time and date that is now. Once done, you can relaunch the app and see if the search thing is showing the desired results or not.
- Check for YouTube app updates
When you are using the YouTube app directly, keep in mind that the developers are consistently working on the app to improve and optimize the user experience. So, bug fixes and stuff are part of the updates that come in on the Play Store and App Store. If you haven’t updated your app in a long time, now is the favorite spot to do it before it gets worse and the issue lingers around.
What you can do is check your Play or App Store for updates. If there are updates, download and install them and relaunch the application. Try searching for the video after that and 9/10 times, it should work just fine.
If your YouTube search option isn’t working, we hope one of these above tricks should help you out. Just ensure that you try out the most probable remedy to the issue that you think is causing the bug and that should be enough to fix the problem. However, you can always uninstall and reinstall the app if nothing works.
FAQs
Why is the YouTube search not working?
If the YouTube search option isn’t working persistently, it is a sign that your app or browser needs an update, there is some temporary glitch or bug that is causing the issue or you can relaunch the app and check again.
How do I reset my YouTube?
If you are stuck trying to figure out how to reset your YouTube app, the process is pretty simple. All you need to do is clear out the data and cache from the YouTube app and it should be reset then.
Is YouTube paid version worth it?
The premium version is an ad-free one, so yeah, to an extent, it is worth the experience. But, if you don’t mind the ad, we’d recommend sticking to the standard option.
