YouTube not working on your phone: why videos won't load and what to do
YouTube on the phone won't open, videos buffer or play in low quality. Causes on Android and iPhone — from throttling in Russia to app cache — and how to get normal video back.
Quick fix. If YouTube lags and your VPN doesn't help, switching VPN is easier. Get Surok in Telegram: 3 days free.
Without a VPN, YouTube is throttled in Russia — see why YouTube is slow. With a VPN it can still fail if the tunnel carries no traffic (check your IP), YouTube is excluded by split tunnelling, the server is overloaded, or the app kept an old connection — see YouTube not working even with a VPN.
App fixes: on Android clear the YouTube cache and update; on iPhone reinstall (another country's Apple ID may be needed). On mobile data with allow-lists use a CDN profile ("Europe · auto" in Surok), turn off data saving, and pick video quality manually.