YouTube Comments Not Loading (Try THESE Fixes First!)

Fixing YouTube Comments Not Loading

Fixing YouTube comments loading issues isn’t a clean cut-and-dried process, though. There’s no definitive way to know why your YouTube comments won’t load. It could be YouTube itself or maybe your browser cache.

To troubleshoot your YouTube comments loading problems, follow the steps below and cross-reference your results.

1. Sign Into Your Google Account

While YouTube video comments should be able to be viewed regardless of whether you are signed in to your Google account, sometimes this turns out to be the most basic solution, and certainly the simplest.

Simply clicking the “Sign In” prompt at the top right corner will allow you to log on with any of your Google accounts that you have previously used on the device.

If you are already signed on and still not seeing comments, you can try signing out and then signing back in.

Are YouTube comments still not showing? Try signing in with another one of your Google accounts and navigating to the video.

If you don’t have more than one, feel free to create a spare to address these types of issues.

2. Reload YouTube

Another very basic troubleshooting step is as easy as refreshing the page. To reload YouTube, click the rounded arrow icon on your browser header.

You can also right-click on any white portion of the YouTube page and select the “Reload” option from the popup menu.

Either option will preload the page. This is usually a quick and easy method to address the “YouTube comments not loading” problem.

Oftentimes, a temporary glitch with a particular video page or a temporary problem on YouTube could have caused the problem. If your first attempt to reload does not work, give it another shot a couple of minutes later.

3. View a Different Video

If you have signed in and reloaded the page a few times yet are still not seeing the comments of a particular video, try selecting a different video to view. Did the comments show up here? Try a third video if the other video’s comments are not displayed.

If those have no comments, there may be a problem with YouTube or some type of permissions-based bug in your particular setup.

If only one video seems affected, the video owner might have chosen to review the comments before they are posted.

It is also possible that the page’s owner opted to turn the comments off, preventing any viewer from leaving comments. This is typically depicted with a message instead of the comments denoting the video owner’s choice.

4. Change Comment Sorting Format

If the blue wheel is plaguing your YouTube experience, consider re-sorting that YouTube page’s comments.

There might be an issue loading certain older comments, but that should not hinder your experience viewing them.

If you choose to resort to choosing “Newest First,” you are essentially reversing the load of the comments in reverse chronological order. If the newest comments have no issues, you will likely see them appear.

If you are interested in seeing the most popular and most liked comments instead, you can also sort to put Top Comments first.

5. Open YouTube In Incognito Mode

When the comments don’t display, the problem could be with your browser or some recent update that affected the ability to load the comment components.

This will be reported to YouTube quickly enough, and they will work on sorting it out. Many of these issues are due to cached data or settings (retained from previous accesses to the site) or due to certain aspects of site data, cookies, extensions, or plugins.

If you suspect this to be the case, you can use your browser’s incognito mode. Because this mode uses no plugins or extensions, they won’t get in the way of comments loading.

Google Chrome has an incognito mode that’s easy to access. For instance, you will see it in the vertical ellipsis menu at the top, right under the “New window” option.

Don’t forget to look into what extension or a plug-in for your browser caused the problem in the first place at some point later.

6. Clean Browser Cache

This is another important angle to consider regarding cached data’s role in preventing websites from working properly.

Data is cached locally to leave some of the images, thumbnails, and settings from prior visits to the site to speed up loading time during future visits.

Unfortunately, sometimes, the restrictions from prior uses remain, too. And if your last visit to YouTube included site data that could prevent comments from displaying, the settings may be operating from a local cache rather than being reloaded fresh.

You can clear the cached data and cookies through regular window maintenance routines, or perform a “Hard Refresh”. Most Windows-based browsers can do so by hitting Ctrl + F5 at the same time while on the YouTube page.

7. Disable Browser Extensions

When a YouTube page loads, its various parts load as separate, fragmented components, though they appear as one unified page to the viewer.

If you have installed a recent browser extension or updated one, something about it may be affecting the proper load of certain components on the page.

If you can disable your browser’s plugins, extensions, or recent add-ons, you might be able to regain your ability to view and post comments on YouTube. In Windows, you can select the vertical ellipsis menu and select More tools then Extensions.

From there, you can explore all of your currently set extensions and experiment with disabling certain ones that could be causing the problem.

8. Clear App Cache and Data (Android/iOS)

Mobile devices are not immune from YouTube comment problems, either. If you are not seeing or able to enter comments on an Android device, you can also remove the app’s cache.

To do this, select Apps from the Apps & Notifications menu, then select the YouTube app from the list.

Look for the Storage & cache section, which will tell you how much space is currently occupied by cached data on this app. If you drill down into it, you will see a couple of options, one of them being Clear cache.

This option allows a video to reload its components entirely rather than relying on prior preferences or videos.

Clearing the cache is a bit more challenging on the iOS platform. It essentially requires deleting and reinstalling the app.

9. Disable Ad Blockers

Ad Blockers are notorious for causing these types of page loading deficiencies. While useful at blocking ads, the extension sometimes goes overboard with blocking components that it may suspect are spam but are just a function aspect of the page.

Disabling or tweaking the ad blocker restrictions or perhaps white-listing the particular video page could allow you to see the comments.

10. Disable Proxy Settings and VPNs

Improperly configured VPNs and certain proxy settings could also be the cause of the YouTube comment viewing issues. The fix for these problems is actually relatively simple.

The VPN settings reconfigure when the VPN is restarted, so if you simply log off the VPN connection and log back on, most configuration hiccups are elevated.

If that doesn’t work, you may need to try shutting the VPN off completely and reloading the YouTube page.

In Windows, the proxy settings can be disabled by pulling up Internet Options from the Start Menu, navigating to Connections, and then LAN settings.

There will be several checkboxes on the pop-up that follows, all of which are recommended to be unchecked.

11. Reset Your Browser

If you have determined that the web browser you are using is the source of the issue, you can take one more, slightly more drastic step: resetting your browser.

This is the same basic idea as restoring a piece of electronic equipment to factory settings. A browser undergoes many changes and tweaks during use.

Among the potential hundreds, one of those can be the source of the YouTube comments issue, but tracking down which one can be quite a feat.

If you are ok with taking your browser back to its default state, it will revert to all the initially recommended settings, and you will likely get your comment viewing and writing ability on YouTube back.