Why does my YouTube say Error loading captions?

Do you have captions enabled for YouTube videos but they do not show up?

Do you also notice that at the begging of every video you try to watch on YouTube that a pop-up message that says: “Error loading Captions.”?

You may have also noticed that this error mostly occurs in offline YouTube videos, you the ones you download in your YouTube app.

Not being able to see the captions or subtitles on a video can be as inconvenient as not being able to see without your glasses.

Most of the time, try as you may you will find it hard to fix this error if you don’t know where to look or what settings to tweak around.

However, simple actions like clearing your cache or reinstalling the app, or even refreshing the YouTube window with “ctrl+R” can sometimes fix this issue.

In this guide, you will learn how to fix “Error loading captions” issue on YouTube mobile and PC.

Before you can begin fixing this caption error on YouTube, you need to note that not every video uploaded on the YouTube platform comes with captions/subtitles.

So make sure that the video you are trying to fix has the captions uploaded by the channel owner, you can check this by:

• Make sure your internet connection is turned on,
• Playing the video and while still playing, tap on the video screen and then tap on the “cc” icon that is on the top right corner of your screen,
• If captions are available for the video, they should show up, if not; then you won’t see any.

Update: Currently YouTube automatically adds captions to videos, so almost every video on the YouTube platform comes with captions AKA subtitles.

Moving on to the main topic of this guide, if you are sure that the video you are trying to watch on YouTube is supposed to have captions but you are not seeing any.

Then try out these methods below to fix this.

1. Check your internet connection.

2. Allow permissions.

3. Update the YouTube app.

4. Reinstall YouTube.

5. Clear all cache data.

6. Refresh the YouTube window.

1. Check your internet connection

One of the major causes of error loading captions on YouTube is bad internet connectivity.

So once you get this error message, access other apps with your current internet connection to see if they are loading correctly.

If they are not, turn on your airplane mode and turn it off again, this way your connection will gain more stability and you can access the YouTube video again.

In a case where you are sure that your internet connection is great, and has nothing to do with the “Error loading captions” on YouTube proceed to fix 2. 

2. Allow permissions

For those that are accessing YouTube on their phones, you may be getting the “Error Loading Captions” error because you may have mistakenly denied the YouTube app access to one or more permissions.

So head over to “App manager” in the “Settings” app on your phone, tap on the YouTube app followed by “Permissions”.

Enable everything else on the list except “Contacts” and “Telephone” and then close the “Settings” app to save.

After this, try loading the video again, the captions should load properly this time, if not; move on to fix 3.

3. Update the YouTube app

If after you have enabled the necessary ‘Permissions’ and you are still getting the “Error Loading Captions” when trying to enable caption/subtitles in a YouTube video.

You may need to update the YouTube app on your device to the latest available version.

This is because most of the errors we get on YouTube are mostly caused by bugs and most of these bugs are sometimes targeted and fixed with every new update release.

4. Reinstall YouTube

If you are still getting the error after updating the YouTube app, try uninstalling and reinstalling the YouTube app on your device.

But before you can do this make sure that you have written down your log-in details somewhere you can remember them.

After reinstalling the app, go to the YouTube video that you are getting the error on, and restart it and it should be fixed now and the captions of that video will be displayed properly.

5. Clear all cache data

If you know a lot of about how cache data works you will know how important it is to clear them once in a while.

Clearing the cache data of your YouTube app has been known to be able to fix this error loading captions issue on some devices.

6. Refresh the YouTube window

If you are getting the “Error Loading Captions” error while accessing YouTube on a PC, try refreshing the video window.

To do this, click on the “ctrl and R” keys at once, and make sure that you paused the video before doing this so as not to lose any progress.

Conclusion

If you watch YouTube videos or regular videos often you would know how important captions/subtitles are to enjoy a video.

The “Error Loading Captions” error is very common on YouTube and it can hinder the user experience of the watcher.

This error can happen for many reasons or just one.

The ways to fix this error have been included and explained in this guide.

Additional Reading:

How To Fix “You’re offline. Please check your network connection” On YouTube In Windows 10

How To Speed Up YouTube HD Processing

How To Share A Private YouTube Video [A Complete Guide]

Why does it say error while loading on YouTube?

Why can't I get subtitles on YouTube?