You switched a VPN on, opened YouTube — and there is a black screen, “An error has occurred” or an empty feed. Below: what these pictures are, how to tell in five minutes whose fault it is — the phone’s, the network’s, the app’s or the tunnel’s — and what our measurement of 29 September showed.
In short. “YouTube is not working” is three different pictures: a connection error, a feed that loads while the video does not start, and a video that plays but stalls (the last one is about speed, a separate article). We measured YouTube’s addresses from our five machines, the Russian one included: all of them answered — over IPv4 and, where the machine has it, over IPv6. So the addresses open from our side, and if the tunnel is up and YouTube is still silent, look in your network, in the app or in the tunnel itself — four checks are below.
We make Mayak — a private network with an app for Android. Everything said about us below is said with measurements: what answers from our machines and what those measurements do not say. You can check it on your own network for free. 3 days free after you confirm your email, no card needed. The trial is free and needs no card; without an email it is 1 day.
🍎 On iPhone, Mayak works through the subscription link from your account page. The real Happ (publisher Flyfrog LLC) is not in the Russian App Store — searching that word there brings up look-alike apps from other publishers. INCY (publisher LLC ITDEV) works instead: checked on 22 September 2026.
Three different kinds of “not working”
YouTube lists the messages it shows when a video will not play in its own help page (checked 29 September 2026): “An error has occurred”, “Connection to server lost”, “This video is unavailable”. They point at different things, so start with what you yourself see.
| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| “An error has occurred”, “Connection to server lost” | Most often about the connection or the app — that is where YouTube’s own help starts. Go to the five-minute check |
| The feed and thumbnails are there, the video does not start | The page and the video come from different addresses: the first opened, the road to the second did not go through. See the tunnel section |
| “This video is unavailable” on one video | Most likely it is about the video, not the network. Open another one: if it plays, your connection is fine |
| The video plays, but the wheel spins or the quality drops | That is speed, not “will not open” — a separate write-up |
| Nothing loads, not only YouTube | Then it is not about YouTube: “connected, but nothing loads” |
A five-minute check
One aim: to tell “bad on my side” from “bad on the road to YouTube”. Go in order.
- Open something else. Any site in a browser. It opens — the internet is there.
- Compare the app and the browser. Fine in the browser, not in the app — the app is at fault: restart it, update it and sign in again. Those are the first tips of YouTube’s own help; for the browser it adds checking extensions, including the ones that remove ads.
- Switch networks. Wi-Fi to mobile data and back, in the same minute. A different answer in the two networks means the network is at fault, not the phone.
- Turn the tunnel off for a minute and on again. That tells you what the tunnel alone changes. If you had our ad filter on, put it back to “No filtering” and reconnect: things rarely stop opening because of it, but the check takes a minute.
- Try a second device on the same network. Silent there too — it is not the phone.
Our measurement: does YouTube answer from our machines
On 29 September 2026, around 19:20 Moscow time, from each of our machines we gave three attempts to each of the four addresses YouTube works through: the site, the thumbnails, the app’s service address and the address that delivers the videos (the same four we named in the ad-filter article). We counted an address as answering when the server itself replied after the connection. Next to them went three control sites that have nothing to do with YouTube.
| Measured from | Over IPv4, 12 attempts | Over IPv6, 12 attempts | Control sites |
|---|---|---|---|
| Our machine in Russia | 12 of 12 | 12 of 12 | 9 of 9 |
| Netherlands | 12 of 12 | 12 of 12 | 9 of 9 |
| Poland | 12 of 12 | The machine has no IPv6 | 9 of 9 |
| Germany | 12 of 12 | 12 of 12 | 9 of 9 |
| A work machine in Moscow that reaches the network through Kazakhstan | 12 of 12 | Not measured | 9 of 9 |
A ready connection took anywhere from hundredths of a second to 1.6 s, the first attempt being the slowest. We measured the Russian row over IPv4 and IPv6 separately: in our earlier write-ups, on Telegram and Instagram, it was that very row that differed from the rest, and here it does not.
Not only our machines. We also looked into the open OONI database, where volunteers send in results from their own home and mobile connections. From 1 to 28 September 2026 it holds 43,703 checks of www.youtube.com from Russia: in 24,537 the answer differed from the control, in 18,768 all was as usual, and another 398 ended in an error of the check itself. For comparison, ya.ru has 930 checks and 9 differences. OONI itself warns that a difference can be false, for example when a site shows different things in different countries — and those numbers do not show what exactly the answer differed in.
⚠️ What this measurement does NOT say. Our machines stand in data centres, and the Russian one at one host: that is one address in one network. “It opens for us” does not mean “it opens for you”: mobile operators and home providers each have their own picture, and for OONI’s volunteers it is, by their own data, often different. We give no shares or percentages “for the country”. We did not measure the YouTube app itself or the real video-delivery addresses — only the four named above.
What the tunnel changes here. Traffic leaves from the address of our node: we measured that on 22 September with a live tunnel (described in the Telegram write-up), and today we showed that from the nodes’ addresses YouTube answers. We did not measure the whole chain “phone → tunnel → YouTube”: two measured links are not the same thing as a measured chain. How the speed of a video itself behaves from our lines is in the buffering article.
The tunnel is on, and YouTube still does not work
There are four causes. Check them in order; three of the four you can check from the phone.
1. The YouTube app goes around the tunnel. Mayak has split tunneling: apps ticked in Settings → “Split tunneling” go straight out. Our ready-made RU Apps set (Russian services the tunnel gets in the way of) does not contain YouTube: we checked the set’s file in the app on 29 September 2026. But the ticks in the list are yours, so open it and look (how it works).
2. The app remembered the failure. If you switched the tunnel on in the middle of a video, YouTube may cling to the old attempt. Close the app completely and open it again.
3. Your road to it did not go through. Services often have two roads — IPv4 and IPv6 — and they behave differently: why, and how to check. Mayak has a switch for it, “Use IPv6”: if something stopped opening, turn it off and reconnect. A different trouble shows as packet size: the page and text are there, thumbnails and video are not, and that is cured separately.
4. The tunnel did not actually come up. The icon is there, the connection is not. Check it step by step — did the address change and is traffic flowing. If not, go here: it worked and stopped.
Check it on your own network. Our measurement is about our machines and knows nothing about your network — you find that out only by trying it with your own operator and on your own Wi-Fi. The account is created right in the app; we ask for no payment details for the trial. A confirmed email opens the access — 3 free days. An email is optional: without one the trial is 1 day.
What we do not promise
- That YouTube will work for you. We make no such promise about any service. What you get depends on your network, the hour and the route.
- That our numbers are a picture of the country. They are a few addresses in data centres on one evening.
- That we answer for your part of the path — from your device to us. Your Wi-Fi, provider and phone stay yours, and a tunnel does not cure them.
What we tested
- YouTube’s addresses answering from five machines, IPv4 and IPv6 separately, with three control sites: 29 September 2026, around 19:20 Moscow time.
- The open OONI database for 1–28 September 2026: www.youtube.com, and ya.ru for comparison.
- Our RU Apps set — by the file in the app, not from memory: YouTube is not in it.
- YouTube’s help — what it advises for playback errors, 29 September 2026.
What we do not know
- How YouTube behaves on your operator. A data centre does not show that.
- The whole path through our tunnel to YouTube itself. We measured links, not the chain.
- What happens tomorrow. The measurement took a few minutes; networks change faster than articles.
- Why OONI volunteers’ answers differ. The reasons are not visible in those numbers, and we do not invent them.
Short answers
Why does YouTube not work with a VPN? There are several causes: the app goes around the tunnel, remembers a failed attempt, the road to it from your network did not go through, or the tunnel did not come up. All four are covered above.
YouTube is not working even with a VPN — what to do? Go through the five checks: browser against app, switching networks, the tunnel off and on, a second device.
Will a VPN help if YouTube will not open? We will not promise it. The mechanics are these: a tunnel changes the address a request leaves from, and the road; if the trouble was the road, another one may turn out better. If the trouble is your Wi-Fi, phone or app, it will not help.
A video is “unavailable” — is that the VPN? More often not: the message is about the video. Open another one.
And if the problem is “buffering”, not “will not open”? That is another article: why video buffers on YouTube. A similar write-up on messengers — WhatsApp not working.