How to Fix VLC Media Player not Playing YouTube Videos

Are you facing an issue of not playing videos on VLC? This might be because of certain settings in the cookies.

This issue can be resolved by renaming YouTube.Iua file, disabling the cookies forwarding or downloading & replacing the existing YouTube.Iua file.

If you are still dealing with this issue in your system, don’t worry, in this article, we’ll be discussing the various different ways to fix the issue.

Fix 1: Update the VLC Media player

Firstly, check whether the VLC is updated or not. If not, then keep updating. Follow the steps to update the VLC media player.

  • Open VLC Media Player
  • From the top menu, choose Help.
  • From the drop-down menu, choose to Check for Updates.
  • The system will scan for updates. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation process.
  • Close and Re-open the VLC Player.

Try playing the video and check if this helps.

Fix 2: Disable Cookies Forwarding

This fix will solve your issue. Just follow the below steps on how to disable cookies forwarding.

  • Open VLC Media Player.
  • From the top menu, click on Tools.
  • Then choose Preferences.
  • In the window that opens, in the bottom left corner, you can see the Show settings section, Select All.
  • Now, from the left-hand side menu, Click on Input/Codecs.
  • And then click on Access modules.
  • Within that, click on HTTPS.
  • On the right-hand side, untick the Cookies forwarding.
  • Click on the Save button.

Try to play the video and check whether this fix works.

Fix 3:  Download and replace the existing YouTube.lua file

If disabling the cookies doesn’t work, try to download and replace the existing YouTube.Iua file. Follow the below steps.

  1. Open your browser and download YouTube.lua file from the VLC Player Official Download link.
  2. Open Windows explorer using Windows + E.
  3. In the address bar at the top, copy-paste the below address.
    For 32-Bit Machines,
    C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\playlist.
    For 64-bit Machines,
    C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\playlist.
  4.  Locate the YouTube.luac file and delete it.
  5. In another Explorer window, Go to the Downloads folder and copy the YouTube.lua file that you downloaded from the link given in Step 1.
  6.  Paste that file in the location given in Step 3.
  7. Open VLC Media Player.
  8. Press Ctrl+N to open the Open Media window. Alternatively, choose Media > Open Network Stream from the top menu.
  9. Enter the URL of the YouTube video you want to play. Alternatively, just drag and drop the video that you want to play.
  10. Hit the Play button.

Fix 4: Rename YouTube.lua file

To fix this, VLC Media Player cannot play YouTube videos; you can rename YouTube.lua file.

To rename the file Follow the below-given instructions:

  • Click the Windows + E together to open Windows explorer.
  • On the address bar, paste the following address according to your Windows version.

For 32-Bit:

C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\playlist

For 64-bit:

C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\playlist

  • Now find youtube.lua file & rename it to youtube.luac and save it.

After that, open the VLC Player, and try to play YouTube videos.  

Fix 5: Change Value of File Caching Option

In this solution, you have to change the caching value of the File Caching option. So, follow the instructions to do so:

  • First, open the VLC media player.
  • From the menu bar, open the Tools option.
  • Then you have to click on the Preferences option.
  • Now, you will navigate to the Windows Media Player’s settings.
  • Click on the Window preference settings,
  • Now, click on the All button to view the advanced settings.
  • Under the advanced settings, click on the Input/Codecs.
  • Now, find the File Caching option > set it to 800
  • Hit the Save button to save all the changes.

After following the instructions, the problem of YouTube videos not playing VLC will be resolved.

Fix 6: Reinstall VLC Media Player

If none of the above-given fixes works for you to solve the problem, then try reinstalling the VLC Media Player. It is worth uninstalling VLC Media Player and reinstalling the VLC setup from the official website. Now launch the VLC media player and play the video and see whether it is working or not.

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