YouTube Comments Won’t Load? Here’s Why (Solved)

As we had stated in a previous article, YouTube comments are important because it is a tool for measuring the credibility of a video and its creator.

From a viewer’s perspective, YouTube comments help you decide if the video has truths to it.

From a creator’s perspective, it helps you affirm your authority on a topic, and helps you gauge your engagement.

Why won’t YouTube comments load?

YouTube comments load in the comments section of a YouTube video. If you don’t see them loading, you may be experiencing a technical issue with your browser, a slower internet connection, or improper loading of the page. Consider refreshing, checking your connection, or your browser settings.

If your comments on a video don’t load, here are some things to consider.

How Come YouTube Videos Won’t Load?

There are varying reasons why comments won’t load.

These include having a slow Internet connection or more technical causes that are related to your browser’s settings.

You may also have comments disabled, or the video link is broken and no longer available – which means the comments are gone too.

If you are experiencing any of these difficulties, try to consult your network, browser, computer, or try to find an unbroken link.

Where Do I Find YouTube Comments?

You can find the comments section below the description of the video.

Note that you cannot see comments when using the full-screen mode to view your video.

If you are on mobile, the comments will be hidden by “watch next” suggestion videos below the video you are currently viewing.

To find them, click on the video creator’s description, and they should load up quickly below that.

Where Can I Find Replies to a Comment?

If you are using YouTube on your desktop, you can find the replies below the comment posted on.

For the tablet version of YouTube, the replies are shown to the right in landscape mode.

In portrait mode, replies are shown below the video, and the other replies are hidden.

The same can be said about comments on YouTube when viewed on a smartphone, except that comments are hidden in landscape mode, as YouTube uses full-screen mode when the screen is rotated to landscape.

Where Can I Find the Chat for YouTube Live Videos?

You can find the live chats of videos on the right side of the screen.

In full-screen mode on mobile, the live chat is located on the left side of the screen.

On your smart TV, the live chat is placed on the right side.

Should I Enable Comments on YouTube?

YouTube comments are a good way to gauge how engaging your content is; however, creators turn off comments on purpose for some videos for varying reasons.

Some turn it off as the video was only meant to be embedded externally on a website.

Others turn it off due to the content, such as minors featured, to ward off online predators.

There are some cases when creators disable comments when they do limited runs or broadcasts of their material, which they take down after a certain time.

If your goal is to generate more followers, then, by all means, you should enable your comments. If you just want to upload a video so you can embed it on your website, then disable it.

How Come Some Channels Remove Comments?

Comments are removed on some channels because they violate YouTube terms of use.

These include comments classified as spam and comments from accounts purged by YouTube for inactivity.

YouTube conducts periodic audits of videos, ensuring the integrity of videos.

That means no spam bots, no artificial views, no unusual viewer behavior on published videos.

That is why you may notice a drop in your comment counts, especially when YouTube purges these accounts.

There are cases also when the owner of the channel removes comments, for whatever reason. Owners have full discretion over which comments to retain, and which ones are deleted.

Approved & Disabled Comments:

If a comment you posted is not visible, there is also a chance that the owner of the video has not approved your comment.

Since they have full discretions, this also means having a say on whether a comment will be approved or not.

The comment moderation feature is optional, so owners have the choice of whether or not to activate it.

Also, if a YouTube channel owner disables commenting on a video, all comments posted before the disabling are hidden.

These comments reappear once the owner restores commenting.

There are times when a commenter deletes the comment he posted, whether by accident or on purpose.

Flagged & Inappropriate Comments:

In some cases, comments are removed after YouTube flags a video for having content oriented for or featuring children.

Youtube blocked millions of videos featuring children or are child-oriented in a move to comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.

After being slapped with a 170 million dollar fine regarding the data privacy violations related to minors, YouTube moved to block commenting on these videos to protect children from online predators.

Lastly, there are times that your comment is buried under other comments.

YouTube shows comments in order of relevance.

Your comment may not have enough likes for it to be considered relevant.

The hierarchy of comments is the pinned comment first, followed by the most liked, and down to the least liked.

My Comments are Taking too Long to Load

If YouTube comments are taking too long to load, click refresh on your browser.

Sometime there may be issues that a page refresh can handle.

You may also wait for a few more minutes, in case the problem is at the end of YouTube.

If this still does not work, clear your temporary files on your computer.

Sometimes, these browser-generated files like browser history can slow down your YouTube’s performance.

That is why it is recommended to clear the caches and other system-generated temporary files to prevent lags when browsing. Reset your browser to default as well.

If the comments are still not loading, you should check your Internet connection.

Slow Internet connections also slow down the loading of comments.

Should you think this is the problem, shut down your computer and modem. Then, restart both devices after three minutes.

My Comments are Only Loading in Incognito Mode

If your comments load when using incognito mode, you should disable your browser plugins.

You can opt to disable them all at the same time or deactivate one by one to troubleshoot which plugin is the troublesome one.

Incognito browsing is a great way to troubleshoot your browser for any irregularities.

YouTube Comments are not Loading on Chrome

If comments are not loading on Google Chrome, chances are it’s a browser plugin issue.

To diagnose, you can open a Chrome window in incognito mode and load the video.

If the comments appear, then you need to check the plugins on Chrome.

Disable them all, then enable them one by one, until you spot the plugin that prevents comments from loading.

Or, you can clear your Chrome’s browsing data, including the caches and history.

YouTube Comments are not loading on Safari

If YouTube comments are not loading in the Safari Browser, open the Preferences and look for Privacy.

Under “Privacy”, open “Manage Website Data” and click “Remove all”.

YouTube Comments are not loading on Firefox

If Firefox is not loading the comments on a YouTube video, consider this fix:

1. Go to Preferences, and open Privacy and Security.
2. Look for Cookies and Site Data, and select clear.

Alternatively, check your browser plugins. Disable and enable to check for issues.

YouTube Comments are not Loading on my iPad

YouTube on the iPad has an incognito mode available, so you can use it to check if there is anything wrong.

If there is nothing wrong, consider clearing your data through the app and see if the comments load.

If you had installed an unverified app on your device, such as ad blockers, you should disable them.

That might be preventing comments from loading on the YouTube app.

YouTube Comments are not Loading on my Smartphone

Like the iPad, the YouTube app on smartphones also has an incognito mode available.

You can use this to troubleshoot.

If the comments load using incognito, you will have to do some troubleshooting for the comments to load.

Particularly for Android, wherein there is a lot of software flexibility and the ability to install unverified apps, you should check for any apps like ad blockers that may be affecting the comments section.

Uninstall any app that you suspect to cause this.

My YouTube Live Chat Comments are Missing.

Live chat comments appear at the exact time posted during the video stream.

Instead of scrolling through the chatbox, you need to scroll through the video itself and look for the time the comment was posted.

Are YouTube Live Chats the Same as YouTube comments?

YouTube live chats are comments posted when a video is premiered or streamed live.

For those who use live streams on YouTube, the live chat is used to interact in real-time with your audience.

The regular comments sections are for audience interaction on videos that are not premiered or streamed live.

This comment system of YouTube helps organize conversations.

Comments are threaded and allow people to reply or chime in on a question or reaction posted.

Also, a YouTube owner can pin a comment for people to read at once.

Sources:

YouTube Comments Not Loading: How to Fix?

YouTube confirms a test where the comments are hidden by default

Youtube Is Moving Comments Again! (How To Fix It)