YouTube Video Not Processing? 19 Best Ways To Fix It?‍‍

Written by: Hrishikesh Pardeshi, Founder at Flexiple, buildd & Remote Tools.
Last updated: Jan 03, 2024

Is your video taking too long to process on YouTube? You have probably encountered processing issues while uploading your video onto the platform. It’s not surprising given the fact that about 500 hours of video content is uploaded every minute onto YouTube. Naturally, YouTube needs some time to process the video.

But, have you ever wondered why is your YouTube video not processing? Here are easy 19 fixes you need to know about why YouTube takes time to process videos and how you can fix the issue if it takes too long. Let us get started.

What does YouTube video processing mean?
Why does YouTube process videos after you upload them?
How to fix the ‘YouTube video not processing’ error?
How long does it take to upload a YouTube video?
Why is my YouTube video not processing?
Types of YouTube Video Processing Problems

What does YouTube video processing mean?

You may wonder “Why is YouTube video processing taking so long? ”. Well, you see, 300 hours of videos are uploaded to YouTube every minute. YouTube stores all the videos in its various data centres. Did you know YouTube makes several copies of your video at different resolutions? It stores them on its servers to ensure they send the best quality video to each viewer.

When you watch your video on YouTube, you don't watch the original upload. The file you watch loads at the fastest speed fastest based on your internet quality. And this is the best quality YouTube has chosen for you.

This allows YouTube to provide a video that doesn't take hours to download on your phone. For instance, if the Internet connection isn't good, you might get a 144p video. When you use the YouTube player, you can view all the different sizes of videos by clicking on the gear. YouTube also processes these different quality videos into many different chunks. This allows them to give you chunks of different qualities in case your network connection fluctuates.

Why does YouTube process videos after you upload them?

Once you upload videos onto YouTube, they are stored in the data centre. Besides, speaking in general, it takes a long time to load a video on my devices. To ensure that YouTube users get access to the best quality content on the platform, and don’t take much time to load, YouTube makes several copies of the video in different resolutions.

These copies of videos are stored on servers. So, when a user plays a video on YouTube, it provides the best resolution video file that loads quickly. The platform also makes sure that it offers best the quality of video content according to the stability of their Internet connection.

Lastly, when you upload a video, YouTube also checks if you have used music or video content that has been copyrighted. Any content that infringes the copyright violations will be deemed ineligible and will not be processed.

How to fix the ‘YouTube Video Not Processing’ error?

In case a video you are trying to upload on YouTube is taking too long to process, you can fix the issue in the following ways:

1. Wait for 10 to 15 minutes

The first way to fix the processing issue on YouTube is to wait for 10 to 15 minutes. After several minutes, the video eventually start processing. The processing percentage might itself increase if you do this.

For longer videos, the processing time will be longer. However, the processing time for shorter videos might be stuck at 0% as well. Either way, your best bet is to be patient and wait.

Leave the tab open, and do not cancel the upload. Eventually, the video will start processing after some time.

We also recommend re-uploading your YouTube video after a few hours or the next day.

2. Clear your cookies and cache

The second way to fix the processing issue on YouTube is by clearing your browser’s cookies and cache. You can use this method on all browsers. Before you clear your browser’s cookies and cache, save your video’s description and tags first.

Firstly, click on the three dots on the top navigation bar of Chrome. After this, a navigation menu will open.
On the navigation menu, you’ll see several options including “New tab”, “New window”, and more.
Hover your cursor over the “More tools” option. Then, a second navigation menu will open.
Click on “Clear browsing data…” to go to the setting to clear your browsing data.

You’ll land on the “Clear browsing data” popup. On the “Clear browsing data” popup, you’ll see the “Time range” dropdown box and 3 other checkboxes.
Click on the “Time range” dropdown box and select “Last 7 days”. You can also select “All time” if you want to clear your all-time browsing data.
Check all the boxes you wish to clear and hit "Clear data".

On MacOS:

First, with Safari launched, from the Menu Bar, click Safari and select “Preferences…”.
At the following window, choose Advanced from the top bar, and tick the box next to “Show Develop menu in a bar”.

Subsequently, from the Menu Bar, click Develop, and select Empty Caches.

You can clear your search history and even more Site Data and Cookies. Go to the Menu Bar, click Safari, and choose “Clear History…”.
Lastly, click Clear History at the following window.

Delete YouTube app cache:

For Android devices, you have the option to clear all the YouTube app cache and data within the Settings app. To navigate to these settings:

Firstly, open the Settings app, and tap on Apps & notifications.
Then, select YouTube from the list of apps.
Next, tap Storage & cache.

Tap Clear Cache, and choose Clear Storage.

Whereas for iPhones and iPods, a more effective alternative is to reinstall the YouTube app completely. For this, simply long-press the app and uninstall it, then head to the App Store to install a fresh copy.

3. Turn your Wi-Fi off then turn it back on

As you know, to post your video to YouTube completely, you’ll need a stable internet connection throughout. This allows your video to upload continuously without any disruptions. However, you might be uploading at a time your ISP is experiencing high upload traffic. Thus, if the upload speeds are low you can get the YouTube video not processing error.

Turn your Wi-Fi off and then turn it back on again.
You can also try turning your computer off and on again.
At times, you might be facing connectivity issues.

4. Hit the refresh button

Sometimes, the unstable Internet connection can interrupt the video processing and the page might get stuck. Right-click on your mouse/trackpad and refresh the page. Now, see if your video continues to process on YouTube.

5. Try the new tab hack

As understood from the title of this subhead, this is a hack. Nobody seems to know why this works, but it works like a charm. All you have to do is click on ‘My Channel’ and then on ‘Video Manager’ on YouTube. Do this while your video is still processing.

Now, close the first page on which your video is still processing and you will find that the processing speeds up on the second page.

6. Work on browser

It is natural for platforms to work better on select browsers. YouTube works best on Google Chrome. So, if your video is stuck in the processing stage, try uploading it via Chrome browser and check if it is working.

Apart from that, make sure to clear any remaining cache of your browser. You can find the option to clear caches in the Tools section of your browser. If you are using a Google Chrome browser, click on ‘More Tools’ and then hit ‘Clearing Browsing Data’.

7. Shift your video to MP4 format

Did you know that MP4 is the best format for YouTube to process videos? Yes. For those of you who are unaware, an MP4 is a common “container format” for video files that allows you to store a lot of video and audio information in smaller file sizes.

You can use video converters available online to change the format of your video to MP4 format. All you have to do is upload the video onto the tool, choose the desired format (MP4, in this case) and wait for a few seconds. The video gets converted into MP4 format with nearly zero loss in quality.

Try uploading again and check if there’s a difference in the video processing speed this time.

8. Send feedback to YouTube

YouTube is one of the most popularly used video streaming platforms. Sometimes, the platform can be a victim of technical glitches and in such cases, it is best to let the support team at YouTube know of it.

Simply click on ‘My Channel’ on Youtube and then select ‘Send Feedback’. You can elaborate on the issue you are facing in the description box and add screenshots to show them.

YouTube will finish processing your video if it does not violate any copyrights.

In any other case, YouTube will let you know why it has failed to process your video.

9. Delete and upload again

You can delete the video and upload it again. However, do this only when your video has remained in the processing stage for more than 8 hours. Just find the video that got stuck and delete it. Re-upload and see if it’s working.

10. Reload the YouTube web page or restart the YouTube app

To start, we recommend refreshing the YouTube session. This jumpstarts the uploading or processing stage of the video. Perhaps the progress of the upload appears to be stopped or frozen 🧊. However, a quick reboot can improve the upload progress resume and continue.

Since the uploading stage is from your end, reloading the page may then restart the progress. So, we’ll suggest trying this step only if it has been frozen for a long time. Note that large video files tend to take a longer time to upload. Instead, if your YouTube video is stuck while processing, you’re free to reload 🔃 the page since everything is taking place on their end.

11. Check the YouTube server status

Your YouTube video might not be uploading because of temporary server issues on their end. So, no matter how strong your internet is, you can’t establish a connection with YouTube to send an upload request.

Therefore, you can check DownDetector’s YouTube page in case there’s any server downtime.

Here, they have a map and an active comments section, where others are reporting similar YouTube upload problems. In case there are ongoing problems, then re-upload your video at a later time.

12. Open the YouTube upload page in incognito mode

By using the YouTube upload page on an incognito window 🕵️‍♂️, you can be sure that no extensions or plugins are acting on the site—unless the settings allow it. Besides that, neither the previous cache nor cookies are interfering with the YouTube upload as well.

Click the 3 dots at the upper-right, and select New incognito window. You can then open YouTube and upload your video.

13. Update your browser

Make sure your web browser must be updated to its latest version to prevent YouTube upload problems. So, if you spot the following error messages, these may be mainly due to your outdated web browser.

14. Initially upload your YouTube video as “Unlisted” or “Private”

Sometimes you might notice that higher quality or definition options aren’t available. This is because the video is processed in a low resolution for various streaming devices. Usually, you should see the higher quality options (1080p, 1440p, 2160p) appear after a few hours.

On that note, we recommend uploading videos as unlisted and then making them public. Schedule them to upload later. This way you can also avoid issues where your YouTube video processing gets stuck.

15. Allow permissions for the YouTube app

This fix caters to mobile users whose YouTube video isn’t uploaded through the YouTube app. Unlike on PC, the YouTube app on your mobile device requires certain permissions to upload videos. This includes access to your device’s photos, camera, microphone, and files/storage.

By granting it the necessary permission, it can access the video you’re trying to post and proceed to upload it. If you’re not comfortable with the YouTube app always having access to these resources, you can disable it once you’re done uploading. Simply follow the same steps to disable them.

Thus, the following are the steps to enable permissions for the YouTube app on your iOS or Android device:

For iPhone/iPad

First, open the Settings app.
Scroll down and select YouTube.
Turn on the slider next to the Microphone, Camera, and Photos.

For Android:

First, open the Settings app and select Apps & notification.
Then, choose YouTube from the list of apps.
After that, select Permissions, and under Denied, choose permission (Camera, Microphone, Storage).

Then, select either Allow or Allow only while using the app.

16. Duplicate the upload page and make changes or re-upload

This step is nifty hack users have found to jumpstart their YouTube video processing. We believe there might’ve been cache or platform glitches that prevent or stall the processing on the old tab. So, making changes on an alternate tab has a similar effect as a reload, which refreshes the session.

17. Temporarily disable any firewall, antivirus, or VPN

Moreover, there may be restrictive security settings 👮 on your PC that are preventing the YouTube video upload. When this happens, you’ll be shown the “A security error has occurred” message.

When misconfigured, these security settings may block suspicious communication or data transfer, including your YouTube upload. These security settings are from the Firewall, Antivirus, anti-spyware, etc.

Similarly, a misconfigured VPN can contribute to your slow or frozen YouTube video upload since it can ring some proxy detection alarms 🚨.

On that note, we suggest temporarily turning off this security software and then try re-uploading your video to YouTube.

18. Compress your video

We aim to reduce the video’s file size, so it takes less time and internet bandwidth to upload. Hence, it’s less likely you’ll come across YouTube errors when uploading. Usually, if you’re trying to upload a raw video or one that’s just finished exporting, you’ll notice it possesses a large file size.

However, there’s plenty of room and ways to cut its size down ✂️ without majorly affecting the video quality.

19. Render and export your video again

You already know how long does it take to upload a YouTube video. But if it is taking you longer than usual, you might want to check your video stats.

Maybe, there’s part of your video which has been corrupted. So, your video stops processing at this point. This is mainly because that part of the video has been rendered poorly or exported incompletely. Thus, this is a common cause for YouTube videos that aren’t uploading fully or correctly.

Therefore, we suggest rendering and exporting the video again.

How long does it take to upload a YouTube video?

Technically speaking, the time required for processing a video depends on the upload traffic, video size and format. The longer the video duration, the higher the amount of time it needs to process.

However, if you need an exact number, every minute of the video is processed for at least a minute. This implies that a 5-minute video takes at least 5 minutes to process the video. We hope your question, "How long does it take to upload a YouTube video?" is now answered.

Why is my YouTube video not processing?

Your Youtube video is not processing either because-

You haven’t waited long enough
Your upload speed is slow
You might be uploading during peak time.

At times, a YouTube video might get stuck for several minutes. You can try to wait it out and see if it gets fixed in itself.

Once you’ve waited for several minutes, the video will eventually begin processing as usual. Secondly, if your internet speed is low, your video will take a longer time to be processed.

Make sure to check your upload speed before you upload a video to YouTube. Make sure your upload speed is above 5 Mbps. If it is below 5 Mbps, your video might not be processed because it is too slow.

Lastly, if you’re uploading during peak time, it might take longer to upload your video to YouTube.

Yes, it might not be the best time to upload a video.

Types of YouTube video processing problems

So far, the following are the common errors we’ve seen users report with their YouTube video uploads:

The “Processing Abandoned. The Video Failed to Upload or Could Not be Processed” error message

Users get stuck with the “Processing has started” message

Video upload gets stuck while processing, for example, at 0%, 95%, or 99%

The video quality is low right after uploading
New videos don’t play in high resolutions (4k, 1080p)

YouTube video’s colours are not displaying properly
The audio and video are out of sync
YouTube freezes while uploading
The YouTube video upload is stalling, crashing, or failed
The uploaded video has no thumbnail
Audio plays on a computer but not on mobile devices