[Solved] 8 Best Ways to Fix YouTube Error 400

Updated Oct 26,2018 | by Joy

YouTube is one of the most popular websites for watching videos online, but sometimes you may encounter various problems like YouTube error 400 while viewing videos. The annoying error message says “400. That’s an error. Your client has issued a malformed or illegal request. That’s all we know”. 

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If you’re suffering from the same issue, let’s first see what the YouTube error 400 is and then learn how to fix it.

Actually, this error is not connected with YouTube, but with HTTP protocol. YouTube error 400 is a HTTP status code which says that you sent a corrupted request to the server. It will appear on any website, so you might come across this problem while visiting YouTube. Want to know how to fix YouTube error 400? Now follow the 8 ways below.

Related Article: How to Solve YouTube not Playing on Chrome

When you type a invalid URL, the HTTP status code will return 404 error saying “Page Not Found”. If 404 error is not triggered, you will see 400 error.

Hence, the first simple way to fix this issue is to check the correctness of your entered YouTube URL. If the URL is correct, then move to the next step.

The F5 key is a command for refresh. Press it several times on your computer, because refreshing the page is the easiest way to fix such problem without any special skill. If you’ve tried many times and the issue remains, read on the following tips.

It’s inconvenient to clear all cookies and re-enter the login password for each website, so follow the steps below to delete cookies related to YouTube and see if it works for you.

Also Read: How to Clear YouTube App Cache on iPhone

Step 1. If you’re running Google Chrome, simply click Menu bar in your browser and go to “Settings”. Then scroll down to click “Advanced” option at the bottom.

Step 2. Scroll down to select “Content settings” and then go to “Cookies” > “See all cookies and site data”.

Step 3. Type “YouTube” into the search bar and then all the cookies related to YouTube will be shown in the screen. Click “Remove All Shown” and a popup will ask you whether you want to delete them or not. Then tap on “Clear all” to star the deletion.

After that, close your browser and restart your system. If the problem still exists, try to delete all cache and cookies by following the next method.

Deleting all cache and cookies for your browser can be an effective way to fix YouTube 400 error. Let’s see how to do it.

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Step 1. Open Google Chrome, go to “Settings” > “Advanced” > “Privacy and Security” and scroll down to tap on “Clear browsing data”.

Step 2. Pick the time that is the closest to the beginning of YouTube 400 error. Then check “Cookies and other site data” and “Cached images and files”. Next click “Clear data” to delete all cache and cookies and then close your browser and reopen it.

If you can't fix YouTube 400 error with the above methods, keep reading.

Reset your browser settings might help you solve this annoying issue. Follow the steps.

Step 1. Launch Chrome and go to “Settings” > “Advanced”. Then scroll to the end and click “Restore settings to their original defaults”.

Step 2. Click “Reset settings” to complete the reset. Note that it will disable all extensions and clear temporary data like cookies.

Go to YouTube.com and click any video to see its URL at the top of the screen. At the end of the URL, you can see a combination of numbers and letters just after the equal sign. For example, “vc1NdYXlaxA” in the screenshot is your video ID. Then copy and paste it into the search bar on Google.

DNS cache, also called DNS resolver cache, is a temporary database maintained by the computer's operating system. It contains the records of all the recent visits and other internet domains. Therefore, try to clear its cache to fix YouTube 400 error.

Step 1. Type “cmd” in the search bar at the bottom left corner of your computer. Then click “Command Prompt”.

Step 2. Enter “ipconfig/flushdns” into the page shown below and press enter. Then see if it works. 

An extension or an external program might mess with your browser files and cause a conflict or corrupt them. Then reinstalling the browser can be a good way to help you get rid of this error.

Hope these 8 methods can fix YouTube 400 error. Then you can enjoy your favorite videos from YouTube and share with your friends. Sometimes, you may not want to watch them online because of the annoying ads, then what should you do? Why not download them to your computer or iPhone and view them offline? In such way, you can’t encounter 400 error and you can watch videos everywhere. Read on to find out how to download YouTube videos.

Related Article: How to Watch YouTube Offline on PC and iPhone

The article introduces an easy-to-use software - IOTransfer to download your desired YouTube videos. Besides, it can allow you to convert YouTube videos to MP3, MP4 and other compatible formats. Follow the steps to complete the downloading.

Step 1. Free download IOTransfer and install it on your Windows 7/8/8.1/10. Also, it’s fully compatible with iOS 12.

Step 2. Go to YouTube.com and find the video you want to download. Then copy the video URL.

Step 3. Launch IOTransfer and go to “VIDEOS” > “Downloader”. Then paste the URL and click “Download”.

Note: If you want to download videos to your iPhone, connect your device with a USB cable before running IOTransfer. Then go to “VIDEOS” > “Downloader” > paste the URL and check the box saying “Automatically transfer the downloaded videos into your iOS device”. Next click “Download”. After that, you can enjoy your YouTube videos offline on iPhone everywhere.

Bottom Line:

The article lists the top 8 ways to fix YouTube 400 error. Hope they can help you a lot. Also, you can share with your friends. 

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