Fix YouTube Full Screen Not Working on Windows 10

February 18, 2023

YouTube is the leading video sharing platform on the web. It has a wide range of videos and is designed for all types of users. In addition, Google's control makes it an unstoppable force. No company can match YouTube when it comes to views and engagement. Over the years, YouTube has changed its look and feel many times. It has also encountered many issues that have been reported frequently by users. One such issue is the YouTube fullscreen issue, which causes YouTube videos to not play or load in fullscreen even after selecting fullscreen. This can be annoying when you want to watch a video in detail or enjoy it on a big screen, especially for content like movies and documentaries. If you're dealing with YouTube fullscreen not working with Windows 10, then you've come to the right place. We bring you a helpful guide that will teach you how to fix YouTube fullscreen not working problem.

How to Fix YouTube Full Screen Not Working on Windows 10

There can be many reasons for YouTube fullscreen issue and some of them are listed below.

Flash player problem
Corrupted cache files
Google profile problem
Interference from extensions
Outdated version of Chrome

After knowing why the YouTube full screen not working issue on Windows 10 occurs, let’s look at the methods that will fix the YouTube full screen not working issue. We'll start with the basic methods and move on to the more advanced ones towards the end.

Note. Settings and options may vary for different browsers.

Basic Troubleshooting Steps

These are some basic troubleshooting methods that you should perform before any other method. They can fix the YouTube fullscreen not working issue.

1. Restart your browser. Sometimes minor issues in the browser can cause YouTube fullscreen to fail. You can fix this by closing your browser and reopening it. This will refresh the browser and may resolve the issue.

2. Sign out of your Google account. In some cases, this issue can occur due to certain Google profiles and their personal settings. To test this, log out of your Gmail account and try playing a YouTube video in full screen in your browser. This might fix the issue.

3. Restart your computer. Restarting your computer can fix many system errors and other minor errors. This may solve this problem. You can restart your computer by following our guide on how to restart or reset your Windows computer.

4. Update Google Chrome. If you are using an outdated version of Chrome, many issues may occur, such as the YouTube fullscreen issue. Chrome regularly releases updates to fix issues and fix bugs. We recommend that you update your browser by following our Google Chrome update guide.

Method 1: Clear your browser cache

Many users have reported that they managed to fix this problem by clearing their browser history. It deletes browser data and other cache files that can cause this issue if they are corrupted. This can fix YouTube fullscreen not working issue and you can do it by following our guide.

Note. To verify that this problem is caused by corrupted cache files, run YouTube in incognito mode in your browser and try to run the YouTube video in full screen mode. If it works, you can continue with the guide below to clear cache and cookies in Google Chrome.

Method 2: Change Flash Player and content settings

Users of the older version of Chrome may experience this issue as it has two flash players. These two flash players can interfere with each other's performance and cause YouTube's full screen mode to work incorrectly. You can fix this by disabling one flash player and you can do that by following these steps.

1. Press the Windows key, type Google Chrome and click Open.

2. Type chrome://plugins in the address bar and press the Enter key.

3. Find pepflashplayer.dll and click the "Disable" button next to it. This will disable this flash player.

This should fix the issue. If you are using a newer version of Chrome, you may experience this issue due to Chrome blocking certain content from being displayed. You can fix this issue by allowing Chrome to play protected content. To do this, follow these steps.

1. Type chrome://settings/content/ in the address bar and press Enter. This will open the "Privacy and Security" section in the Chrome settings window.

2. Scroll down and expand the Advanced Content Options option by clicking it.

3. Click the Secure Content Identifiers option to expand it.

4. In the secure content identifiers, make sure that "Sites can play protected content" and "Sites can use identifiers to play protected content" are selected.

Note. If you are still facing the issue, try disabling the hardware acceleration option in Chrome. You can do this by going to chrome://settings/system and turning off the option to use hardware acceleration if available.

Method 3: disable extensions

Chrome offers many extensions that can add features to it and make it more efficient. But sometimes, certain extensions can interfere with certain features of Chrome and cause issues such as not being able to load YouTube videos in full screen. You can fix this problem by disabling extensions, and to do so, follow these steps.

1. Open the Google Chrome browser.

2. Go to the address bar, type chrome://extensions/ and press the Enter key. You will see all extensions installed in Chrome.

3. Turn them off one by one to turn them off. For example, the Request X extension is disabled.

4. After disabling all extensions, check if the issue is resolved. If you managed to play a YouTube video in full screen mode, then one by one, start enabling extensions.

5. If the problem occurs after enabling any particular extension, you can disable it and leave all other extensions enabled.

Method 4: Reinstall Google Chrome

If none of the methods worked for you, then this is the last option to fix YouTube fullscreen not working issue. Reinstalling Google Chrome will fix all problems in your browser and you should be able to get the new version of Chrome without problems. To do this, follow our guide below.

Note. Before reinstalling Chrome, back up your bookmarks, passwords, and other important data.

1. Press the Windows key, type apps and features, and click Open.

2. Search for Chrome in the Search this list box.

3. Then select Chrome and click the highlighted Uninstall button.

4. Click "Delete" again to confirm.

5. Now press the Windows key, type %localappdata% and click Open to navigate to the local AppData folder.

6. Open the Google folder by double-clicking on it.

7. Right-click the Chrome folder and select the Delete option as shown below.

8. Press the Windows key again, type %appdata% and click Open to navigate to the AppData Roaming folder.

9. Go to the Google folder again and delete the Chrome folder as shown in steps 6-7.

10. Finally, restart your computer.

11. Then download the latest version of Google Chrome as shown in the picture.

12. Run the setup file and follow the on-screen instructions to install Chrome.

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We hope this guide was helpful and you were able to fix YouTube fullscreen not working on Windows 10. Let us know which method worked best for you. If you have any questions or suggestions feel free to leave them in the comments section.