Why comments are not showing — and which fix is yours.

The fix depends entirely on which of these you are looking at, and the four common guides on this topic all start with “clear your cache” — which fixes one cause out of five. Match the symptom first.

Start from what you see

Find your row below. The left column is what is on your screen; the right column is what is actually happening. Only the last row is a browser problem, so only the last row is fixed by clearing cache or disabling an extension.

The five causes, and what actually fixes each

Read the cause before you act on the fix. Three of these five cannot be fixed from a browser at all — for those, the fix has to happen in YouTube Studio or on the account.

1. The creator turned comments offPer-video settings override channel defaults, so one upload can have them closed while the rest of the channel is open. A channel-level default set to disable or hold everything affects every upload that inherits it. Viewers cannot turn them back on — only the creator can, in YouTube Studio.Fix: In YouTube Studio: Content, select the video, Show more, then Comments and ratings.
2. Made for KidsComments are turned off by policy on content designated Made for Kids, and the creator cannot switch them back on while that designation applies. This is a policy restriction, not a bug — so no browser fix will bring them back.Fix: Check the audience setting on the video details page. You can appeal a wrong classification.
3. Held in the moderation queueThe comment was received but is not published yet. Potentially inappropriate comments are held by default, so a brand new account posting its first comment usually lands in the queue rather than on the page.Fix: YouTube Studio, Community, then the Held tab to approve it. Approval makes it public.
4. Restricted Mode on the viewer sideViewers with Restricted Mode enabled cannot see comments at all. It may be enabled on their account, or enforced by a school, library, employer or network. A locked toggle that returns by itself means something outside the browser is enforcing it.Fix: Account menu, then Restricted Mode. If the toggle is locked, test on a different account or network instead of trying to bypass it.
5. Sorting, filtering or spam detectionTop comments is a ranked view, not a complete chronological list, so a comment can exist and still not appear there. Separately, YouTube's automatic systems hold or remove comments that look like spam — bursts of posting, repeated text, links, or heavy emoji use are the usual triggers.Fix: Switch sort to Newest first. If it is still missing, the comment was held, filtered or removed.

When the comments cannot be read by any tool

This is the part worth being precise about, because it is where expectations get broken. External tools read comments through YouTube’s own API, so they see exactly what an official client sees — no more.

• Moderation queue — not published yet, so no tool can see it.
• Made for Kids, private or age-restricted — closed by policy, not returned.
• Removed by the creator or by YouTube — deleted, so nothing to read.
• Blocked words or hidden users — filtered at channel level.

The case an external viewer does help with is the opposite one: the comments exist and are publicly readable, but they will not render in your browser because of an extension, blocked cookies or a network filter. That is a rendering failure, not a permission problem — so it has its own page, with the tests that tell the two apart.

Read them anyway

Once the cause is sorted, these are the three ways to actually get at the thread — useful when the section is fixed but you want it somewhere more workable than a watch page.

• Read the thread — Comments load into a clean list you can scroll and sort.
• Search inside them — Find a phrase or a question without scrolling back through the thread.
• Export them — Save the visible comments as CSV or JSON so the page going blank cannot lose them.