YouTube is one of the most popular streaming platforms of all time. Apart from being one of the easiest platforms to create content for, it also has a number of other quality-of-life features that make it a breeze to use.
In this article, we’re taking a look at why YouTube keeps resetting back to light mode and what you can do to fix the problem.
Also read: Why can’t I skip YouTube ads?
Why does this happen?
There are a number of reasons why your settings aren’t persisting across page reloads. Some of the most common ones are as follows:
- Corrupt browser data
- Interfering browser extensions
- Internet connectivity issues
How to fix this?
Here are five fixes you can try out.
Clear out your browser’s cache, cookies and other data
More often than not, corrupted cache, cookies, or browser data can cause issues with websites not running as they should.
Step 1: Type in chrome://settings/clearBrowserData in your browser’s address bar and hit Enter.
Step 2: Select the cache and cookies options and ensure the Time range is set to All time. Click on the Clear now button to clear out all the data.
Now try visiting YouTube again and dark mode should work fine.
Disable browser extensions
Sometimes overly aggressive browser extensions can also cause conflicts with local website settings. Try disabling them to see if the YouTube dark mode works as expected.
Head over to chrome://extensions and try disabling all your extensions to check if the browser starts functioning again. If it does, enable them one by one until you have YouTube working correctly again.
Update your browser/app
Often an out of date app or browser can restrict you from using certain features. Update your browser and app to the latest version to see if it resolves the issue.
Head over to chrome://settings/help and make sure you’re on the latest update. If you’re not, update immediately and try again.
Restart the browser once the update is complete and try visiting YouTube again.
Check up Hardware acceleration
YouTube uses hardware acceleration to make the most out of its videos. However, if you’re running an older machine, disabling it might be a better idea. Here’s how.
Head over to chrome://settings/system. Make sure that the hardware acceleration setting is turned off.
Enable Javascript
If you’ve not enabled Javascript in your browser, you’re missing out on most of the modern web’s functionality and YouTube’s dark mode. Here’s how you can enable it in Chrome.
Step 1: Head to Chrome’s Javascript settings. You can access them directly at chrome://settings/content/javascript.
Step 2: Under Default behaviour, ensure that Sites can use Javascript is enabled.
Now refresh the page you were on, and you should be able to access the dark mode just fine.
