How to Loop a YouTube Video on Desktop and Mobile

YouTube has a built-in loop on every screen, it's just hidden in a different place on each one. Here's where, and what a loop does to the view count.

Updated 2026-10-03

How do you put a YouTube video on repeat?

On a computer, in any browser, YouTube's help center gives three steps:

1. Open the video's watch page.

2. Right-click anywhere inside the video player.

3. Click Loop. A check mark appears next to it, and the video repeats continuously.

To stop, right-click again and click Loop to clear the check mark. If right-clicking opens your browser's menu instead of YouTube's, you clicked outside the player or on an overlay; click the video picture itself. Right-clicking twice in a row opens the browser menu on purpose, so do it once.

Can you loop a video on the YouTube app?

Yes, on Android, iPhone and iPad. YouTube's help center lists the steps:

1. Open the video's watch screen.

2. Tap Settings, the gear icon on the player. Tap the player first if the controls are hidden.

3. Tap Additional settings.

4. Tap Loop video to turn it on.

Turn it off in the same place. The setting belongs to that video, so the next video you open plays normally.

On a phone, loop works with the screen locked only if background play is available on your account, which on YouTube is a Premium feature. Without it, the video pauses when the screen goes off, loop or no loop.

YouTube Shorts don't need any of this. A Short replays automatically when it ends, which is the reason Shorts view counts behave differently from long videos.

How do you loop a playlist?

Playlists have their own loop button in the playlist panel, and it has two modes.

On a computer, open a video that's part of a playlist, expand the playlist panel on the right and click Loop. When the last video ends, the playlist starts again from the first.

In the app, play the playlist, open the playlist box under the video and tap Loop. Tap Loop a second time and a 1 appears in the icon: now only the current video repeats. A third tap turns looping off.

The 1 mode is the easiest way to loop one video on mobile if you already have it in a playlist, and it explains a common complaint: a playlist that plays the same song over and over usually has loop set to 1 by accident. The opposite complaint, a playlist that passes over songs, has other causes, covered in why YouTube is skipping songs in your playlist.

Can you loop part of a video?

Not with a native setting. YouTube's loop always repeats the whole video, from 0:00 to the end, and there's no A to B loop control in the player as of October 2026.

The closest built-in tool is Clip. On videos where the creator allows it, the scissors icon under the video lets you select a section of 5 to 60 seconds and share it as its own link. You can replay that section without scrubbing back each time. Clip isn't available on every video, and why you can't clip a YouTube video explains which ones and why.

A link with a timestamp, from Share then Start at, gets you back to a moment quickly, but it plays on from there rather than looping.

Websites that loop a section of a YouTube video exist and dominate search for this. They work by embedding YouTube's player with start and end points. If you use one, it should never ask you to sign in to your Google account to do it; looping a public video needs no login.

Do looped plays count as views?

Some may, and many won't stay. Since August 24, 2026, YouTube's public count starts at playback on long videos, live streams and Shorts, so each restart of a loop is technically a new playback. But YouTube validates views before they settle, and it names repeated playback from the same viewer as a pattern it discards.

In practice, a video left on loop overnight won't show thousands of extra views in the morning. Some repeats can land in the count; the bulk of them are filtered, sometimes after first appearing, which is one reason counts freeze or drop for a while.

Engaged views, the figure YouTube uses for revenue and Partner Program eligibility, are stricter again. A loop does nothing for watch hours that count, as YouTube watch hours that count explains.

For a creator, the takeaway is to stop asking viewers to loop videos as a growth tactic. It doesn't build the public number, and the public number is what a stranger reads. Creators who want that first number to look established use buying YouTube views, which needs only the video's public watch link and changes the count under the video, not watch time or recommendations. Every YouTube service is on the YouTube page.

Why is the loop option missing?

The usual reasons, in the order worth checking:

• An ad is playing. The player's settings change while an ad runs; wait for the video itself to start and open the menu again.
• It's a live stream. A live broadcast has no end to return to, so there's nothing to loop until it becomes a saved video.
• You're on a different menu. On mobile, Loop video sits under Additional settings, not on the first Settings screen. On a computer it's on the right-click menu, not the gear.
• The app is out of date. Menus move between versions; update YouTube from your app store and look again. On an iPhone where the store itself was removed, updates stop for every app, which what happens if you delete the App Store explains.
• You're in YouTube Music. It has its own repeat button on the player instead of a Loop setting.

When other player settings misbehave too

If Loop is missing and other controls such as speed are also greyed out, the cause is usually the same: an ad, a live stream or an embedded player. Why you can't change playback speed on YouTube goes through those cases one by one.

Questions people ask about looping YouTube videos