Some YouTube creators say that likes aren't registering on their videos, but there's a possible explanation

Likes are the quickest way to provide feedback to YouTube creators about any content. However, this crucial function is reportedly malfunctioning for some creators who’ve stated that likes are not registering for them.

And there have been plenty of complaints regarding the same on official YouTube forums as well as on Reddit.

The likes on my videos are not showing up properly. I know at least 5 people that liked my most recent video, but only 1 showed up. It’s been a day and it’s still not fixed, and now the like number dropped to 0. It’s happening on several of my vids and after searching for a day I still have no idea how to fix; I’m a (really) small creator and I want to know the actual amount of people that enjoyed my videos, plz help
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Samee omg im so confused and idk how to fix it…. it says I only have 1 like but all my friends said they liked the video with screenshots
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As apparent from the above complaints, users report that likes left by viewers aren’t showing up on their videos, which continue to show just a single like or maybe even zero.

It does seem like almost all of the users facing this issue are small YouTube creators who have asked their family and friends to support their channel by leaving likes on their videos.

However, even those few likes don’t seem to be getting registered, leaving the videos with just zero likes, which can be quite disheartening and demotivating.

If you are one of those facing this issue, then there are a couple of explanations behind it that you should be made aware of.

Firstly, it may take up to a couple of days before you begin seeing the true number of likes on your video. This can be backed by the fact that there are plenty of users who have said that YouTube takes time to update such stats.

And secondly, if the likes still don’t seem to go up for you even after waiting for a couple of days, then it could be quite possible that the people who you’ve asked to leave a like, have liked without actually watching the video.

YouTube seems to register likes of only those people that have actually watched the entire video or have at least watched it for a particular amount of time.

Apparently, this is to prevent “false likes”. Or at least that’s what some creators think.

Likes not registering isn’t the only issue YouTube creators are facing though, as a couple of them have also stated that their likes are actually decreasing in numbers.

This is happing to me as well, I had 20 likes on my recent video, and I wanted to check it again a couple of hours later and it had 6 likes now.
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Hopefully, YouTube will address the issue, if any, and provide an official explanation for the same. For now, be sure to check out our dedicated YouTube bugs/issues tracker for further coverage on matters like these.

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