Multimeter

Hi everyone. My first post (sorry if I’m posting it in the wrong place!)

So I’m trying to learn a bit about electronics. I was given a cheap multimeter ages ago and today decide to test it. I have some old AA batteries and I thought I would use the multimeter to test the voltage. When I tested them however they all showed as .001 volts. Thinking they were all now pretty dead I went and tested two different AA batteries but got the same result. Am I doing something wrong? I have the black prob plugged in com, the red probe in VmA and the dial set to 20V (the V one with two lines not the V with one line). All the videos on youtube suggest this is right. Have I done something really obviously dumb? No icon has come up saying the battery is low (I checked the instruction manual to be sure). Any thoughts would be appreciated!

Check your manual and see what the one line or two line markings mean.

If you have the meter set to measure AC. The DC voltage from a battery will read close to .001 volts.

If you are on the DC range. Check your manual. See if it may have a protective fuse in it. That maybe open.

What are the other volts settings?

If it is not an autoranging multimeter, then 20V may be too high for a 1.5V battery. Is there a 2V setting? If so, try that.