YouTube videos stop playing/loading after 10-15 seconds

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YouTube videos stop playing/loading after 10-15 seconds

Starting about 2 weeks ago, YouTube videos no longer play or fully load for me (and, from scanning both here and in google, it appears for LOTS of people on both Macs and PCs). A video will begin to load and play normally for the first 10 to 15 seconds, then simply stop loading or, more accurately, it appears to repeatedly reload that first little segment (if the little slider is accurate), sometimes getting a few additional seconds, but never much beyond 18 or 20 seconds.

It's happening on pretty much all YouTube videos as well as videos on other web pages (though it's possible they've all been hosted by YouTube anyway).

I do have current versions of Safari and Adobe Flash installed (and have reinstalled them). I've also cleared my cache and cookies. And I have a good DSL connection that doesn't usually have a bandwidth problem. All was working fine until a couple of weeks ago. I've run diagnostics but didn't see anything obvious.

Anyone able to offer a possible solution or, at least, a place to look for one?

iMac 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo/MacBook Pro 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, Mac OS X (10.6.8), 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3/4 GM 1067 MHz DDR3

Posted on Jul 11, 2013 9:49 AM

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Answer 1

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DeaconMac Author

Level 1

5 points

Jul 14, 2013 9:53 AM in response to DeaconMac

I found a solution. It was intended for Lion 10.7.4, but it also worked for 10.6.8. Here it is:

My Flash Player plug-in would not play videos on YouTube (using Safari in Lion). It turned out that my Safari settings needed to be reset after the recent Lion 10.7.4 and Flash upgrades. I called Apple tech...

This is what we did to fix it:

1. Open Safari.

2. Go to top left menu, under "Safari" click on "Reset Safari."

3. UNCHECK the first two boxes, leave the next three checked, plus UNCHECK the next two, and keep the last three checked.

4. Hit "Reset"

5. After the reset finishes, Safari will relaunch and you can test Flash by going to YouTube to see that videos will now play.

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Answer 2

Jul 11, 2013 11:48 AM in response to DeaconMac

Open System Preferences > Flash Player then select the Advanced tab.

Click Delete All under Browsing Data and Settings

Back to Safari. Press Command + Option + E to empty the Safari cache.

Quit and relaunch Safari, try a video.

If that doesn't help, you may have the YouTube HTML5 beta enabled.

Opt out here > YouTube

YouTube Help

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Answer 3

dieko

Level 1

0 points

Jul 14, 2013 9:19 AM in response to DeaconMac

I have been having the same issue, but for me the videos load the first 4 seconds and stops. I tried no seek out information over the web, that's unfortunate because I didn't find nothing about this.

There was an update on my Flash Player version, so I thought this could be related somehow, but it's not, I have drowngraded Flash a bunch of times, uninstalled, reinstalled, rebooted, installed the new version of the Flash again, but it can't seem to help. It's no use.

I also have a good internet connection with my ISP, 20 MB. All other websites load just fine but YouTube, even adverstising is having a hard time to show up.

I preferably use Opera as my web browser, I did change many network options, cache, storage, browsing, nothing resolved.

On my WIN 8 VM, I do see the same going on, so I think there's something wrong with youtube, it might be it.

PS. I'm in Brazil. Different region, similar issue. 😐

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Answer 4

dieko

Level 1

0 points

Jul 14, 2013 10:03 AM in response to DeaconMac

This did not resolve my issue, it remains.

It tries to play the video at the standard resolution, but then, it struggles and gets nothing, it automatically sets the video to play in 144p of quality, and even so the video poorly plays.

Also, if I uncheck the next two, there will be only other 2 to keep checked, not three.

I am running on a Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5.

I'll keep looking for a definitive resolution.

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Answer 5

Nov 6, 2013 4:11 AM in response to DeaconMac

Happening for me as well, but I'm using Chrome, not Safari... when I close all tabs, shut down Chrome and reopen, the videos will run again, but that is only a bandaid... I shouldn't have to close all of the tabs I'm working on and shut down my browser to allow videos to run. Please fix!

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