Youtube app Buffering issues

Question

Level 1

9 points

Youtube app Buffering issues

Not entirely sure if this is the right place to ask this but....

So when I watch youtubes videos that longer than 5 minutes or so the youtube app is constantly trying to buffer. I have fast enough wifi I just did the ookla speedtest and my download speed is 56.84 mbps and my upload is 10.01 mbps so I don't think that's the issue.

The symptoms:

Whenever I watch average length youtube videos through the app (haven't tried through chrome or anything) the video is constantly combatting itself for video quality. I can watch a 10 minute youtube video and the video quality will hop around 240p to 1080p to 720p to 480p down 144p in a matter of seconds. The video will not pause but the quality jumps all the over the place throughout the entire video.

Kind of ruining the experience.

Also when I pause you can watch the buffer bar jump back and forth. Not buffered to ~30 seconds and back like bouncing back for instantly.

Hopefully I'm not crazy and this is happening to other people.

I have an ipad air 64gb version. Most updated version of youtoube app from May 8,2014

iPad, iOS 6.1.2

Posted on May 19, 2014 10:03 PM

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Answer 1

bobseufert

Level 6

15,904 points

May 19, 2014 11:55 PM in response to SuperBerny

First try a reset. Press and hold both the home and power buttons 10-15 seconds till the Apple logo appears. Release both buttons. Wait 15-20 seconds till your iPad starts on it's own.

If the problem is still there, delete and reinstall the Youtube app.

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Answer 2

SuperBerny Author

Level 1

9 points

May 20, 2014 5:40 PM in response to bobseufert

Tried cold boot and reinstalling youtube app with no changes

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Answer 3

bobseufert

Level 6

15,904 points

May 20, 2014 7:10 PM in response to SuperBerny

Does it happen on the YouTube website ?

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Answer 4

May 27, 2014 7:48 AM in response to SuperBerny

I too have had the same issues. Do not have quite as high donwload and upload speed but still fair at 24mbps and 5.2 mbps.

Very annoying that even if you let it buffer it instanlty reverts back to not loading anything in advance. The constant quality change also *****. Anyone find a solution?

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Answer 5

pjl123

Level 5

6,214 points

May 27, 2014 7:57 AM in response to SuperBerny

There is a lot of recent chatter about certain ISPs not handling the you tube and netflix signals properly. As long as you local speed is fine, the issue is either in your router, or in the ISP side. It would be interesting to learn who your ISP is. Maybe we will see a pattern here.

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Answer 6

May 27, 2014 8:05 AM in response to pjl123

Comcast is my ISP. I have a Linksys EA3500 wireless router. I just tested all the devices again (computer, ipad, iphone) and they varied for download speed from 26.82 mbps to 27.52 mbps and upload speed from 5.72mbps to 6.24 mbps.

I was reading some old posts from ipad 2 and ipad 3 era about disabling WMM, but when I went into the linksys router settings I did not see it labeled as that. There is a media priorotization system but it was already disbaled.

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Answer 7

pjl123

Level 5

6,214 points

May 27, 2014 8:12 AM in response to SuperBerny

And comcast is the ISP that signed a deal with netflix, but is silent, ( as far as I know) on you tube. I am on fios, and while I've never had an issue with netflix service, I do have trouble from time to time with you tube. I tend to blame it on the verizon fios router, but I just don't know.

Your speeds to your house are fine, so it is either in the router, or how comcast is handling the signal before it gets to you.

I guess one way to test would be to go to some other place where you can grab a non comcast wifi signal, and see if you still have the issue. Buffering video is a frustrating experience!

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Answer 8

May 27, 2014 8:16 AM in response to pjl123

Ya I am gonna give everything a hard reset later today. The issue has been ongoing for awhile and I finally got fed up with it this morning so was looking into it thinking/knowing/hoping I wasn't the only one. Strangley have not had much of an issue with netflix at all just seems to be youtube...

I will let you guys know if anything changes. Thanks for the help. and yes buffering is the most annoying experience.

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Answer 9

SuperBerny Author

Level 1

9 points

May 28, 2014 8:16 PM in response to Jacob Jagust

My ISP is cox. I just did another Ookla test through my desktop. Speed is still the same. I had a problem with a teaching website awhile back so I called their support and they had me run some other connection tests and they said that my signal was sporadic and that I wasn't my connection it was the signal coming from my ISP.

Youtube.com works fine through my ipad but the app is still buggy. The hard resest I did earlier brought everything back to normal for about a day then it jumped right back into the same routine. Netflix streams without any issues vimeo is fine too. I'm really starting to think it's just the app and people who are having trouble need to make it a known issue.

Also just read my original post and my grammar is ****...

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Answer 10

pjl123

Level 5

6,214 points

May 29, 2014 2:03 PM in response to SuperBerny

this popped up today on ARSTechnia. You tube report on ISPs

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/05/comcast-and-verizon-thump- att-in-new-youtube-quality-rankings/

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Answer 11

SCA1972

Level 1

0 points

Jul 30, 2014 6:15 AM in response to SuperBerny

I have had exactly the same issue for a few months now, but only with the default Auto quality setting. If I select a specific quality, like 720p, then it streams OK, but never seems to fill up the buffer bar when paused. The pain is that I have to turn off Auto every time I start a video.

I don't have this problem with embedded videos in Safari or Chrome on the iPad. I also have no problems with You Tube on my PC, PS3 or Android app.

Everything I have seen points to a bug in the code for the Auto quality setting in the iOS app.

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