Youtube Constantly Reloads Homepage Safari MacBook Pro

Septemeber 2017 update, the YouTube homepage redesign is causing problems for many Mac users running older versions of Mac OS X and older safari browsers:

Ok, the same thing was happening on two of my iMac desktops which both had different versions of Mac Operating systems. This happened even when I had fairly recent OS versions like Mac OS El Capitan (10.11.3) for example. To check your Mac OS version highlight over the top corner of your Mac desktop screen and point your most to the Apple logo, and right click "About this Mac", then make sure you are on, "Overview" to see your Mac OS version.

To solve the current incompatibility of older Safari and the latest YoutUve homepage layout, I put together this short article for you:

I hope to help out a bit and expand this and give you really detailed instructions so there's no misunderstandings:

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Step #1:

First thing you should do, is make sure you have Flash player installed. This should be obvious and I believe probably 95% of the Safari browsing population already has some version of Flash installed already but I wanted this guide to be comprehensive and cover those remaining 5% of users that may not.

Check the current version number and if you have a super old version installed, you may want to download and install the latest version first. If you already have a current version of Flash installed, then skip to Section B:

Section A: If you don't have Flash Player installed on your Mac / Safari browser:

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1) First check and make sure you have Flash player installed and you can see what the current / latest versions are available here:

http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/about/

2). If you don't have it installed, then download and install on the link on the page. You can also choose to use the Adobe Flash uninstalled, and then install the latest version (Adobe help forums recommend this but I didn't find that it made a difference to me). These first 2 steps are just to make sure you have Flash player installed. If you've been using YouTube and other Flash based websites with Safari for a while, then installing Flash Player is likely not your problem, it's probably the new YouTube homepage interface / redesign that's not compatible with your version of Safari.

Section B: (If you already have a current version of Flash Player installed - most likely 95% of you here, who already had a working YouTube interface until this week):

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Most likely solution for you:

1). Use Safari, and go to YouTube homepage (www.youtube.com) and if you have the constant reload and refresh problem, let the browser continue to do so, while you take your mouse and hover the pointer on a blank section of the web page (yes, even as its reloading) and then right click on your apple Magic Mouse and you will see the optons, "Back, Stop, Open in Dashboard etc..", select "Stop"

2). Now here's where the instructions from other forums and posts weren't clear and were frustrating (even though we're all probably very techie here to even get to this forum). They kept referring to switching to the old or classic YouTube layout, but I didn't immediately see the option on my screen. Now, it's different if you are already logged into your Google YouTube account versus, not logged in, that's where the instructions were vague. I'll separate this section into "Not Logged in YouTube Users" and "Logged in YouTube Users", there's subtle differences in what you see on screen and which icons to select to find that hidden "Restore Classic YouTube" option, but it's important to note, because not all of us are super techie, and we need step-by-step instructions (I totally get it, so no worries, sorry it;s so difficult):

"Not logged in. YouTube Users"

>>>>>>>. If you aren't already logged into your YouTube Account (or if you have cleared all your cached data and aren't logged in

A). Browse to www.youtube.com like you normally would to get to the home page. If you have the reload refresh problem, it will probably keep reloading as usual. Then take your mouse and highlight a blank portion of the webpage screen and right click as the page is constantly reloading and you'll bring up a menu that has "Back, Stop, etc) select "Stop" that will give you some temporary relief so it at least stops reloading. Then at the left hand top corner off the browser window, you will see the "up arrow Upload icon", and then next to it the "bell icon" that's for notifications and then the "three vertical dots" icon. The three vertical dots icon shows up when you aren't logged into your YouTube Google account. (That's what got me, because everyone kept referring to my user icon until I realized I wasn't logged in yet because the YouTube page was refreshing and I had cleared all my Safari history and cache, so I wasn't;'t logged in afterwards). Then after you click the three dot icon, scroll down to the options at the very bottom of the screen, and then select "Restore Classic YouTube", it's the very very last item on the list, even below "Feedback". Once you have successfully selected that, you'll have the classic YouTube layout restored, so then when you reload www.youtube.com it should revert to the old interface. Now that's not an ideal solution, but at least I found that it works and you can now search for your favorite YouTube videos again. If you're like the majority of the population, you probably don't care what the front interface looks like that much (sorry YouTube, but it's the truth), you just want to search for videos, and don't want to have it constantly reload.

------ Hopefully the above worked for you -------

If not, try some follow up steps below in section C:

"Already Logged in YouTube Users". (If you are already logged into your YouTube Account, and your an tell because you have a round user icon on the top of the webpage desktop area, so you will know.

A). If you're currently logged in to your Google account through YouTube, then you click on your username icon, which is the round circle icon on your upper most top right, and then a menu will appear and then at the very, very bottom of that list of options, you will see "Restore Classic YouTube", note: it's the very last item, even below the "Send Feedback" option, it will restore your old YouTube Homepage, channels etc. Now, this option may not help forever because my guess is that YouTube likely wants all users on the new homepage format eventually, but at least for now until there is a permanent fix this should solve it for you. Once you have set it to your classic YouTube layout, just refresh your Safari page, or type in www.youtube.com still with you logged into your account and it should revert to the original classic layout and it should stop reloading for you.

Section C:

If Safari still isn't loading properly even after you set YouTube home page to Classic YouTube. Here are two more things you can try.

A2). If for some reason after you have already set it to Classic YouTube layout with your account and it's still not working for you, it maybe because you have data stored in your Safari cache that you need to clear, next click on Safari (next to the apple symbol) at the top left hand corner of your screen, if you currently have Safari and are browsing other websites, then select Clear History, "today and yesterday", or if you have a lot of cached data, you can select "all history" or you can just select "today" or "the last hour". The one you select depends on when was the last time you first loaded YouTube and had the reload and refresh problem. If you're not sure and you don't mind losing your cookies and history for visited websites, you can select "all history". That will just delete all your cached stored website data and cookies, which is not always a bad thing anyways, to start fresh. For those that are less techie, what this means is that certain websites that you normally visit that "know" its you may not be able to detect its you until you sign in again etc (i.e. Shopping websites etc, but usually nothing major).

A3). Ok now that you have cleared your Safari Cache, you can check your Adobe Flash Player data in your System Preferences. Click your System Preferences (the grey gear wheel option) at the bottom of your dock and it will load up. At the very bottom row of your System Preferences you should see a red "F" icon for "Flash Player", click on that icon. Then select "Advanced" on the upper tab to your left within that window. You'll see that it has a menu for "Browsing Data and Settings", and you can "Delete All". That will clear all the stored Flash content, in case it got corrupted in any way.

A4). The last option I can suggest, which I avoided because it takes a lot of time and hard drive space, is to do an apple update of your operating system so that your Safari version gets updated to the very latest version during the operating system update. Now I wouldn't suggest this to the majority of people because I feel it's unnecessary (at least at this time while they have the option to restore classic YouTube layout). You can check your Safari version by clicking on "Safari" when you have a safari webpage open, and then click "About Safari" and for example, My Safari version on one of my desktops is v. 9.0.3 (116 01.4.4) and I'm running OS X El Capitan Version 10.11.3 and just doing the Restore classic YouTube worked fine for me and also on one of my other iMac's. My other macbook laptops didn't have this problem with YouTube, but it's probably because they have a newer version of OS X installed, but I don't really think it's necessary to solve this problem. The trouble source seems to be compatibility of older OS X versions and Safari and the new YouTube home page interface. I'm guessing that the majority of YouTube staff and software engineers are testing their new interface using their latest Mac machines that are likely only 1-2 years old so they haven't been able to replicate the problem that you're seeing with the reloading, so they may dismiss this as a small problem, but actually its a large scale problem that affects many users.

A5). You can also check your Safari extensions to make sure you don't have any ad blockers that are blocking the Youtbe homepage advertising too as some people found this to be the problem. If so, just disable the ad blocker software through your Safari preferences.

Hope this guide has helped you out.

The truth is, that the average user will get frustrated, and give up and use another browser or another device, which really is unfortunate because they can't find a solution. In our day to day, who has time to research for hours to find a solution, and you'd totally feel burned if you brought it to a computer tech shop just to fix this simple issue due to a YouTube interface change.

Also, I can confirm for you to save you time, it's not related to your anti-virus software. I have Sophos home installed, and use malware bytes on many computers, and it doesn't affect the YouTube reloading. Just wanted to save you time from uninstalling these programs you count on, because it isn't the problem source I(at least I can speak for 3 of my computers that it isn't).

Hope this solution worked for you.

Cheers, Winston

Hi,

Outdated Safari cookies / history can cause the problems you are describing ...

Go to your Safari menu bar, click Safari > Preferences then select the Privacy tab then click: Manage Website Data. It may take a minute or two for cookies to populate then click Remove All.

Then go to your Safari menu bar again, click History > Clear History

Quit then relaunch Safari to test.

Also, make sure your Mac is up to date. Open System Preferences > App Store store then click: Check Now

This did not do it for me either.

OS X 10.11.3

Hello,

This has not fixed this problem for me either.

Version 10.11.1.

Do you have any other suggestions?

Thanks!

I had tried this solution and it was really helpful!Cheers!

Thanks so much Winston!

It's almost as if google's trying to spoil the experience of using a mac....

cheers,

***

Thank you!!!! This has definitely solved my problem.

Winston... You are a bloody Marvel!

This Youtube 'rapid reload' issue has been driving me nuts for weeks.

I searched all over the net, tried everything... and finally found your solution suggestion here.

And It worked!

The only bit you didn't add is when you 'Revert to classic layout' google asks "Why u not happy?"

So I let them have it, (without swearing) I'm sure they're all shaking in their googleboots.

Thanks again Winston you made my day.

Regards Mark - Queensland, Australia

You're welcome 🙂

HI Carolyn,

This did not work for us. Do you have any other suggestions?

Thank you.

-Patti