Why must I constantly restart my iMac to watch videos?

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Level 1

23 points

Why must I constantly restart my iMac to watch videos?

Starting a few weeks ago, I have had to restart my iMac to watch videos. This happens on Firefox, Chrome, and Safari, and on most websites. It is especially common with YouTube. Thus, the problem is with my iMac, and not with any particular browser or video source. Even though the previews play when hovering the cursor on the search results, the videos will not play. Instead, I see an error message telling me I must restart my device. More recently, I have had to restart multiple times to be able to play videos.

I have recently repaired permissions, cleared PRAM and both system and browser caches, and run Disk Repair and Malwarebytes. To no avail.

27" iMac (late 2012)

OS 10.13.6

Firefox 56.0.2

Chrome 51.0.2

Safari 12.0

Posted on Oct 18, 2018 9:35 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Garak Author

Level 1

23 points

Oct 25, 2018 9:22 AM in response to Eric Root

Thanks for your help. I apologize for not responding sooner, but I've been wrestling with other problems with my iMac. To solve those other problems, I upgraded to OS 10.14. Videos now play properly.

But I now have continuing problems with Messages and new problems with Calendar. I'm working with Apple on them, but so far to no avail.

Again, thanks for your help.

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Answer 2

Eric Root

Level 10

685,251 points

Oct 19, 2018 7:51 AM in response to Garak

Try setting up another admin user account to see if the same problem continues. Please post back on whether or not this worked. Also try the Safe Mode. Please post back on whether or not this worked.

Isolating an issue by using another user account

Safe Mode - About

Safe Mode Startup – El Capitan. also Sierra

If it works in the Safe Mode, try running this program when booted normally and then copy and paste the output in a reply. The program was created by Etresoft, a frequent contributor. Please use copy and paste as screen shots can be hard to read. Click “Share Report” button in the toolbar, select “Copy to Clipboard” and then paste into a reply. This will show what is running on your computer. No personal information is shown.

Etrecheck – System Information

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Answer 3

Oct 26, 2018 9:46 AM in response to Garak

Apple support are great for alot of things but unfortunately they fall flat on things like this. I had a similar issue recently with my Macbook Pro where after resetting SMC and PRAM video in iTunes just would not play, up to date MacOS version very strange system bug.

Would suggest biting the bullet and doing a clean install of MacOS.

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Answer 4

Garak Author

Level 1

23 points

Oct 26, 2018 12:18 PM in response to Eric Root

Working with Apple Support, I created a new user account with administrative privileges. This was after I upgraded to OS 10.14. Have not run Etrecheck. Same problems with Messages and Calendar.

The problem seems to be my iMac not syncing properly with iCloud. Will let you know what happens when I run etrecheck.

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Why must I constantly restart my iMac to watch videos?

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