# Help! YouTube video is black. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 13, 2011, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-youtube-video-is-black/574573 "2011-03-13T19:33:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2011, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-youtube-video-is-black/574573/21 "2011-03-17T05:23:57Z")
> [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](#): > > What to do if Settings… is grayed out and unselectable? Find somewhere where a YouTube video is already embedded (not [YouTube.com](http://YouTube.com)) and do the right-clicking on it there. ---
**Author:** ![Godinama](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e95f7d/32.png) [@Godinama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Godinama)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2011, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-youtube-video-is-black/574573/22 "2011-03-17T07:05:59Z")
YouTube videos started to go black for me a couple of days ago. No sound, no video, no loading, just blackness. I finally fixed it this morning by clearing all my cookies. Don’t know how or why that worked, but it did :eek: ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2011, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-youtube-video-is-black/574573/23 "2011-03-17T07:14:19Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Find somewhere where a YouTube video is already embedded (not [YouTube.com](http://YouTube.com)) and do the right-clicking on it there. It doesn’t even have to be YouTube. It can be any Flash object anywhere. Flash uses the same settings for objects. And if you can get it to work there, try what **Fear Itself** did–a complete uninstall and then reinstall. You can even reinstall 10.1 from [OldApps.com](http://www.oldapps.com/flash_player.php?old_flash_player=19). ---
**Author:** ![Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brown_eyed_girl/32/3574_2.png) [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2011, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-youtube-video-is-black/574573/24 "2011-03-17T19:42:51Z")
Windows updated today. Rebooted. All good now. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-youtube-video-is-black/574573/25 "2011-03-18T09:50:40Z")
> [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](#): > > Windows updated today. Rebooted. All good now. 😕 That actually explains a lot. Rather than the bug being in Flash itself, it was a bug in Windows that the Flash designers didn’t know about. Assuming, of course, that you had tried rebooting it before asking us for help. Things could have just gotten screwed up in memory. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-youtube-video-is-black/574573/26 "2011-03-18T09:57:55Z")
NETA: Rebooting resets the memory. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-youtube-video-is-black/574573/27 "2011-03-18T11:32:37Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > That actually explains a lot. Rather than the bug being in Flash itself, it was a bug in Windows that the Flash designers didn’t know about. Not in my case. Flash worked on other sites, just not on YouTube. ---
**Author:** ![Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brown_eyed_girl/32/3574_2.png) [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2011, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-youtube-video-is-black/574573/28 "2011-03-19T03:27:00Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Not in my case. Flash worked on other sites, just not on YouTube. Second this. Flash even worked on YouTube, provided I didn’t click a link outside of YT which redirected to YT to watch a video. Embedded YT vids played just fine. Bug in Windows? You don’t say. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-youtube-video-is-black/574573.md?page=1)