# How to stop YouTube videos from skipping? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 13, 2013, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-stop-youtube-videos-from-skipping/658191 "2013-05-13T00:31:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-stop-youtube-videos-from-skipping/658191/1 "2013-05-13T00:31:16Z")
I like to have music on in another tab on YouTube while I browse the web sometimes. But lately, on my laptop, any YouTube video will skip while I’m browsing. Though often if I actually watch the entire video (instead of having it playing while I look at other tabs), it doesn’t skip. Could it be because I have too many things running on my computer? ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-stop-youtube-videos-from-skipping/658191/2 "2013-05-13T01:16:59Z")
> [@EmilyG](#): > > I like to have music on in another tab on YouTube while I browse the web sometimes. But lately, on my laptop, any YouTube video will skip while I’m browsing. Though often if I actually watch the entire video (instead of having it playing while I look at other tabs), it doesn’t skip. > > Could it be because I have too many things running on my computer? Maybe, or you just don’t have enough bandwidth to be doing everything at once. Video takes a lot of bandwidth. Try Grooveshark, [rd.io](http://rd.io), or Spotify for your music needs instead of youtube. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-stop-youtube-videos-from-skipping/658191/3 "2013-05-13T01:35:06Z")
Did my bandwidth somehow decrease recently? Because I’ve only been having this problem recently. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-stop-youtube-videos-from-skipping/658191/4 "2013-05-13T01:38:54Z")
Hit ‘play’ and then hit ‘pause’ and let the thing load for a minute. Then hit ‘play’ again. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-stop-youtube-videos-from-skipping/658191/5 "2013-05-13T01:43:23Z")
Skips what: ahead, back to the beginning, in a loop? ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-stop-youtube-videos-from-skipping/658191/6 "2013-05-13T01:48:56Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Skips what: ahead, back to the beginning, in a loop? No. it pauses for a fraction of the second, causing a skip in the music. It does this many times throughout the video, causing the music to sound choppy. On second thought, maybe “skip” is actually the opposite of what I’m experiencing. Maybe I wasn’t clear. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-stop-youtube-videos-from-skipping/658191/7 "2013-05-13T01:55:49Z")
Check your CPU percentage. Something in the chain from Internet to display is a bottleneck. Check your Internet speed: [http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/](http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/) is a good one. See if some other program in your computer is hogging the CPU. It’s not skipping, it’s pausing because something isn’t fast enough. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-stop-youtube-videos-from-skipping/658191/8 "2013-05-13T01:57:16Z")
Does it say anything about “audio altered to avoid copyright” scanners or programs? I understand that that’s a trick some people do; they put up a copyrighted song and screw with the sound in various ways to avoid YouTube’s automated detection. ---
**Author:** ![FuzzyOgre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@FuzzyOgre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FuzzyOgre)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-stop-youtube-videos-from-skipping/658191/9 "2013-05-13T02:19:30Z")
[http://www.speedtest.net](http://www.speedtest.net) is a better test if you are not in the United States. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-stop-youtube-videos-from-skipping/658191/10 "2013-05-13T02:32:02Z")
> [@FuzzyOgre](#): > > [http://www.speedtest.net](http://www.speedtest.net) is a better test if you are not in the United States. Unfortunately, that site forces you to download an unnecessary scanning program first. ETA: maybe it doesn’t force you to run the scanner, but don’t be intimindated by it! ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-stop-youtube-videos-from-skipping/658191/11 "2013-05-13T02:39:49Z")
> [@EmilyG](#): > > Did my bandwidth somehow decrease recently? Because I’ve only been having this problem recently. Many ISPs reduce your bandwidth if you go over a certain limit. Most of them have a web page where you can log on to your user account and find out statistics like your bandwidth usage (among other things). Malware can take up bandwidth. Other tasks can take up bandwidth (depending on what they are doing). Antivirus downloads can take up bandwidth. If you pause the song when it starts to skip and let it build up a buffer for a bit you may reduce or eliminate further skipping. Videos with more “video” take up more bandwidth. Videos with a static background take up significantly less bandwidth. ---
**Author:** ![FuzzyOgre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@FuzzyOgre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FuzzyOgre)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-stop-youtube-videos-from-skipping/658191/12 "2013-05-13T06:31:12Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Unfortunately, that site forces you to download an unnecessary scanning program first. > > ETA: maybe it doesn’t force you to run the scanner, but don’t be intimindated by it! Its never forced me to install anything at all, and I have used it dozens of times over the years. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-stop-youtube-videos-from-skipping/658191/13 "2013-05-13T11:40:00Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Hit ‘play’ and then hit ‘pause’ and let the thing load for a minute. Then hit ‘play’ again. Unfortunately, all that means for me is that the loading bar won’t load anymore.