# YouTube videos "buffering" midplay **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 5, 2012, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-videos-buffering-midplay/643019 "2012-12-05T01:04:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![yearofglad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/b782af/32.png) [@yearofglad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yearofglad)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-videos-buffering-midplay/643019/1 "2012-12-05T01:04:52Z")
For the last month or so, when I watch YouTube videos, at about 2 or 3 minutes into the video I get the little rotating circle thing in the middle, as if it’s loading or buffering. However, according to the progress bar at the bottom of the video (and the speed of my internet connection), the video is already completely “loaded” (or at least is “loaded” well beyond the point at which the video stops playing). After “buffering” for a bit (5 seconds or so), the video will continue to play and not have any other issues for its entirety. This only happens with YouTube videos - I haven’t noticed it with Vimeo, etc. - and it happens with EVERY YouTube video of decent length (say, 3+ minutes). I don’t remember this always happening, either - it seems to be a relatively recent development. Any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-videos-buffering-midplay/643019/2 "2012-12-05T02:02:48Z")
I’ve been having stuttering problems while running YouTube on Firefox, and it seems to get a little worse with each FF update. I got tired of it, and knowing it’s a browser issue, I gave up on FF and started using Chrome for YouTube. Since I started using Chrome to run YouTube vids, no problems at all. It’s a small pain, but worth it enough for me to switch browsers for that. Too bad I don’t like Chrome enough to just switch completely, but I don’t like the way it renders some of the sites I use a lot, including Facebook and the Dope, so I keep using FF for everything else. ---
**Author:** ![Michael63129](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-videos-buffering-midplay/643019/3 "2012-12-05T02:58:38Z")
If it is Firefox, then why don’t I have problems, even with the latest update (yesterday)? Or maybe it only happens with certain operating systems (I have Windows 7). Although I did use to occasionally (same browser, different version, Windows XP) run into a glitch where the loading icon never went away - even while the video was playing and fully buffered, but I assumed that was something to do with YouTube. ---
**Author:** ![yearofglad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/b782af/32.png) [@yearofglad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yearofglad)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-videos-buffering-midplay/643019/4 "2012-12-05T05:17:57Z")
> [@SeaDragonTattoo](#): > > I’ve been having stuttering problems while running YouTube on Firefox, and it seems to get a little worse with each FF update. I got tired of it, and knowing it’s a browser issue, I gave up on FF and started using Chrome for YouTube. Since I started using Chrome to run YouTube vids, no problems at all. It’s a small pain, but worth it enough for me to switch browsers for that. Too bad I don’t like Chrome enough to just switch completely, but I don’t like the way it renders some of the sites I use a lot, including Facebook and the Dope, so I keep using FF for everything else. I should’ve mentioned which browser I’m using: Chrome. (w/ Windows 7) So that’s not the solution/problem, sadly. ---
**Author:** ![Dog80](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6bbea6/32.png) [@Dog80](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dog80)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-videos-buffering-midplay/643019/5 "2012-12-05T06:48:43Z")
I have a similar problem. At home I have a slow internet connection and high quality videos take some time to load. The problem is that youtube buffers too little ahead and the video hangs every few seconds. It should be able to automatically increase the buffer window based on my connection speed, but no! Eventually I will pause the video, let it buffer for a minute or so and then play again with no problems this time. I have also experienced the problem mentioned in the OP. I guess simply the buffering method Youtube uses is broken. ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-videos-buffering-midplay/643019/6 "2012-12-05T07:30:22Z")
I think YouTube is sometimes too popular for its own good. Back in the dial-up days I discovered DownloadHelper, a Firefox extension, that would let me save a video to the drive and watch it off-line. I still do it to this day as even though I have broadband, more or less, I’m often doing other things at the same time that’s eating bandwidth. I simply start the download, watch it later and then delete. Meanwhile, I’ve moved on to something else. It’s not technically legal, I suppose but I figure it’s pretty much what your system does when you’re streaming. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-videos-buffering-midplay/643019/7 "2012-12-05T07:33:00Z")
> [@yearofglad](#): > > I should’ve mentioned which browser I’m using: > > Chrome. (w/ Windows 7) > > So that’s not the solution/problem, sadly. Guess that’s why I’m clearly no techie. My trying to help never works. I have Windows 7 as well. Advice I’ve also seen given on the Dope is to make sure to empty your cache, backing into earlier versions of either the browser or flash or both, or even uninstalling and re-installing the current version. All things I can’t say I’ve tried since just loading a different browser was the easiest (laziest) thing to do at the time. I think there have been a couple additional things mentioned you can do, but I sure don’t remember what they were. Hoping with the thread bumps that someone will come along with more knowledge. ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-videos-buffering-midplay/643019/8 "2012-12-05T16:34:08Z")
I have such a horrible connection in my area that AT&T actually sent me a letter saying that they checked my connection and since it’s so lousy they’re reducing my plan and charging me less. I just open the video, pause it, let it load to the end and then play it. I use Firefox. (I think they were trying to con me into getting uVerse but since I have a contract with Dish Network for the next 2 years that’s not happening anytime soon.) ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-videos-buffering-midplay/643019/9 "2012-12-06T05:11:44Z")
You could try upgrading/reinstalling Flash and clearing everything? ---
**Author:** ![RedSwinglineOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a9adbd/32.png) [@RedSwinglineOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedSwinglineOne)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2012, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-videos-buffering-midplay/643019/10 "2012-12-07T21:14:28Z")
Youtube videos are the only videos I ever have buffering trouble with. They have an adjustable quality setting which is supposed to automatically adjust to the best quality available for your internet speed, but it seems to always set itself too high. When I drop the quality down one setting, the problem goes away. ---
**Author:** ![srzss05](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@srzss05](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/srzss05)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2012, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-videos-buffering-midplay/643019/11 "2012-12-07T22:01:05Z")
I don’t watch youtube videos on my PC but do on my Bravia TV, and the youtube videos always load at a slower speed than other “channels” (or start out at 10Mb/sec and 30 seconds later it is 1.5Mb/sec), so I assume it is a server problem. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2012, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-videos-buffering-midplay/643019/12 "2012-12-08T00:57:28Z")
I had the same problem several years ago and there is a thread about it floating around somewhere. It was as mentioned above- slow connection. ---
**Author:** ![srzss05](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@srzss05](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/srzss05)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2012, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-videos-buffering-midplay/643019/13 "2012-12-08T11:32:49Z")
> [@Cicero](#): > > I had the same problem several years ago and there is a thread about it floating around somewhere. > > It was as mentioned above- slow connection. Connection speed has nothing to do with it, at least in my case. I have a 20Mb/sec connection, and no other streaming site has as much problems. It is youtube’s server that is doing the “throttling”. ---
**Author:** ![DataX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@DataX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DataX)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2012, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-videos-buffering-midplay/643019/14 "2012-12-08T13:37:19Z")
Keep in mind also the popularity of the video can have an effect. Google pushes out popular videos to most/all of their CDN/Caches. Less popular videos are often slower. ---
**Author:** ![Michael63129](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2012, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-videos-buffering-midplay/643019/15 "2012-12-08T20:26:15Z")
> [@srzss05](#): > > Connection speed has nothing to do with it, at least in my case. I have a 20Mb/sec connection, and no other streaming site has as much problems. It is youtube’s server that is doing the “throttling”. It also seems that it could be the YouTube player itself, as I mentioned previously about the loading icon remaining even after the video had loaded and was playing, although that was on my previous computer with no relationship to video length (if anything, I believe it was more common on short videos). ---
**Author:** ![MizzKellyBaybie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6bbea6/32.png) [@MizzKellyBaybie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MizzKellyBaybie)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-videos-buffering-midplay/643019/16 "2012-12-18T18:58:52Z")
> [@yearofglad](#): > > For the last month or so, when I watch YouTube videos, at about 2 or 3 minutes into the video I get the little rotating circle thing in the middle, as if it’s loading or buffering. However, according to the progress bar at the bottom of the video (and the speed of my internet connection), the video is already completely “loaded” (or at least is “loaded” well beyond the point at which the video stops playing). After “buffering” for a bit (5 seconds or so), the video will continue to play and not have any other issues for its entirety. > > This only happens with YouTube videos - I haven’t noticed it with Vimeo, etc. - and it happens with EVERY YouTube video of decent length (say, 3+ minutes). > > I don’t remember this always happening, either - it seems to be a relatively recent development. > > Any ideas? I’ve got a brand new Mac desktop and I jam my playlist every morning. Suddenly, my videos do the same. Called Apple and Charter - both agree it’s not the computer or the internet speed. It’s got to be the youtube server. I have 30 mbps speed and no viruses or anything to slow down my machine. We unplugged everything and did a speed test - all passed. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-videos-buffering-midplay/643019/17 "2012-12-18T19:36:31Z")
> [@SeaDragonTattoo](#): > > I’ve been having stuttering problems while running YouTube on Firefox, and it seems to get a little worse with each FF update. I got tired of it, and knowing it’s a browser issue, I gave up on FF and started using Chrome for YouTube. Since I started using Chrome to run YouTube vids, no problems at all. It’s a small pain, but worth it enough for me to switch browsers for that. Too bad I don’t like Chrome enough to just switch completely, but I don’t like the way it renders some of the sites I use a lot, including Facebook and the Dope, so I keep using FF for everything else. [Chrome](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrome_%28browser%29) and [YouTube](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube) are both owned by the same company, Google. Is it possible that YouTube deliberately messes up if it being used on FireFox, in the hopes of attracting more people to use Chrome? Just because I’m paranoid, that doesn’t prove that they’re NOT out to get me! ---
**Author:** ![Michael63129](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-videos-buffering-midplay/643019/18 "2012-12-18T19:55:39Z")
> [@Keeve](#): > > [Chrome](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrome_%28browser%29) and [YouTube](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube) are both owned by the same company, Google. Is it possible that YouTube deliberately messes up if it being used on FireFox, in the hopes of attracting more people to use Chrome? > > Just because I’m paranoid, that doesn’t prove that they’re NOT out to get me! Sorry, but I don’t buy this because I don’t have any problems (besides the weird glitch I mentioned upthread, but that was years ago), nor do I see any reason why they would do that, which sounds like grounds for a lawsuit, just like Microsoft and IE (worse, since Google would be intentionally crippling people’s Internet experience).