In July, YouTube users noticed that the desktop version of the service began to slow down: videos were loading slowly and freezing while watching, even in low quality. Soon, the decrease in speed was confirmed by deputy Alexander Khinshtein, who also gave details: the service was intentionally slowed down by 40%, and soon it will be 70%.
For Chromium-based browsers, there are four ways to restore adequate YouTube speed on your computer. One of them is also suitable for Safari on Mac.
Setting up QUIC and TLS 1.3
Some online savvy folks have found a couple of settings that can help slow down YouTube: the HTTP/3 hypertext transfer protocol (with the QUIC transport protocol) and Kyber-768, a quantum-resistant key agreement algorithm for the TLS 1.3 security protocol. The only thing you need to know about them is that these are settings that are available in modern browsers, but are not usually applied by default because they are not supported by every site. If you force them to be enabled (or, conversely, disabled), you can often restore YouTube to normal operation.
The method is suitable for Chromium browsers on Windows, macOS and Linux.
Google Chrome
- Go to chrome://flags/.
- Find #enable-quic and toggle the switch to Enabled. Repeat the same with #enable-tls13-kyber.
Opera
- Follow the link opera://flags/.
- Find #enable-quic and toggle the switch to Enabled. Repeat the same with #enable-tls13-kyber.
“Yandex Browser”
- Go to browser://flags/.
- Find #enable-quic and toggle the switch to Enabled. Repeat the same with #enable-tls13-kyber.
Mozilla Firefox
- Go to about:config.
- Find the network.http.http3.enabled item and move the switch to the True position. Repeat the same with security.tls.enable_kyber.
Microsoft Edge
- Go to edge://flags/.
- Find #enable-quic and toggle the switch to Enabled. Repeat the same with #enable-tls13-kyber.
After changing the settings, restart the browser for the changes to take effect. If it doesn’t work, try doing the same steps but changing the flag values to Disabled or False, or try enabling one flag and disabling another in different combinations. According to reviews online, different settings work in different situations.
GoodbyeDPI program for Windows
The method is suitable for Chromium browsers on Windows. It is more invasive than the previous one, so it should be used only if the first option did not work.
1. Download the program from the Github project (ZIP archive in the Assets section).
2. Unzip the archive.
3. Add the unzipped folder to the antivirus exclusions . In the case of the standard Windows Defender, open the computer settings via the Start menu → Settings. Go to Privacy & Security → Windows Security → Virus & threat protection. In the Virus & threat protection settings section, select Manage settings. Scroll down, click Add or remove exclusions, and select Add an exclusion. Find the folder with GoodbyeDPI and select it entirely.
4. Return to the folder in Explorer and run the 2_any_country.cmd file as administrator.
5. When the message Filter activated, GoodbyeDPI is now running appears on the screen, minimize the program window, but do not close it.
6. Open your browser. Using the instructions from the first method, find the flag #enable-tls13-kyber or security.tls.enable_kyber and set it to Disabled or False.
7. Restart your browser.
SpoofDPI software for macOS and Linux
The program works similarly to GoodbyeDPI (the developers confirm that they were inspired by this project), but is designed for Mac computers (though only with M-series processors) and Linux. This is the only method in the list that works for Safari on macOS.
1. Open the Terminal application on your computer.
2. To install SpoofDPI, enter the line from the list below that is appropriate for your computer and press Enter.
- Mac : curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xvzc/SpoofDPI/main/install.sh | bash -s darwin-amd64
- Linux AMD : curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xvzc/SpoofDPI/main/install.sh | bash -s linux-amd64
- Linux ARM : curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xvzc/SpoofDPI/main/install.sh | bash -s linux-arm
- Linux ARM 64 : curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xvzc/SpoofDPI/main/install.sh | bash -s linux-arm64
- Linux MIPS : curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xvzc/SpoofDPI/main/install.sh | bash -s linux-mips
- Linux MIPSLE : curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xvzc/SpoofDPI/main/install.sh | bash -s linux-mipsle
3. When the message about successful installation appears, enter export PATH=$PATH:~/.spoof-dpi/bin and press Enter. This is necessary to complete the setup.
4. Enter spoof-dpi to launch the program. For Mac, this is enough, on Linux, you also need to open Google Chrome, go to the settings and enter google-chrome –proxy-server=”http://127.0.0.1:8080″ in the command input field, then close the settings window and restart the browser.
The acceleration will work until the Terminal is closed; after restarting, you will need to repeat all the steps again.
UBoost Chrome Extension
A special extension for Chrome , developed with one purpose in mind: to speed up YouTube in Russia. Everything works in the most straightforward way: install, enable, use. For best performance, it is recommended to disable all other extensions and not open multiple YouTube tabs at the same time. This method appeared later than all the previous ones on the list, but it is also the simplest – at least if you have Chrome. If the “No Internet connection” screen appears, this may indicate a high load on the extension: you will have to refresh the page or just wait until the excitement dies down.
After this, YouTube should work at normal speed. Check and write in the comments if it worked for you.