Imagine that you are looking forward to watching the latest video from your favorite YouTube channel, and suddenly the video gets stuck. It’s not that you get any errors, it ‘s just that playback stops and YouTube thinks, then plays a few more seconds of the video, stops again, and so on.
It is clear that this is impossible to see any video. This is what is known as “buffering”, and it is one of the most common problems when watching streaming videos over the Internet, whether on YouTube or other applications such as Netflix or Kodi .
Why does YouTube hang on loading the video in the buffer?
When we are playing a video on YouTube we see that there is a red line at the bottom of the video. This line is the one that tells us at what minute/second of playback the video is. Right next to the red line, if we look closely we will see that there is also a grayish-white line.
This white line is the one that refers to the buffer , and indicates the amount of video that has already been downloaded from the YouTube servers on our device. If at any given moment the bandwidth drops or the connection is cut, YouTube will be able to continue playing the video without stopping, taking advantage of that “extra” content that is already downloaded in the buffer.
Therefore, when a video stutters, jumps or stops, it is because YouTube has already consumed all that extra content it had downloaded in advance, and the buffer is not able to fill up fast enough to keep up with the video. the reproduction. This is what is commonly known as “buffering”.
8 tips to fix YouTube buffering issues
The absence of content in the buffer is what causes videos to hang. But why does it happen? There can be 3 causes:
- A slow or low-quality Internet connection.
- Problems on the user’s local device.
- YouTube servers are down or not working properly.
In 99% of cases the problem is usually on the user’s side , either because their internet connection is slow or due to a local problem that prevents the buffer from working properly.
To solve it there are several actions that we can carry out.
1- Try to play another video outside of YouTube
The first step is to narrow down the problem. Open some other video app like Netflix, Twitch, DailyMotion, Vimeo or any other website that allows you to watch online videos.
If you’re watching YouTube from your PC’s browser, try playing the video from another browser .
2- Restart the YouTube app or the browser
If the rest of the videos play correctly, it is clear that the problem is only with YouTube. If you are using the YouTube app for mobile devices, tablets or Smart TVs, follow these steps:
- Close the YouTube app completely and reopen it.
- If the problem persists, go to the settings of the YouTube app and delete both the cache and the data. Note that doing this will require you to sign in to YouTube again.
If you are watching YouTube from the browser of your PC or laptop then the best thing you can do is to clear the cookies and temporary files from the browser cache. In most browsers you can achieve this by pressing the key combination CONTROL+SHIFT+DEL (on some keyboards CTRL+SHIFT+DEL).
3- Reboot your device
The next step is to consider that we may be facing a temporary failure of the operating system or one of its components. The best way to check it is by completely restarting the device.
If you have a PC or smartphone, try turning it off and on again. In the event that you use a Smart TV , remember that it is not enough to press the off button on the remote control. You have to open the TV settings menu and locate the option to restart. Note: On most Android TVs, this option is found within the Android settings, in the “Information” section.
4- Check the Internet connection
Once any problem with the YouTube app, the web browser or the device itself has been ruled out, it’s time to check the internet connection. YouTube recommends a minimum bandwidth speed of 0.7Mbps .
You can do a speed test from the Google search engine to find out what your Internet speed is.
The download speed must be higher than the minimum requirements set by YouTube.
5- Restart the router and the modem
If the speed is lower than those 0.7Mbps (or directly lower than the rate you have contracted) it is necessary to restart both the router and the modem. You can see a detailed tutorial on how to carry out this process in the post “ How to restart your router and your modem correctly ”.
6- Is there any manual bandwidth limitation?
Most routers allow you to set traffic controls to prevent certain applications (such as streaming apps or online video games) from consuming too much bandwidth.
A misconfiguration of the router may be causing a bottleneck that prevents YouTube from playing videos normally. To fix this, log in to the router as an administrator and check the Quality of Service (QoS) settings. It is possible that the traffic control is also in the section dedicated to the security of the router.
If you are connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi, this other tutorial can also help you: “ 12 tricks to increase the power of your WiFi router ”.
7- Reduce the video quality
As YouTube indicates in its help center , depending on the quality chosen to play the video, our Internet connection will have to meet minimum requirements in terms of speed.
- 4K: Recommended constant speed of 20Mbps.
- FullHD (1080p): Recommended constant speed of 5Mbps.
- HD (720p): Recommended constant speed of 2.5Mbps.
- SD (480p): Recommended constant speed of 1.1Mbps.
- SD (360p): Recommended constant speed of 0.7Mbps.
Depending on the results obtained in the speed test, we may have to reduce the quality of the video. Click on the gear icon that you will see in the options menu of the video you are playing and click on “ Quality ”.
Select a quality lower than the one that is marked by default and experiment until you find the quality that best suits your Internet connection speed.
8- Try to watch the video from another device
If none of the tests carried out have worked and the videos are frozen, loading constantly, or advancing “in jumps”, it is possible that the problem is in our device.
Access YouTube from another device, such as a mobile phone, and try to play a video using the mobile data connection . If videos continue to show loading and buffering issues, YouTube’s servers may be overwhelmed.
If the videos play correctly, the conclusion is that we have a problem with our device.
- On mobile phones, tablets or Smart TVs: Uninstall the YouTube app and reinstall it. If none of this works, reset the device to its factory state .
- On desktops or laptops: If you have a Windows PC, do a system cleanup and optimization . If after doing the set-up you still have problems, you will have no choice but to format the computer. If you have a Windows 10 or Windows 11 PC, check out the post “ How to factory reset Windows 10 using commands ”.
Thank you for staying until the end! If you know any other advice or check to solve problems with the YouTube buffer, do not hesitate to stop by the comments area.