Why do YouTube videos often stop loading?

[TheGoodTexan]

This happens all the time to me, on my laptop, on my desk top at the house, and my desk top at the office.

Example: Video is 6 minutes long, quality is 360p. I press play, the video plays for 10 or 12 seconds, the gets hung up. I press pause to allow it to buffer. I work on something else for a few minutes, or leave my desk to go do something else. Come back in 5 minutes, and the video has stopped buffering up altogether. I press play, and begin to watch the portion that has loaded, say, two minutes worth, and as I do the remainder of the video begins to load again. BUT my real-time watching of the video once again catches up with the buffering point, and it hangs up again... and the process repeats.

I've noticed that it does this regardless of the quality setting in most cases.

I'm not complaining. Heck, I'm still thrilled to death to have almost an endless amount of what were once considered "rare" music and other videos at my beck and call now. Just think about where we've come from in the past 10 years alone.

I'm just wondering why it does this.

In my mind, I should be able to open two or three videos, press pause on all of them and allow them to load completely, the watch them uninterrupted by buffering.

[tazzboy]

List of possibilities.

1. Slow Internet Connection (and I'm not talking about with you just internet speed either)

2) Slow Server at Youtube/Google.

3) Large file to the server to process.

I can go on and on. But you get my point.

[Mjark]

I haven't had that problem.

[Mad Kiwi]

I have the same or similar problem down here in New Zealand as well. Very frustrating.

Not all the time but not uncommon....

[trev333]

youtube never plays without pause/load for me even if i drop to lowest quality..... slow connection here....

them's the breaks....

[TheGoodTexan]

A little more detail:

When it's loading, it's not a trickle thing... 1%.... 2%.....3%.... etc.

When it is loading, it's like BAM! 25% immediately, then BAM! 50% within 2 or 3 seconds... then....blah...stops.

[chrisgblues]

Never had that problem with Youtube. In fact it's the single most dependable video streaming site I've ever used.

However, I'm in an urban center and we have loads of bandwidth so that could explain it. I do have some in-laws that live out in the country (about an hour's drive out of the city) and they have the same problem you described, because their service provider is different than mine and the bandwidth is terribly slow.

I'm thinking it's a problem with your local internet service provider if it's happening on multiple computers at your home and work. Just a guess.

Good luck.

[GriffinBF]

Not just You Tube, but my experience has been that a video either loads quick like a bunny or stalls at the beginning and taunts me.. never fully loading. I take it personally... damned internetz!!!

[Tim Armstrong]

I have the same problem here in Austin. I blame Time-Warner, my cable internot provider...

Tim

[TheGoodTexan]

I may be ignorant of how it works specifically, but wouldn't poor/slow internet simply translate into slow, but eventual loading?

What happens to me is that it stops loading entirely, until I start playing the video - then it begins loading again...for a minute... until it completely stops again. If I never press play... it will not resume loading at all - sit there half loaded indefinitely.

[Justinvs]

Originally Posted by TheGoodTexan

A little more detail:

When it's loading, it's not a trickle thing... 1%.... 2%.....3%.... etc.

When it is loading, it's like BAM! 25% immediately, then BAM! 50% within 2 or 3 seconds... then....blah...stops.

We get the same thing all the time. I think it's as much a matter of low bandwidth and slow connections as anything. Maybe try updating your Adobe to the latest version? Sometimes that helps.

[Jupiter]

Originally Posted by TheGoodTexan

I may be ignorant of how it works specifically, but wouldn't poor/slow internet simply translate into slow, but eventual loading?

What happens to me is that it stops loading entirely, until I start playing the video - then it begins loading again...for a minute... until it completely stops again. If I never press play... it will not resume loading at all - sit there half loaded indefinitely.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

[flyingbanana]

I have that problem with Firefox...especially when I'm playing to a video for practice and I'm really getting into it. It will download and play fine up until the 3/4 mark. Then the video just stops.

Oddly enough, I'll then pull up the video on Internet Explorer and no problem.

I don't like Internet Explorer. Firefox used to be awesome.

My internet is not the issue. I have 50meg download speeds and everything else opens up instantly. Weird.

[R. Stratenstein]

Originally Posted by flyingbanana

I have that problem with Firefox...especially when I'm playing to a video for practice and I'm really getting into it. It will download and play fine up until the 3/4 mark. Then the video just stops.

Oddly enough, I'll then pull up the video on Internet Explorer and no problem.

I don't like Internet Explorer. Firefox used to be awesome.

My internet is not the issue. I have 50meg download speeds and everything else opens up instantly. Weird.

I have almost the exact problem TheGoodTexan describes, and it seems to be caused by slow internet speed, often caused by packet loss, high rate of jitter and long latency time. Seems to be an intermittent thing, and of course, every time I call in, it's working just fine.

As far as the squeaky wheel, I've had interNOT problems for years, but ATT is so wound up in peddling overpriced mobile crap and their stoopid U-verse (sorry, not available in my area), they couldn't give a rip.

The local cable monopoly will be happy to have my business, once I pony up almost $3 grand to run a cable the 300 feet to my house. Some days I just have to turn it off and walk away. Even letters to the President of ATT gets me call backs from cubicle people in the head shed that send the latest unqualified "independent contractor" for ATT who can screw a wire under a terminal on a good day, but has no other qualifications.

Last guy ATT sent out was telling me how at 300 ft off the street, they shouldn't have installed DSL (it's not DSL, its what they call a fiber data line), but anyway it's at the very outer limit of DSL technology. He didn't have an answer when I asked him why it worked fine for about 4 years after Bellsouth put it in, but when ATT ate Bellsouth, service and quality went South.

I don't have an answer, except to say that ATT is NOT the answer.

[flyingbanana]

Even around here in socal where ATT is offered, no one really likes U Verse either. In many places it's the only game in town though.

[Toto'sDad]

I have a cable modem and sometimes I still have a problem, otherwise zip it just loads and plays. I think it must be on you tube's end because sometimes it's just fine other days same video is slow to load. I'm not complaining either, it's cool to be able to sit in with, or just listen to who ever you want when ever you want.

[CrisHendrix]

Stay away from companies like Time Warner and Clear and try to get FIOS if possible. Most of your streaming issues should be solved

[1955]

Click on any YT video, pause, right click on the actual video screen, click "Global Settings." choose "Block all...." under "Storage, Ok, "Block all..." Camera & Mic, "Block..." Playback, "Never check for updates" Advanced, Check the "Delete All Site Dara & Settings" box, as well as the "Delete All Audio and Video License Files", and at the bottom click "Delete Data."

Do a lot of System Restores, and I like "Defraggler" from Piriform.

Download CCleaner from Piriform (for Windows users.) Run it on the default settings after every browsing session. You can also use it to disable the startup garbage impedimenta from Adobe, like "Adobe PDF Link Helper," You can disable other annoying stuff like MSC, QuickTime Task, Research Assostant, Connection Help, Diagnose Connection Problems, Messenger, Search Helper, Windows Live Sign-In Helper, etc. if you don't need them.

After startup, I like the 2tox.com program called "AppBooster." Dramatic feeing up of resources!

Also, to keep everything running well, Advanced System Care is a great All-in-One tool.

Periodically, it is important to update the Adobe Download Manager with Flash, Reader, etc. Also Java. Windows update is important every once on a while, as conflicts in root certificates cause trouble with Adobe, Java.

The Add-Ons in IE can be looked at as well as major slower-downers. Try disabling some of the stupid and useless ones.

The culprit is nobody wants to play nice with each other with these companies. Utter madness!

[Mark Davis]

Try this its worked for all my friends.

As said above get ccleaner and be sure index.dat is checked.

When the index.dat files get corrupted that whar does it.

[TheGoodTexan]

Originally Posted by Mark Davis

Try this its worked for all my friends.

As said above get ccleaner and be sure index.dat is checked.

When the index.dat files get corrupted that whar does it.

I run CCleaner every Friday afternoon before doing a hard shutdown of my computer for the weekend. (This is at the office.)

I have every box on CCleaner checked, except "Wipe Free Space".