YouTube videos not playing

Martok · July 11, 2014, 01:44:37 PM

So over the last 3-5 days, I've noticed that various YouTube videos suddenly no longer play on my computer -- I keep getting a message saying, "An error occurred, please try again later. Learn More". I've followed all the suggestions from the webpage that appears (from clicking on the Learn More link) -- making sure I have the latest version of FlashPlayer, making sure I have the latest version of my web browser, making sure JavaScript is enabled, etc. -- but to no avail.

It's not all (or even most) videos that stop playing, thankfully, just certain ones. There doesn't seem to be any particular pattern to which videos stop working, either: It's been everything from music videos, to movie clips, to game reviews. In addition, there's not even consistency with videos from the same account: For example, most music videos from a musical artist will play just fine, for instance, but then 1 or 2 of them flatly refuse to play for no obvious reason; you'd think it'd be all or nothing, but no.

I've run into this issue on both the XP and Win7 half of my hard drive, and on both Firefox and Internet Explorer. From what I can tell so far, there's no obvious common denominator.

Has anyone else been experiencing this problem at all? Or is just me?

mirth · July 11, 2014, 01:49:26 PM

Cleared your browser cache? Rebooted the machine?

Martok · July 11, 2014, 01:57:22 PM

Oh yeah (to both). Did that a couple days ago.

GDS_Starfury · July 11, 2014, 01:58:14 PM

and clean out the malware from those 'sites' you visit.

BanzaiCat · July 11, 2014, 02:33:21 PM

I had an issue with YouTube suddenly not wanting to go fullscreen in Chrome. Couldn't figure it out no matter how many tech articles I looked up, so I just migrated to Firefox if I wanted to see any. The problem seemed to fix itself eventually.

Either that or that midget Soviet hairy Autobot/Buffy crossover porn is starting to get to my computer...

mirth · July 11, 2014, 02:34:42 PM

Quote from: Martok on July 11, 2014, 01:57:22 PM
Oh yeah (to both). Did that a couple days ago.

Sorry, working in IT makes me ask those questions ;)

mirth · July 11, 2014, 02:37:05 PM

Is it just Youtube vids or does it happen with media players on other sites?

There's a real possibility that it's your ISP doing some kind of bandwidth throttling.

Martok · July 11, 2014, 03:58:10 PM

Quote from: mirth on July 11, 2014, 02:34:42 PM
Quote from: Martok on July 11, 2014, 01:57:22 PM
Oh yeah (to both). Did that a couple days ago.

Sorry, working in IT makes me ask those questions ;)

No offense taken. I'm a tech ignoramus, so I don't mind the "stupid" questions. :P

Quote from: mirth on July 11, 2014, 02:37:05 PM
Is it just Youtube vids or does it happen with media players on other sites?

There's a real possibility that it's your ISP doing some kind of bandwidth throttling.

I've only noticed YouTube so far, but then I don't frequent many other sites that play/host lots of videos. (Shut up Star; no, not those either. O:-) ) That's an interesting possibility, though; I hadn't considered that.

Greybriar · July 11, 2014, 06:44:41 PM

YouTube videos play okay for me using Firefox.

eyebiter · July 11, 2014, 06:56:59 PM

.

Martok · July 12, 2014, 12:54:37 PM

Quote from: Greybriar on July 11, 2014, 06:44:41 PM
YouTube videos play okay for me using Firefox.

Thanks Greybriar. While admittedly it's not exactly what I'd hoped to hear (as it means the problem is almost certainly specific to my machine), I can't say I'm surprised.

I'm guessing I recently downloaded something onto my computer -- I pray it's merely a software update of some sort (and not malware/virus) -- that's caused this, but for the life of me, I can't think what.

Quote from: eyebiter on July 11, 2014, 06:56:59 PM
First update your flash software, to fix the inevitable new security vulnerability.

Yep, that was one of the first things I did.

EDIT: Sorry, I didn't see that other thread. I've got the latest update...but still no luck. :(

Quote from: eyebiter on July 11, 2014, 06:56:59 PM
As for your videos now playing are you using a script blocking software?

If so you might have to allow some or all of the following:

youtube.com
ytimg.com
google.com

I do use Firefox's NoScript add-on, but I also allow the above three addresses.

Quote from: eyebiter on July 11, 2014, 06:56:59 PM
googlesyndication.com
googletagservices.com

I don't allow these two, and have never had a problem playing YouTube videos before because of it. However, for the sake of thoroughness, I temporarily allowed them to see if it would change anything; no joy, unfortunately. :(

Quote from: eyebiter on July 11, 2014, 06:56:59 PM
Or you could try the HTML5 player
https://www.youtube.com/html5

I gave that a roll, but it didn't work either. Thanks, though!

SgtRock · July 12, 2014, 09:19:30 PM

First, make sure you allow cookies, otherwise YouTube videos won't play!

Uninstall flash, you don't need it for YouTube!

Martok · July 13, 2014, 11:31:09 AM

To be clear, most YouTube videos still play just fine on my computer. It's only a small fraction -- I'd guess less than 5% of them -- that I'm suddenly having problems with.

Staggerwing · July 13, 2014, 01:43:12 PM

Quote from: Martok on July 13, 2014, 11:31:09 AM
To be clear, most YouTube videos still play just fine on my computer. It's only a small fraction -- I'd guess less than 5% of them -- that I'm suddenly having problems with.

Martok, I just read your initial post again and I confess that I get that same error message at times. I think that particular error is not related to you or your computer but to either youtube and/or your ISP. There could be some kind of complaint lodged with youtube and they are temporarily disabling the vid while checking it out or your ISP is selectively blocking certain 'blacklisted' videos for their own reasons.

Mr. Bigglesworth · July 14, 2014, 09:00:49 PM

I dont have problems with youtube or reuters videos. I do have trouble with BBC news and other sites.