How to Solve It When You Cannot Connect to YouTube

Learn how to solve YouTube connection problems quickly to minimize the amount of time you spend on the site not watching videos. From slow Internet connections to errors related to specific videos, several potential malfunctions prevent you from enjoying videos on YouTube. Gaining a knowledge of basic troubleshoot techniques helps you swiftly and efficiently resolve any connection problem that arises when you're using YouTube.

Instructions

1. Load any other website in your browser, preferably one that typically loads quickly, such as Yahoo! or Google. If all sites are slow to connect and load, the issue lies in your Internet connection itself. Connect your computer to a different Internet connection if possible and if not, call your Internet service provider to troubleshoot the connection itself.

2. Click the name of another video and attempt to watch it. If a user has just uploaded a video to his account or if the video is pending removal, the video itself is the cause of the presumed connection problem.

3. Pause the video when it begins playing and wait for the red progress bar to extend at least halfway through the video. If your video is mostly loaded when you begin playing it, your chances of encountering a connection issue mid way through the video are minimal.

4. Click the "Windows Updater" icon in the task bar to make sure your Flash player is up to date. YouTube encodes its videos in FLV flash format and if your player is out of date, this affects the speed at which videos load, if they load at all.

5. Close out of any programs you aren't actively using, particularly if you own a computer that's old and typically performs poorly. If your computer isn't able to fully use its memory resources, connection time to Web pages -- particularly ones like YouTube, which require substantial memory to load -- is longer.

References

• YouTube: Buffering and Playback Problems