YouTube keeps freezing when I use Chrome. I didn’t know why. But, I knew I had to find a fix. And, that I did. It took a while and it could be a combination of things.
It’s like that time when my YouTube videos wouldn’t play. However, I fixed that. And, if your YouTube videos freeze when you use Chrome, here’s what you can do to fix the problem.
Log Out/Into Your Google Account
The first thing that I tried was to sign out of my Google Account. Then, I signed back in. I heard that it worked for others so I figured why not?
- Click on the YouTube logo on any YouTube site to open the homepage.
- Then, click your profile name/icon (top right).
- Finally, choose “Sign out”.
Once you sign out, you can try to play a YouTube video and see if it still freezes. Then, you can sign in and test.
Disable Plugins
Everyone loves a good Chrome plugin. But, sometimes, these extensions mess up features on websites. Here’s how to disable plugins in Chrome.
- Open Google Chrome.
- Paste the following link into the address bar:
chrome://extensions/
- Check for anything suspicious and either toggle it off or choose “Remove” to delete it.
- Also, you can disable each one, check to see if the problem is solved and re-enable each one by one in order to see which one caused the issues.
Change Default DNS Servers
Back when I talked about how to fix YouTube videos that were slow, I mentioned using Free Public DNS servers. Some of the DNS Servers even prevent your ISP from tracking your online activity. However, don’t use them to get torrents (that’s still illegal).
If you use your Internet Service Provider’s (ISP) default DNS, then you are really limiting your internet experience. Moreover, alternative DNS servers offer more privacy, a speed boost, and security enhancements. Read the articles and give one a try. I recommend Cloudflare’s Public DNS.
Disable Hardware Acceleration
Turning off Hardware Acceleration may very well resolve the problem. When I disabled it, I saw improvements in not only YouTube, but Hulu, ShowTime, and Netflix.
- Open Google Chrome.
- In the address bar, type chrome://settings.
- Hit enter.
- Scroll down and choose Advanced.
- Then, scroll till you see System.
- Under system, look for “Use hardware acceleration when available“.
- Finally, toggle the switch off and restart Chrome.
Use An Alternative Browser
I know you love Google Chrome. I do too. But, you may need to use a different browser. I listed the best browsers for Android and many of them have desktop versions as well. Check out the list and give one a go. Here are some: