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Youtube videos won't play in Safari anymore for some reason

K

karansaraf

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 18, 2010
230
8
Over the last few days, Youtube videos won't play when I open them in Safari for some reason.

The screen is just black and when I click on it, it says there has been an error (see screenshot). The rest of the Youtube page loads (sidebar, comments etc).

The only extension I have that could be interfering is AdBlock, but that has been installed for a long time without problems, and even when I disable it for Youtube, the problem continues to occur.

I don't think I've updated anything recently, and obviously Youtube is all HTML5 now so I don't think Flash issues are the problem (it's disabled in Safari anyway as default).

I've restarted my MBP too and the problem is still occurring. They play perfectly fine in Chrome, which I don't ever use otherwise.

Any ideas? This is really frustrating.
 

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Thanks for your reply! Can I ask how do you know it's the extension for sure? It's only started happening in the last 2-3 days max, and strangely not for all youtube videos, about 20% play fine.

That's a nifty little trick, but I use youtube quite a bit so probably not ideal. Plus I do require an ad blocker for general use, and it seems as if the problem remains even if I exempt YT from ad blocking.
 
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karansaraf said:
Thanks for your reply! Can I ask how do you know it's the extension for sure? It's only started happening in the last 2-3 days max, and strangely not for all youtube videos, about 20% play fine.

That's a nifty little trick, but I use youtube quite a bit so probably not ideal. Plus I do require an ad blocker for general use, and it seems as if the problem remains even if I exempt YT from ad blocking.
Click to expand...

I noticed this yesterday too and disabling my ad blocker just solved the problem.
 
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karansaraf said:
Thanks for your reply! Can I ask how do you know it's the extension for sure? It's only started happening in the last 2-3 days max, and strangely not for all youtube videos, about 20% play fine.

That's a nifty little trick, but I use youtube quite a bit so probably not ideal. Plus I do require an ad blocker for general use, and it seems as if the problem remains even if I exempt YT from ad blocking.
Click to expand...
I had a similar problem and it was solved after the extension was updated with this changelog:
7.3 Jun 16, 2020 • updated video ad filters https://apps.apple.com/app/id1018301773
Try to disable the extension, restart Safari and see if the problem persists. Sometimes, adding a site to the exclusion list doesn't work very well in these new extensions.
 
Yeah so disabling AdBlock has fixed the issue. If only I didn't have to choose between that and ads!
 
karansaraf said:
Over the last few days, Youtube videos won't play when I open them in Safari for some reason.

The screen is just black and when I click on it, it says there has been an error (see screenshot). The rest of the Youtube page loads (sidebar, comments etc).

The only extension I have that could be interfering is AdBlock, but that has been installed for a long time without problems, and even when I disable it for Youtube, the problem continues to occur.

I don't think I've updated anything recently, and obviously Youtube is all HTML5 now so I don't think Flash issues are the problem (it's disabled in Safari anyway as default).

I've restarted my MBP too and the problem is still occurring. They play perfectly fine in Chrome, which I don't ever use otherwise.

Any ideas? This is really frustrating.
Click to expand...
I'm having the same issue. Any updates??
 
No updates from my end. Same problem with AdBlock and another ad blocker I tried as well. I've just been pausing the ad blocker on the videos it's affecting, and turning it back on afterwards, which is mildly annoying but can't be helped I guess. Unless anyone else has any suggestions to try something clever?
 
Same for me. All works fine when playing them in Chrome but some some just won't open in Safari. I turned off 1Blocker and it works fine. I don't understand how this has suddenly started, just in the last couple of days. I don't recall Safari or 1Blocker getting updated. This must be something from YouTube's end?
 
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Thanks for this question. Having exact same problem. Will temporarily disable ad blocker. Wish I didn't have to. Thanks!
 
So this is watching Youtube videos in Safari, not in a You tube app?
Ok well have you tried this:
Install Duckduckgo as your search engine.
On the Duckduckgo results page find settings>privacy> video playback: check 'always play on duckduckgo'
Go back to the video tab and search for whatever it is you want to watch.
Now when you see the thumbnail of the video you want, click on the thumbnail NOT the link underneath.
The thumbnail should play the video on Duckduck go without adverts. You will have the opportunity to expand the link to full screen.
Sometimes, it isn't allowed and sometimes you will have a screen asking you to confirm you want to watch it there, but usually it works and it's far more enjoyable experience
If you do click the link underneath, then it takes you directly to Youtube as usual.
I strongly recommend Duckduckgo by the way. It doesn't add a time out like Google and a lot of people don't realise, if you ad block Google it'll make you wait up sometimes 16 seconds to load the page.
I've thoroughly checked this out and so I'm sure it's true. Blocking Google syndication is the worst.
Also try out their privacy essentials as part of your blocking. It helps.
Best
 
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karansaraf said:
Thanks for your reply! Can I ask how do you know it's the extension for sure? It's only started happening in the last 2-3 days max, and strangely not for all youtube videos, about 20% play fine.

That's a nifty little trick, but I use youtube quite a bit so probably not ideal. Plus I do require an ad blocker for general use, and it seems as if the problem remains even if I exempt YT from ad blocking.
Click to expand...

Have had same problem while using Retina MacBook the past few weeks. Strange thing is my old MacBook Air and iPad are not affected. All devices have DuckDuck and AdBlock.
 
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I'm running into this problem yesterday, and I don't even have any extension installed on Safari. I tried other video websites which all work fine, only YouTube is not working. Right now I am using Firefox to watch YouTube videos 😓, anyone has the solution for this? thanks~
 
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BigBossTony said:
I'm running into this problem yesterday, and I don't even have any extension installed on Safari. I tried other video websites which all work fine, only YouTube is not working. Right now I am using Firefox to watch YouTube videos 😓, anyone has the solution for this? thanks~
Click to expand...

Are you using Adblocker? Its removal solved my similar YouTube problem. Google has forced adverts on YouTube in order to watch it appears.
 
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I just had this issue with Firefox and YouTube TV.

Fix was deleting cache then disabling plug-ins one by one and retrying. I found one plug in was the issue.

Initially, just start Firefox in safe mode and if YouTube works, its an extension or plug in. Safari is a little different as I think it requires a reset to go back to factory settings
 
karansaraf said:
Over the last few days, Youtube videos won't play when I open them in Safari for some reason.

The screen is just black and when I click on it, it says there has been an error (see screenshot). The rest of the Youtube page loads (sidebar, comments etc).

The only extension I have that could be interfering is AdBlock, but that has been installed for a long time without problems, and even when I disable it for Youtube, the problem continues to occur.

I don't think I've updated anything recently, and obviously Youtube is all HTML5 now so I don't think Flash issues are the problem (it's disabled in Safari anyway as default).

I've restarted my MBP too and the problem is still occurring. They play perfectly fine in Chrome, which I don't ever use otherwise.

Any ideas? This is really frustrating.
Click to expand...
I started having this exact issue yesterday. However, I DON'T have any ad blocker extensions installed. Did you eventually find a solution?
 
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I have the same issue and no extensions enabled.

If you click the Develop tab at the top of Safari and hover over "user agent" you should be able to click on "Safari iOS 13.1.3 iPhone". This will tell websites you're on an iPhone not a Mac. If you do this when on the YouTube homepage, www.youtube.com, then the website should refresh and then you should be able to watch videos again.

Mind you, I don't think this is the best solution as you may have to do this every time you visit YouTube.com. Also the UI for YouTube will be slightly different as you will be on the mobile website.
 
After updating safari, instagram story videos (i watch via safari web browser) stopped working, only sound i got on my m1 now....

Any ideas? Restarting and stuff doesn't work :(
 
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