Youtube slow on Mac (solution)

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Macbook Pro 13” i5 (2012) , iPhone5 16GB (white), iPhone4 8GB (white), iPad2 64GB 3G, Apple TV
From time to time I have encountered buffering problems on my Macbook Pro when using Youtube. I am on a 120Mbps/10Mbps connection (wireless) and I could not understand why it would be buffering (or not buffering at all!)

I researched the problem and many users seem to have problems with video buffering on sites like Youtube/Vimeo

Well I found the following post:

Delete your Flash cookies.

Flash keeps its own cookies (surprise!) in its own folder that can bog down your flash player. Delete them. Delete them every day. This is what works for me. But deleting cookies in your browser won't touch them. Use the Flash panel in your System Preferences.

Long answer:

First of all, everyone stop saying it's Madelyn's internet connection. Obviously it's not if she has no trouble with her Windows machine. As a Mac user, I can tell you that Flash butts heads with Macs in a way that Windows users never have to worry about. Mine was also slogging it to run flash video. I had given up on full-screen altogether.

My solution(s):
My kludgy workaround had been to run the video in regular size and zoom in on it using the Universal Access zoom function that you can turn on in the system preferences.
THEN I installed the extension clicktoflash—which I recommend for many reasons, not the least of which is that Flash can make my Mac run up to 30 degrees hotter. It also makes lots of ads invisible! (ClickToFlash)

THEN I discovered the YouTube5 Safari extension (Vertical Forest :: YouTube5). It plays YouTube videos as HTML5, not Flash. Even seems to work on YouTube videos embedded on other websites. No more slow YouTube.


Actually for me the Youtube5 Safari extension has completely solved my problems. Videos are ALL buffering fast (even 720p/1080p) and load in HTML5 and no more strange buffering waits.

I thought of sharing this with you as others might have the same issue.
 

CrimsonRequiem


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I use Chrome and it has html5 built in. That's neat if it works on Safari.
 

chscag

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Welcome to our forums.

Please note that the post you replied to is 5 years old. But thanks for the link.
 

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