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iPad has trouble with Youtube videos

When playing long youtube videos on my ipads, they repeatedly pause or I get the spinning circle. This is accessing Youtube with Safari.


This happens on my 9.7" iPad Pro and my brand new iPad Mini. Most of the videos are 3 hours long, but typically within 30-60 minutes, it will stop playing and I get the spinning circle and typically have to reload the page. Other times, for testing purposes, I'll let it play and I'll periodically check it and usually it is paused. I don't know if the spinning circle eventually leads to just being paused or not. But it will keep happening every 30-60 minutes, though sometimes it happens much sooner.


It is NOT a slow connection! I have a 1 Ghz internet connection and even with the wifi connection, Speedtest will show hundreds of Mbps. Today I even tried attaching an ethernet adapter - it gave me 940 Mbps but the videos still stop!


It is especially annoying when it is a live stream and I'm going to miss something during the process to get it playing again.


I've tried using "Focus" to prevent interruptions as well as turning off content blockers. I've tried restarting and other things. Nothing seems to work. If it goes a long time, it just seems to be luck and very rare.


It does not happen with Safari on my Mac. And it may not do it on my iPhone. At least I know it doesn't do it as much, but I rarely use that. I have done brief tests with another browser, but it does the same thing.




iPad mini 6 Wi-Fi

Posted on Nov 1, 2021 10:09 PM

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4 replies

Nov 1, 2021 10:49 PM in response to MichelPM

I mentioned I did try another app (Firefox). I'll try again and maybe try the Aloha browser since I think I have that too.


I was trying to avoid the app simply because I try to minimize how much Facebook, youtube, or Google know about me. And since it works on my Mac, it seems it should work on the iPad without resorting to the app. But if I can't find a solution, I may have to try the app.


Nov 2, 2021 3:19 AM in response to dbk9999

Be aware that a Speed Test of your internet connection only measures the speed of the connection between the device performing the test and the speed-test server. The achievable speed between your iPad and the media server from which your are attempting to stream video will almost certainly differ to that of the speed test.


Network routing and congestion, in addition to server loading, will contribute to potential buffering issues.

Nov 2, 2021 4:22 AM in response to dbk9999

True, but if it is the internet itself, why doesn't it happen with the Mac? So I think something else must be happening.


I did watch a live stream that wasn't on youtube that lasted 105 minutes. No problem at all.


And lost year with my iPad pro (which has the same problem), I watched two streams from the same source for 2 hours and 2.5 hours. No problem.


It makes me suspicious that there is something involving youtube and the iPad using a browser.


I did download the Youtube app today and let it run a 3 hour video while I was out. Just got back and it did reach the end. So that might work (still want to solve it on the browser though). I'll have to try it more than once to be sure.


I found it difficult to get what I want in the app. Maybe it does it differently and I just don't know how.


My usual process in Safari is, I go to a the channel that live stream will be on. Then I click the "Videos" tab. Then from the options ("Uploads", "Past Live Streams" and "All Videos"), I choose "All Videos". I refresh the screen repeatedly when it should start and, part way down the screen, it will show the link for the live stream then it is available. But with the app, I don't see those three options!


There are some other quirks and I'm hoping it is just something I haven't found how to use properly yet. So far I prefer the browser version though!


iPad has trouble with Youtube videos

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