Youtube error message on videos even after cookies have been deleted.
Hi, Recently, I have been unable to watch some youtube videos. The infamous message "An error occured, please try again later." appears. I tried to watch the same video with Internet Explorer and it worked just fine, which means this problem happens because of Firefox. As many have suggested, I have tried deleting all of my cookies and changing my DNS and, unlike most people facing this problem, it didn't work. When reinstalling Firefox I was surprised to see that the problem had disappeared... before coming back once I had deleted my browsing history and closed Firefox.
I would really be grateful if someone would help me solve this problem as I really don't want to switch to Chrome. Please do not hesitate to ask for more details.
Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me.
All Replies (10)
This only affects some YouTube videos, not all? Is there any pattern to it?
Does it make any difference whether you are on YouTube's own site or you are watching them embedded in another site?
Other users have reported that YouTube has ended all support for Flash. If you use an extension like YouTube Flash Player or YouTube Flash Media Player, please uninstall it to avoid potential complications. If you have any other extensions that may depend on Flash to download videos, try disabling them temporarily.
You can view, disable, and often configure or remove extensions on the Add-ons page. Either:
- Ctrl+Shift+a (Mac: Command+Shift+a)
- "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons
- type or paste about:addons in the address bar and press Enter/Return
In the left column of the Add-ons page, click Extensions. Then read down the list on the right side for any that might be implicated. If in doubt, disable.
Often a link will appear above at least one disabled extension to restart Firefox before the change takes effect. You can complete your work on the tab and click one of the links as the last step.
Any improvement?
I haven't detected a particular pattern. I tried to compare 5 videos with this problem but it seems pretty random.
The error message appears regardless of whether the video is embedded or not.
I do have something called Shockwave Flash 26.0.0.151 but it isn't an Extensions. I tried to disable it but that didn't solve the problem.
Any ideas left on how to fix it ? Thanks
You're right, Shockwave Flash is a plugin -- the Flash player -- not an extension. Those actually are separate lists on the Add-ons page.
Once a video doesn't play, does it not play forever? In other words, "try again later" (maybe 2 hours later) makes no difference?
Hmm, also, could you double-check your HTML video support level. YouTube has a test page here:
You should get all or nearly all blue boxes. If there are red boxes for H.264/MP4, please see this article: Fix video and audio problems on Firefox for Windows N editions.
Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions ("3-bar" menu button or Tools -> Add-ons -> Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem.
- switch to the DEFAULT theme: "3-bar" menu button or Tools -> Add-ons -> Appearance
- do NOT click the "Refresh Firefox" button on the Safe Mode start window
Just tested my HTML video support level and I got all blue boxes.
I tried to restart in Safe Mode and when I tested a youtube video the error message had disappeared ! Does this mean that it was the Appearances that were causing the problem ? If so, what can I do to resolve it when I'm not using Safe mode ?
Thanks
Could you take a second look at your extensions and see whether any might affect audio/video? If you want a second opinion, you can share your list of extensions with support volunteers.
You can copy/paste a list from the Troubleshooting Information page. It will be longer than you expect because it includes hidden Mozilla extensions among the ones you've installed yourself. So to get to that page, either:
- "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Troubleshooting Information
- (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
- type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter
Scroll down to the Extensions heading, then you can select from there through the end of the following table and copy it (either Ctrl+c or right-click > Copy), then paste into a reply here. It will be messy, but we're used to it.
(Please don't include ALL the data from the page, just the extensions list.)
Is it normal that no extension appears in the Troubleshooting Information page ?
You would normally see some special Firefox system extensions installed by default.
You can open the Browser Console to see if there are messages about the extension manager.
- "3-bar" menu button or Tools -> Web Developer
- https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Tools/Browser_Console
I'm sorry but I can't see any Firefox extensions.
Does anyone have any more suggestions ?