Many owners of devices with Android OS have encountered such an unpleasant problem: we turn on a movie or other video, but it lags and slows down. This can be either a complete stop or periodic freezes. Or, for example, the sound continues to play, but the screen shows a black picture. How to deal with this and what you need to do to avoid such problems, you will learn from this article.
↑ Reasons for video freezing on Android
But before we begin to solve the problem, we need to find out what exactly is causing it. So, the reasons could be the following:
- "Weak stuffing" of your device. If you have a budget smartphone or tablet with 512 MB RAM and a weak graphics processor, then watching videos, especially high-resolution ones, online can cause stuttering. Read how to increase the RAM of your device here.
- Lack of RAM caused by a large number of running applications. For example, you played some resource-intensive game. We left it and, without closing it completely, started the film. The load on the system will be enormous, and the video will slow down.
- Lack of built-in memory. To operate correctly, any operating system requires a certain percentage of free disk space. And if the built-in memory is full, then not only the video, but everything else will slow down.
- The problem may also lie in the device’s firmware, especially if you did it yourself and may have damaged some system files, which leads to video slowdowns.
- The problem may be that you are viewing the video through a standard player that does not support all video file formats.
- If you are watching videos from the Internet, then perhaps your connection speed is simply low.
Problem. YouTube video freezes
Owners of old computers and low-power laptops and, especially, netbooks often encounter the fact that on their machines, videos on youtube are very slow . Moreover, the speed of access to the Internet can be quite satisfactory, be it LAN or WIFI, even if distributed from another computer or laptop, for example, using the method described in the article Virtual WiFi or how to create a wifi network with Internet distribution in Windows. The slowdowns when watching videos on YouTube become especially noticeable if you try to play videos in 480p , 720p and higher quality: freezes, freezes, lagging images - these are the main inconveniences that plague weak computers when working with the popular online video viewing service. Many, trying to answer the question “Why does online video slow down?” , they find the culprit in HTML5, try to disable it in the browser, return Flash specifically to YouTube, etc. Today we will take a different path.
By using the method given below, you can get rid of problems when playing online videos on YouTube on weak computers and netbooks and resolve such issues as the reasons for online video slowdowns. So let's get started...
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↑ Methods for troubleshooting
If your device has low RAM and weak GPU, then all we can do is watch lower resolution videos like 240p and 360p. Of course, the image quality will not be the best, but the video will stop slowing down.
If the internal memory of the device is full, then we simply get rid of unnecessary files, applications, games, etc., so that there is always free space on the drive.
A lack of random access memory (RAM) caused by many running applications can be treated either by closing them manually or using special programs, for example, Clean Master. With its help, you can configure automatic closing of background processes and cleaning up garbage, thereby increasing system performance.
If the problem arose after the next system update or device firmware, then you need to roll back all changes if you made a backup in advance. Or find your old firmware on the Internet and install it. Or do a factory reset if you just updated the OS. Read how to do this here
YouTube slows down on Android: main reasons
With a stable and high-quality network connection and a sufficient level of technical capabilities of the smartphone, such situations should not happen. To solve the problem productively, it is worth considering why such troubles still happen.
Why is YouTube slow on Android?
- The problem occurred after a system update. New installations may be incompatible with the device, or may initially work worse with similar programs. If youtube starts to freeze after updating, it is better to return the previous version. You can do this by returning to factory settings and unsubscribing from automatic system updates.
- Phone memory is full. A good cleaner, as well as regular removal of cache and unnecessary applications, will help free up device memory and speed up the system.
- Checking your gadget for viruses. The operation of devices can be slowed down by an “infection” introduced into the application. Good antivirus protection and regular scanning will help avoid this situation.
- The error may be hidden in the video itself. If a particular video on YouTube is slow, it is better to look for a similar video to watch.
- In some cases, an unstable router connection or mobile network errors are to blame.
Reviews from Android users who have encountered similar errors offer completely non-trivial solutions to problems with downloading videos. These include enabling screen auto-rotation, deleting and reinstalling video hosting, and changing the browser. In some cases, rolling back settings to factory settings helps, for others, installing new system and application updates.
↑ Installing a third-party video player
If you have a powerful device, a lot of free memory and you haven’t touched system files, then your player is to blame.
Note that the standard video player supports only a small number of formats:
- H.263 - 3GPP (.3gp) and MPEG-4 (.mp4)
- H.264 AVC - 3GPP (.3gp) and MPEG-4 (.mp4)
- MPEG-4 SP - 3GPP (.3gp)
- Codec 3GP
- Windows Media Video 9 (wmv)
Here the solution is obvious - just install a third-party application and use it to play the video. You can read about the most popular and effective players here.
As an example, let's install MX Player and download all the necessary codecs for it. Now the video will not freeze. In addition, this video player, in addition to standard formats, is capable of working with a bunch of others, for example: avi, divx, flv, mkv, mov, mpg, mts, mp4, m4v, rmvb, wmv, 3gp, mp3.
Why did YouTube stop working on my phone?
Let's discuss the reasons why video hosting has stopped working or is not working well. This can happen to you regardless of whether you are using an Android phone or tablet. This disease is common to all devices running Google.
- No internet connection. The most obvious problem that people don't always notice. Perhaps you forgot to connect to Wi-Fi and accidentally used up all your data. Or you’ve run out of money and your provider has blocked your access to the World Wide Web.
- Incorrect software update. This may result in incompatibility with the device. We'll talk more about solutions below.
- Errors can also be caused by a clogged cache. These are temporary files that can confuse the operating system.
- General system overload, due to which not only YouTube does not work on Android, but the device as a whole slows down. The reasons may be viruses or too many applications open on the gadget.
We recommend reading “YouTube doesn’t work: reasons and ways to fix it.”
Videos from YouTube stutter and slow down on a tablet, smartphone [on Android]
Good time!
Most users actively use tablets (and smartphones) to watch online videos (most often from YouTube). And it’s very convenient - you don’t have to sit at a PC when you can lie down comfortably with a tablet in your hands. But because Tablets do not shine with performance; you can often observe various slowdowns, freezes, and the video can twitch and stutter (which is very annoying and sometimes makes it impossible to watch).
In this article I will give simple and real ways to improve the quality of the played video. I think some of the methods should help you!
How to fix a bad Wi-Fi signal
The browser itself is slow. All browsers are not very convenient for watching movies, TV series, etc. Online cinema applications like ivi, megogo.net are convenient
The zone began to freeze a lot, it was simply impossible to watch anything in it.
My video slows down only in the browser on YouTube everything doesn’t freeze, but on the Internet it freezes
My experience: 02/15/18 Lenovo Vibe S1, Android 6, that is, not a weak 8-core... Videos everywhere began to slow down: Facebook, YouTube, downloaded to the phone. I struggled for a long time. The sound is normal, but the video slows down and freezes for 2-3 seconds. I reset YouTube updates, rearranged all the programs, nothing. I decided to reset to factory settings. But, attention: after a factory reset, you need to do nothing. Wait until all the Google programs update themselves from the market, then wait until the contacts from your Google account arrive. You can hurry them up by starting forced synchronization, this is where Settings, Google account is, click synchronize now. Wait and check the number of contacts , should be constantly added. I have 830 contacts and it took me 2 hours to travel. But they arrived in the form I wanted. And only then! install all other programs, such as Viber, Skype and others. And now the video jerking in all video resources has disappeared. something like this.
Solving the problem
In the case of outdated hardware, only replacing the mobile gadget will help, but if there is a hardware mismatch, then it is very easy to fix it
Below we will look at several ways that will help you quickly deal with YouTube freezing on your tablet and phone: ↓↓↓
- Terminate all processes in memory;
- Update your internet connection;
- Reboot your device;
- Go to “Applications”, find “YouTube” and clear the cache, as well as all program data.
How to improve video playback
Note! If your tablet is already quite old and has less than 1 GB of RAM (512 MB*), then playing high-quality videos on YouTube, I’m afraid, is an impossible task for it. Of course, you can try the recommendations below, but I wouldn't have high hopes.
How much RAM and how much of it is free / Settings -> Applications -> Running
About standard applications (YouTube/Browser)
Most tablets/smartphones have a special YouTube application pre-installed, and it is in it that most videos are opened. I’ll say right away that it is far from ideal: firstly, it is demanding on the device’s resources (there are more “economical” applications), and secondly, advertising constantly appears (after certain periods of time). Therefore, I would not recommend using it at all.
I would also note the standard browser (which is called “Browser”) on tablets: by default, subtitles are turned on during playback (see screenshot below). These enabled subtitles can significantly affect the load, and there are not always enough device resources to display them. I recommend turning them off when playing - on many tablets the video often stops slowing down altogether!
In general, ideally, instead of standard applications, it is necessary to consider alternative options (more on them below).
Use alternative browsers
Having tried dozens of browsers on not the most productive tablets, I settled on two: Dolphin and Opera (classic version, no Mini.). Why.
Dolphin
A very fast and lightweight browser that comes with an ad blocker. It has its own built-in flash player, a well-developed and user-friendly design, and most importantly, good optimization with all popular services and sites: YouTube, Amazon, Wikipedia, etc. Plays videos perfectly (no stuttering, no slowdowns, no freezing). In general, I definitely recommend getting acquainted!
The video is played in the Dolphin browser / One of the videos on YouTube
Opera
Convenient, fast and secure browser. I note that I would recommend using the classic version (and not Mini and other “derivatives”). The browser is quite well optimized for playing streaming video (although, in my opinion, Dolphin loses). But be that as it may, it is an order of magnitude better than the standard YouTube or Browser applications.
Loading with third party apps (background updates)
Perhaps this is the most common reason why a tablet (smartphone) slows down, and not only when playing video. The fact is that when some newer versions of installed applications appear, the tablet can begin to update them on its own, and, of course, if a video is launched at this time, it is very likely that lags will appear.
The easiest way to find out which applications are currently running, how much free RAM (and how much of it in total) can be found in the tablet/smartphone settings in the “Applications (running)” section (see screenshot below).
How much RAM and how much of it is free?
Ideally, for comfortable video playback, you should have at least 500 MB of free RAM (more -> better). Look carefully at the list of applications, and just close everything that is not needed at a given time.
As an option, you can simply try to restart the tablet (note: hold down the power button for 3-5 seconds until the system “window” appears).
You can also find out about software updates from the top panel: pay attention to the upper left corner. If you “expand” the corner of the panel, you can see the current “state” of affairs.
Background tasks, application updates, etc.
The message of this part of the article: close everything unnecessary and not currently used in order to provide maximum device resources for playing streaming video.
Slow Internet/no connection
If your Internet speed is less than the bitrate of the streaming video, then the tablet will play the video faster than it loads. As a result, every 10-30 seconds, playback will stop for 3-5 seconds, re-load (note: so-called buffering), and then play again.
Addition!
For high-quality playback of online video 720p (1080p), an Internet channel of at least 15-20 Mbit/s is required.
Tip for improving playback: Open the video and pause it. Within a minute or two, part of the video will be loaded and you can start playing it (if the video is long, you may have to pause it 1-2 more times to watch it without frequent annoying lags).
In smartphones/tablets, by the way, to quickly assess the network status, you can pay attention to the corresponding icon in the corner of the screen (settings) See the screenshot below.
What's up with the connection?
But in general, if you approach the issue objectively, it is better to test the speed using special services. The fact is that often the declared Internet speed can differ significantly from the real one (sometimes several times!). I provide a link to better services below.
Important!
To check Internet speed (both on a tablet and on a PC), I recommend using these services: https://ocomp.info/kak-uznat-skorost-interneta.html#i-5
As I said above, to watch videos in 720p (1080p) quality, you need an Internet speed of at least 15 Mbit/s (preferably 20 Mbit/s). If during testing your speed turns out to be lower, then the problem is obvious.
By the way, if your tablet is connected to a Wi-Fi network, then it would be a good idea to go into the router settings and check whether there are any restrictions, whether any device is “taking over” the entire channel.
Note! Some routers allow you to limit the speed for each device individually. It’s very convenient when “some” loved ones download “Santa Barbara” to themselves.
Setting up a Tenda router (Clickable)
