YouTube Loading Slow: Here’s How to Fix

In recent times people love to watch the content rather than reading it. And the credit for this obviously goes to YouTube, a number one video sharing platform. You can get any video content from comedy to news to politics to literature. People create their content, share it on YouTube and within a few seconds it reaches millions of people from all over the world. The popularity of this platform can be understood by the image below, that states that every day people watch over a billion hours of video and generate billions of views.

But in between this popularity often users find themselves with the problem of YouTube loading slow that eventually leads to slow loading of videos or buffering for too long. There can be several reasons for this problem like overloading of YouTube servers (it is quite practical when one billion hours of content is watched daily on YouTube), slow internet at your end, problem with the router, an outdated browser and many more. But in between these various problems the good news is that the problem can be fixed with some simple tweaks and tips that we are going to share with you in this article.

Also Read: Audio Renderer Error. Please Restart Your Computer (Fixed)

What causes YouTube to Load Slow?

There can be several reasons, ranging from the problem at the YouTube servers to the problem at your Internet Service Provider. But, some common reasons that causes YouTube to load slow are as below:

• Overloading of YouTube servers.
• Outdated browser.
• Faulty or buggy plugins installed on your browser.
• Slow internet speed at your end.
• Browser Cache and cookies

Now since we have understood the reason for the problem it’s time to troubleshoot the problem.

Also Read: [Fixed] YouTube Black Screen Problem

How to Fix YouTube Loading Slow Issue

So now we have understood the reason for slow loading of videos on YouTube, now it’s time to learn how to fix this issue. We recommend you to go through each of the troubleshooting steps as the solution may vary from person to person.

Make Changes to the URL

Before including this step we ourselves try this step in one of our systems that has the problem of slow loading of YouTube videos. And to our surprise it works magically and it helps in loading videos faster than before. There is no specific reason mentioned anywhere why this tweak in URL works. But since it is working for several users there is no harm in giving it a try

Open the YouTube on the browser and search for the video that you wish to watch

Now in the address bar just change the URL as we have changed in the below example.

Original URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=td7Muakbkas

Changed URL: https://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=td7Muakbkas

So basically what we have done is changed the word WWW with ca in the URL. Thousands of users benefited by this step, so let’s just give it a try.

Go for a VPN

If your network provider has throttled the speed to some of the websites or blocked the access then VPN comes handy. Although there are several benefits that a VPN provides like accessing blocked websites, securely connecting to a network, hiding your browsing activity from your ISP, safeguarding your privacy on public networks and many more. And in between all these benefits VPN can boost the slow loading videos on YouTube.

Now if you look around the Internet you will find several free VPN, but believe me you can’t get the same features and security from a free VPN like the one you get with a paid VPN. Therefore, we recommend you to go for a paid VPN like Systweak VPN.

Systweak VPN not only conceal your IP address, but also allows you to access your favorite websites & other content without any restrictions. And what more it avoids ISP throttling that might be the reason for slow loading of videos on YouTube. Some salient features of Systweak VPN are as follows:

• Strict no-log policy
• AES 256 military-grade encryption
• Kill switch to drop the connection if connectivity is lost
• Bypasses ISP throttling
• Ultra-fast streaming
• Strong protection, hides IP address
• Unblocks Netflix and other streaming services
• DNS leak protection

And besides all these features your purchase is protected by 30-days money-back guarantee. This means for any reason if you are not satisfied with the purchase you can ask for a complete money back.

Moreover currently there is an offer going on the vendor website where they are providing 3 months free on the annual plan. You can Download Systweak VPN from here.

And if you want to learn more about the product then check our article Systweak VPN – Best VPN for Improved Security and Speed

Change the Video Quality

Depending on your network speed YouTube itself adjusts the quality of the videos. This means your connection is slow then YouTube automatically changes the video quality to low. You can contact your ISP regarding the Internet speed but if the error is due to overloaded YouTube servers then there is nothing much you can do other than manually changing the video quality to low. To lower video quality follow the steps below:

1. Open any YouTube video on your computer.

2. Now click the gear(Settings) icon at the bottom right corner of the video.

3. From the available menu, click quality and choose a lower quality than the one you have currently selected.

Now try loading the video again to check whether it has resolved the problem. In case the YouTube video are still loading slowly then try the next step

Clear Browser Cache

When you visit any website for the very first time either shopping, banking or anything else then the browsing data and cache is automatically created and stored in the browser. This although helps in faster loading of the websites the next time you visit them but when the browser stores this data in excess then it causes websites including YouTube to load slowly. So the next step that we need to follow is clear browser cache. We have included how to clear cache and browsing for two most popular browsers Chrome and Firefox.

Clear Browsing Data on Chrome:

Clear Cache on Chrome by following the steps below

1. Launch the Chrome browser and click on the menu icon from the top right corner of the screen.

2. Now from the drop-down menu that populates select Settings.

3. Select the Privacy and security option from the left and click on Clear browsing data from the right pane.

4. On the Clear browsing data box select the time range and click on the Clear data button.

5. This will clear all cache cookies and browsing data of your browser.

Clear Browsing Data on Firefox:

Clear Cache on Firefox by following the steps below:

1. Open Firefox and click on the Menu button that is located at the top right corner.

2. Now, from the drop down menu select Options.

3. Select Privacy & Security from the left panel. Now in the right pane scroll down until you find Cookies and Site Data and then click on the Clear Data button.

4. On the dialog box that appears, check-mark Cached Web Content and click on Clear.

Now once you have cleared the cache and browsing data try loading the video on YouTube. Hopefully this has resolved the problem.

Using Safari browser and want to know how to clear cache and browsing data on it then read our article Clear Cache on Safari & Chrome to Make it Run More Efficiently!

Close Unneeded Browser Tabs

Every browser tab uses some amount of resources and memory of your computer. So, if you have a lot of open tabs then they will cumulatively consume a lot of resources and making the browser slow. Which eventually leads to giving the impression that the YouTube is loading slow. To fix this all you need to do is close all the unneeded tabs and then try loading YouTube. Hopefully the lag that you will be facing is now resolved.

Block IP Address Range

When we watch videos on YouTube then those are sent by CDN (Content Delivery Network) and not directly by YouTube itself. Therefore if in case the ISP is throttling the network speed from these CDNs then you will feel YouTube videos loading slow. However, blocking these two IP addresses ranges ( (173.194.55.0/24 and 206.111.0.0/16)) can fix the problem. To block these IP address range follow the steps below:

1. Click on the Windows button and in the search field type Command Prompt. Now from the available results right click on the first result from top and select Run as administrator.

2. Now on the Command Prompt screen type the following command:
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name=”YouTubeTweak” dir=in action=block remoteip=173.194.55.0/24,206.111.0.0/16 enable=yes

3. After typing the command press the Enter key. This will add a rule. Now close the Command Prompt window.

Now try loading videos on YouTube to check whether it fixes the problem.

Wrapping Up

So readers this is all from our side. We hope that one of the above steps have surely fixed the YouTube loading slow issue for you. Do let us know in the comments section below which step has worked for you. Also if you like our articles then do share them with your friends and family members.