YouTube videos are not playing on chrome or Firefox for some users. This is not a youtube bug, but a problem with the way browsers handle these videos. The problems are reported to occur because of the “Origin Policy” implemented by Youtube and browser “Same origin policy.”
Why are youtube videos loading but not playing
Youtube videos are not playing because youtube has implemented the “Origin Policy,” which prevents a website from reading cookies or accessing resources (such as scripts, images, and video files) on other domains. This is to prevent access to unauthorized content. For example, this policy stops an ad network from accessing your youtube channel’s data to serve you ads.
Origin policy prevents the browser from loading Javascript, images, or other resources on a different domain than the one that hosts the main HTML page of your website. This is to prevent malicious websites from accessing your cookies etc. For example, if a website X accesses any resource (like a video or an image) from youtube.com, it will not work for you. Likewise, if a website X loads any javascript from site Y, the scripts cannot access cookies on site X because they are not supposed to do that, which also fails.
The Origin Policy
When you play any video from youtube via youtube.com, it is played using a special html5 protocol. Youtube can control the video playback on this protocol and communication between your browser and youtube servers. On the other hand, if you use an external link to play any video from youtube (for example, sharing the link in emails or websites), your browser uses a different protocol. On this protocol, youtube has no control over the video playback and communication between your browser and youtube servers. The problem arises because of the “origin policy” implemented by Firefox (and chrome?) to prevent malicious websites from accessing content from other domains without permission.
The Origin Policy Explained
When you visit a website via any link or bookmark, your browser does three things before serving you with web content. Firstly it checks if the site is currently in its cache. Secondly, it will ask the DNS server for domain name resolution and thirdly, it will also check if there are cookies saved for that site in its cache. In short – First, your browser checks if requested content already exists somewhere on its local hard drive or memory cache.
If videos are not playing, first check if your cache is empty by clearing the cache. Some other reasons could be that you have some cookies blocked or DNS has issues with this site.
How to fix youtube videos loading but not playing using a proxy?
In some cases, you may need to use a proxy server to play videos on youtube.com properly via its proxy. To do so, you will first need to create an external link for the video and then use it as your video source while watching youtube videos offline or using any other browser than Firefox (which is currently suffering from this bug).
How do you create an external link for a youtube video to use it as your video source when watching videos offline or using any other browser than Firefox?
If you already have the video URL, simply replace “HTTP://” at the beginning of the video URL with “HTTPS://.” If you don’t have the URL but have the video title, then follow these steps:
Search for your desired video on youtube via this link. The results page will have few links to play that video. A small thumbnail image will be displayed beside each of them. Right-click on any one of those images and select the “copy image URL” option from the context menu. Paste the image URL in your address bar and press enter.
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