YouTube "Something went wrong. Refresh or try again later."

[Fox8284]

OS/Platform

Windows

Installed

OS/Platform's package manager

Version

128.0.6613.84

Have you tested that this is not an upstream issue or an issue with your configuration?

• [X] I have tried reproducing this issue in Chrome and it could not be reproduced there
• [ ] I have tried reproducing this issue in vanilla Chromium and it could not be reproduced there
• [ ] I have tried reproducing this issue in ungoogled-chromium with a new and empty profile using --user-data-dir command line argument and it could not be reproduced there

Description

Can't play youtube videos

How to Reproduce?

Clicking on a youtube video

Actual behaviour

Whenever I click on a youtube video it will just be a black loading screen and it will say "Something went wrong. Refresh or try again later" after a while. However this only happens on a single one of my accounts, it will work fine signed out or on another account. But I have tried on other browsers and it works with the same account. I have tried disabling extensions and clearing cookies and updating chromium.

Expected behaviour

Play the video

Relevant log output

No response

Additional context

No response

[PF4Public]

Please provide additional information to support your issue. Developer tools console might have something of interest. Also Media tab.

[likeyeeah]

Its the new Nvidia driver. Either rollback to the older version of it or sign out from the google and watch it without singing it. I dont know what did they changed but im using the older version of the nvidia driver.

[Haus1]

Is it loading the first 30 seconds and then refusing to buffer any further? If you hold down reload it'll let you clear the cache, that and clearing cookies may help.

[Fox8284]

Please provide additional information to support your issue. Developer tools console might have something of interest. Also Media tab.

This is the log from the developer tools console www.youtube.com-1725398704722.log

These are the logs from the media tab 36206F9CF53C36A7637332F9C495554A.json 1DB67132BFE976838958335963265C5F.json 07A32B9A094E793A783FDD417636C807.json 506E8F8EA08C9DAB90F66348DA9191DE.json 4C0585231AC403719684155B023EF848.json

[Fox8284]

Is it loading the first 30 seconds and then refusing to buffer any further? If you hold down reload it'll let you clear the cache, that and clearing cookies may help.

It's just a black screen with a loading circle, but when I do empty cache and hard reload it will load for the first 30 seconds or so but won't buffer any more

[likeyeeah]

Is it loading the first 30 seconds and then refusing to buffer any further? If you hold down reload it'll let you clear the cache, that and clearing cookies may help.

I updated my driver and tried this and still the same problem. I dont wanna rollback again because i wanted to play wukong. I hope it will get fixed soon, i dont wanna use google chrome lol

[likeyeeah]

Theres a extension called "User-Agent Switcher for Chrome". Basically, you can trick sites to thinking that youre using something else other than chrome. Android and ios are working fine but opera, firefox, ie etc doesnt work. You can use that until it fixed. Its a temporary solution but its better than google chrome

[Haus1]

Is it loading the first 30 seconds and then refusing to buffer any further? If you hold down reload it'll let you clear the cache, that and clearing cookies may help.

It's just a black screen with a loading circle, but when I do empty cache and hard reload it will load for the first 30 seconds or so but won't buffer any more

If you use ublock try updating it to the latest beta

[Haus1]

Is it loading the first 30 seconds and then refusing to buffer any further? If you hold down reload it'll let you clear the cache, that and clearing cookies may help.

I updated my driver and tried this and still the same problem. I dont wanna rollback again because i wanted to play wukong. I hope it will get fixed soon, i dont wanna use google chrome lol

I think the nvidia thing is a seperate issue as this isn't unique to them. If I had to guess I'd say it's something on youtube's end

[likeyeeah]

I think the nvidia thing is a seperate issue as this isn't unique to them. If I had to guess I'd say it's something on youtube's end

My brother in Christ, they didnt say anything about nvidia so there no shot you can get out and type "I tHiNk iTs DifFErENt". Youre telling us to update adblocker and the browser. Is this a forum from 2005? What is next? sfc scannow? Please either type something helpful or dont type anything at all. Do you think were dumb enough to not to disable every extension including ublock? PLEASE MAN

[Haus1]

Its the new Nvidia driver. Either rollback to the older version of it or sign out from the google and watch it without singing it. I dont know what did they changed but im using the older version of the nvidia driver.

My brother in Christ, they didnt say anything about nvidia so there no shot you can get out and type "I tHiNk iTs DifFErENt". Youre telling us to update adblocker and the browser. Is this a forum from 2005? What is next? sfc scannow? Please either type something helpful or dont type anything at all. Do you think were dumb enough to not to disable every extension including ublock? PLEASE MAN

The person who opened this issue is facing the same issue I was somehow able to resolve. Me suggesting the steps I took doesn't invalidate whatever issues you're having and there's no reason to get offended just because someone differentiates the two.

[Haus1]

This is the log from the developer tools console www.youtube.com-1725398704722.log

just a heads up, you may want to scrub any ips from this. groups do target people on here and they've been very active this past week

Failed to load resource: net::ERR_BLOCKED_BY_CLIENT
www.google.com/pagead/lvz?

Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 403 ()
rr4---sn-q4flrnek.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?

As described by Mozilla:

The HTTP 403 Forbidden client error response status code indicates that the server understood the request but refused to process it. This status is similar to 401 , except that for 403 Forbidden responses, authenticating or re-authenticating makes no difference.

Google has been cracking down on people for using adblockers and even youtube-dl after the change to their terms of service last year. It was enough to get the attention of regulators so this may be their way of putting people on notice without outright banning their accounts.

If that's still being blocked locally with extensions disabled it's entirely possible there's a bug or something else confounding the issue.

[Fox8284]

Google has been cracking down on people for using adblockers and even youtube-dl after the change to their terms of service last year. It was enough to get the attention of regulators so this may be their way of putting people on notice without outright banning their accounts.

If that's still being blocked locally with extensions disabled it's entirely possible there's a bug or something else confounding the issue.

I do use ublock origin, but I think it's something to do with the browser. I tried incognito with no extensions enabled, signed in on my account and it still would not play, but on regular google chrome it works with ublock origin installed as well. I tested on other devices too and it plays the videos normally with my account.

[likeyeeah]

The person who opened this issue is facing the same issue I was somehow able to resolve. Me suggesting the steps I took doesn't invalidate whatever issues you're having and there's no reason to get offended just because someone differentiates the two.

So weird. We have the same issue but youre claiming that "you somehow able to resolve". Its been a week my dude. Youre method is 2005 windows forum methods that are insanely.. never mind. I solved my issue by installing older version of nvidia driver, i have no problem. Can you use your brain? Offended? Theres a difference between offended and mad. Im mad because you dont know anything about anything and youre telling us to update ublock. lol

[Sadlysius]

I have the same issue. This bug has been bugging me for a week now. I tried with and without extensions and cleared my browser, but it still doesn't work. However, when I tried a different account, somehow the video loaded fine. But whenever I use my main account, the video doesn't load at all, though shorts work perfectly fine.

[Haus1]

If that's still being blocked locally with extensions disabled it's entirely possible there's a bug or something else confounding the issue.

I do use ublock origin, but I think it's something to do with the browser. I tried incognito with no extensions enabled, signed in on my account and it still would not play, but on regular google chrome it works with ublock origin installed as well. I tested on other devices too and it plays the videos normally with my account.

If it works in chrome you're half way there, you just need to find out where the two console logs diverge. The 403 response is their server refusing to stream the video so you'll need to figure out what's triggering it.

[KOVYRDLO]

Is it loading the first 30 seconds and then refusing to buffer any further? If you hold down reload it'll let you clear the cache, that and clearing cookies may help.

I have that exact issue. It works fine without an account or in other browser. Reloading, cleaning cash and cookies doesn't help. Do you know any other ways to fix that?

[christopherdsmd]

Same issue here. just disable graphics acceleration in settings to fix.

[KOVYRDLO]

Same issue here. just disable graphics acceleration in settings to fix.

its already on

[christopherdsmd]

turn it off

[Fox8284]

Same issue here. just disable graphics acceleration in settings to fix.

This seemed to work, thanks. Colors look a little different though.

[likeyeeah]

Same issue here. just disable graphics acceleration in settings to fix.

This seemed to work, thanks. Colors look a little different though.

This doesnt solves the problem because ungoogled chrome crashes without the graphic acceleration. Search something in google images itll crash immediately. Also if youre using 2 monitor setup, it will stutter without the acceleration. Might be a temporary solution but this need a proper fix

[likeyeeah]

It fixed itself automatically today, without trying anything new.

[joopbraak]

I have the same problem, without being logged on into an account. After 30 seconds. It's a live video. I use NoScript and if I allow script from google.com and gstatic.com the problem is gone. I also use uBlock Origin. The strange thing too is that other youtube video's don't give this error, also videos longer then 20 minutes.

[joopbraak]

I don't think having to disable hardware acceleration is a real solution to the problem. The same uBlock Origin and NoScript settings (with blocking script from google.com and gstatic.com) do work in Firefox.

[J-Carder]

Same issue here. On Linux with Ungoogled Chromium 126. Tried 129 also, no difference. Works fine when logged out of YouTube but logging into my account only the first 20 seconds of a YT video show.

Disabled UBlock, tried disabling hardware acceleration, no difference.

[livelace]

same here, 129.0.6668.70_p1, only youtube logout helps

[PF4Public]

Does it work completely without extensions for example in Private mode?

[livelace]

Does it work completely without extensions for example in Private mode?

i've just checked - behavior is the same

[PF4Public]

Anything interesting in Devtools maybe?

[J-Carder]

Anything interesting in Devtools maybe?

Just this, everything else looks ok I think.

[livelace]

Just this, everything else looks ok I think.

same

[FLYwithPEACE]

I have this issue on version 129.0.6668.96. Google returns a 403 response to the request. Only 20 seconds buffers. I only have uBlock Origin. This issue persist in Incognito. I was able to replicate this issue in 2 different Windows 11 machines. However, I cannot replicate this issue in Edge with uBlock Origin. Videos play fine there.

[PF4Public]

I cannot reproduce this issue: tried playing YouTube for 3 minutes logged in and out — no difference (uBlock and NoScript were enabled). Try --user-data-dir=/tmp/sgsgsgs. Maybe some of your flags or settings interfere. Anyone on Linux could also try https://github.com/PF4Public/ungoogled-chromium-bin/releases to see if it would make any difference.

[J-Carder]

I cannot reproduce this issue: tried playing YouTube for 3 minutes logged in and out — no difference (uBlock and NoScript were enabled). Try --user-data-dir=/tmp/sgsgsgs. Maybe some of your flags or settings interfere. Anyone on Linux could also try https://github.com/PF4Public/ungoogled-chromium-bin/releases to see if it would make any difference.

Tried with --user-data-dir=/tmp/sgsgsgs and worked without logging in but as soon as I logged into YT same problem. Only got 20s of buffering.

[livelace]

maybe it's a set of circumstances ? say ungoogled-chromium + ip from specific countries ?

[J-Carder]

maybe it's a set of circumstances ? say ungoogled-chromium + ip from specific countries ?

I'm in Canada

[livelace]

Estonia

[PF4Public]

Had anyone enabled QUICK?

[leolurch]

Have the same problem. YouTube videos initially load a few seconds, after I refresh. The dynamic fetching of the video content doesn't seem to work however, so that I run into an endless loading animation after the initial buffer is empty.

Just upgraded my version to Version 129.0.6668.89 (Official Build, ungoogled-chromium) (arm64), had the same problem on 121.x.x.x though.

Mac OS: 14.3.1 (23D60) Location (if relevant): Germany

Adblockers are disabled. Firefox and normal Chrome seem to work fine.

Edit: Enabling or disabling QUIC via chrome://flags doesn't seem to change anything

[PF4Public]

@leolurch Please try with mobile data, would it be any better?

to everyone: my question still stays: Did anyone have QUICK enabled?

[leolurch]

Tried using a hotspot from my phone already. Doesn't work either

[Michael-A-Sloan]

this is an issue for me as well I am in the US and I have also tried a hotspot to see if it would fix and it did not.

[vvhitevvizard]

I have the same issue. It started since October I think. It shows YT video for ~20 secs and then yields the same "unexpected error". I tried with the latest 129 and with old 115 version, with all the extensions disabled. Nothing helps. NVidia driver does not matter. I have Intel Iris Xe iGPU (13700H) laptop. But if I log out then YT video works.

EDIT: Disabling hardware acceleration WORKS. But power efficiency is worse and I get a lot of dropped frames.

[PF4Public]

@vvhitevvizard Do you have 403 errors in DevTools when it works while you're logged-in without hw acceleration?

[FLYwithPEACE]

I tested today on 129.0.6668.96, after a few days of running Firefox. No problem loading anymore.

[joopbraak]

to everyone: my question still stays: Did anyone have QUICK enabled?

Do you mean QUIC? chrome://flags/#enable-quic

I have this problem without being logged in to Google, but it seems that I'm the only one. If it's something in the browser settings, starting with a fresh new profile should solve it, which doesn't seem to be the case. But just to be sure, can anybody confirm that browser settings are not synchronized in Ungoogled-Chromium the moment you log in to Google?

[vvhitevvizard]

@vvhitevvizard Do you have 403 errors in DevTools when it works while you're logged-in without hw acceleration?

I cannot test now b/c the status changed. Today, I reverted HW accelleration setting back to Enabled and wow! YT works again (signed and with uBlock and all my extensions enabled). The only changes I made since yday was updating some system device drivers (excluding video card) for my laptop (Lenovo TB 14 IRL).

[leolurch]

Works again for me too yay :)

Thanks for the support!! Seems to have resolved itself

[J-Carder]

Working for me on Linux with 126.0.6478.126 as of today - logged in, ublock, etc.