Trying to watch your favorite videos on the YouTube app or in Safari and constantly hit with buffering and playback errors or see a notice that the connection to the server was lost or timed out? Seeing these errors even when your internet connection is excellent? Learn what to do to get your YouTube videos playing normally with these tips.
A number of our readers inordinately slow YouTube download speeds on their iPads, iPhones, and iPod touch. In almost all these cases, users have strong WiFi or Mobile Data signals and experience fast throughput in Safari when looking at other sites and when using other apps, but very slow, stuttering playback of YouTube videos due to poor throughput.
Anecdotal reports from users include:
- “I tried watching a youtube video on my iPad and noticed it was buffering slowly on my wifi. I immediately switched to my MacBook (which was right next to me) and streamed the same video super fast.”
- “I have the same problem with my iPad and iPhone inside my wifi network. But my iPhone does fine on a cellular network so I’m baffled.”
- “I’m having the same problem with my iPad. Sometimes if I repeatedly tap the Play/Pause button it loads the video completely in a second or so and ends up playing just fine. However, that method doesn’t always work so it could just be a fluke.”
Contents
Related articles
- Master the iOS YouTube app like a pro with these 19 tips
- YouTube for iPhone: 3 Exciting Tricks That You Didn’t Know About
- How to play YouTube videos in background using iOS 11, 12 & 13
How to fix when your YouTube videos playback too slow
- Change the DNS server. Some users have found that using an alternate DNS server can alleviate the slowness. Try changing your systems’ DNS servers to those offered by a third-party like Google, Cloudflare, or OpenDNS. To do so,
- Go to Settings > WiFi
- Tap the blue arrow next to your current WiFi network
- Choose Configure DNS
- Select Manual instead of Automatic
- Under DNS Servers, tap Add Server and enter the following: 208.67.222.222, 208.67.220.220 OR 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4
- Open Safari again or the YouTube app and see if that makes a difference
- Clear your browser’s cache. Oftentimes, it’s those cookies and other website data that’s getting in the way. To clear Safari’s cache:
- Go to Settings > Safari
- Scroll down and select Advanced
- Tap Website Data
- Choose Remove All Website Data
Slide to remove individual website data, or tap the button at the bottom of the page to Remove All Website Data from Safari.
- Change video resolution. In both the YouTube app and when using YouTube in Safari or another browser, you can always change the video playback settings to a lower quality (resolution).
- To do so in the YouTube app, tap inside the video, then tap again on the three dots menu, choose Quality and select a lower resolution
- To do so in YouTube’s web version, tap inside the video, then tap the Settings gear, select Quality and choose a lower resolution
- To do so in the YouTube app, tap inside the video, then tap again on the three dots menu, choose Quality and select a lower resolution
- Wi-Fi Fixes. Try the fixes listed in our iPad Wi-Fi Troubleshooting Guide, particularly those tips under Weak signal/slow data transfer.
Try downloading YouTube videos
If you still have a lot of problems streaming youtube videos or if you are in an area where internet coverage is spotty, consider trying YouTube premium. With this monthly subscription service, you get to download and save videos directly to your device and it’s also free of advertising. Another big advantage is that you can download videos for times when you can’t connect, like when traveling. Plus, with YouTube premium, you get to play all your videos in the background, even when you open and use another app on your device. And videos will still play, even when you turn the screen off on your mobile device.
Youtube currently offers a 1-month free trial. Once that trial is over, it costs $11.99 USD per month. But you can cancel at any time. There’s also a family offering at $17.99/month that covers up to 5 people (over 13 years old) and a student plan at $6.99/month for any verified student.
Obsessed with tech since the early arrival of A/UX on Apple, Sudz (SK) is responsible for the editorial direction of AppleToolBox. He is based out of Los Angeles, CA.
Sudz specializes in covering all things macOS, having reviewed dozens of OS X and macOS developments over the years.
In a former life, Sudz worked helping Fortune 100 companies with their technology and business transformation aspirations.
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I have been dealing with this YouTube issue for years now and was finally able to fix it with the help of this article.
I changed the DNS as suggested and everything worked perfectly.
Not only do YouTube videos start immediately, but the comments for the videos loaded immediately as well.
Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for this article.
Thank you so much for the tips on DNS change. It has worked wonder for me!!
For ages, my YouTube really sucked with sometimes minutes of buffering and frequent lagging.
I have blamed it on so many things: YouTube, Apple, Google, other devices, my Bluetooth headphones…but I knew it was not my provider as Speedtest shows a very stable fast NBN connection.
As soon as I changed the DNS(was on auto before), videos on YouTube would start playing almost immediately(ok, a few seconds sometimes)! You have made me a very happy man today and I Thank you!
I have owned my Iphone 8+ for about 2 months. The first month it worked great coming from a 6+. Now the sluggishness with loading video from not just Youtube but also twitter seems to be slow. It’s incredibly frustrating and I am pretty irritated. I am considering factory resetting my phone, but I shouldn’t have to do that when owning the phone for only 2 months.
Look this is a YouTube issue. I know this because I use BOTH apple products and android phones. ALL my gadgets have issues with YouTube.
I had hoped the DNS change would help me but sadly it hasn’t any other suggestions?
If you’re Is still slow, it means it’s your Internet. Try putting the DNS down and clear all the multitasking, restart your device and when it’s all black wait a couple of seconds now turn it back on. Then go try the YouTube. If it didn’t work then it’s your Wifi.
Are you shitting me? It takes even LONGER to load. Thanks for wasting my time.
I think the dns change has worked for me too
So… Just reboot the app. Double click your button which brings up your active apps. Touch and hold any app will bring up the close button.
Primarily, click the close button (the x) on your video app but if you’ve never done this you may have a lot of apps open. Close whatever you’re not using. Do this on a regular basis for better performance
Start your video app again and things should load more efficiently
Disclaimer: this may not work. Just sayin
WOW. That actually helped for me, i’m surprized that i solved my problem so quick with this: video loads probably even faster than before 😀
Thanks man. Appreciate it.
Not working just males it worse
Thank you soo much. It worked for me, and for all of you that this solution didn’t work have fun looking for someone else who gives a crap!
Obviously the same solution will not work for everyone, since this is a network issue and it will not always have the same cause. However, this helped my situation, so thanks for bringing up the possibility.. I really didn’t think DNS would play a part in buffering speed, but on the contrary it seems to make a hell of a difference.
The reason YouTube doesn’t work well on an APPLE device is because YouTube is run by GOOGLE and what I’m trying to say is that google and apple are competitors meaning YouTube isn’t made to run fast on an apple device also the apple devices don’t have flash players meaning it runs even slower media so if you want fast YouTube just get a droid or a tablet instead
No, you’re wrong – period.
The first point is just wrong, yes they compete but Google isn’t sabotaging their page when used with an Apple product.
The second point is about it not having flash.. that’s exactly the other way around – flash is extremely resource-hogging and slow. It works fine, but in no way is it more efficient than what iOS does. The original arrangement between Google and Apple for Youtube on iOS had them re-engineer Youtube explicitly for this: the video is made available in H264 coded MP4 format, and it is streamed from that to the iOS device directly, not requiring an intermediate. This is way faster than flash.
Stop being some kind of fanboy and saying “just get a droid or a tablet instead” – you obviously don’t know anything from a technical perspective.
I tried this on my IPod Touch and it didnt work it made my iPod go slower! I Need Help!!!!!!
I swear iPhone gets slower and buggier with every new OS update. Can’t even stream a 2 min YouTube clip. Safari freezes and crashes all the time. So annoying. Time to switch to an Android phone me thinks.
Let me post my comment apple!!!
Duplicate comment detected it sais cause i cant post my comment !!! U dont let people say the truth hey?
Where is my message from before?why not aproved cause i said apple is not good and many other things like credit card …. Credits u can buy only from england but i live in holland just cause i wanted my menu in english ….no ADOBE…..cant watch certain videos on you tube or official videos….obviously i have same problem…sooo slow….everyone just be happy with your laptop not this…….
Stupid!!hate apple
I think ipad is soo stupid i hate them…u can only play their stupid games wich u get bored of quickly and then u cant watch youtube without wanting to smash the ipad to the wall cant watch most official videos…..cant have adobe…whats the point to have ipad i rather have a small laptop and do anything i want…oh yes and it was a pain in the ass to use it since i had no bank account i had so much trouble it should be other ways except giving my personal details if i dont want to!!oh yes and another thing i registered the ipad to england cause i wanted to have the menu in english but i live in holland so now i can only use credit bought from england!!i bought two 50€ credits and didnt work cause was from holland!!whats the point?!omg so stupid a lot of publicity for a piece of crap
Thks, work for me pretty well. Youtube became much more smoothy, right b4 that, i even cant load any clip from youtube.
Is worked for my iPad. Thanks
Worked perfect for iPhone 4s. Thank you!
My iPod is my first apple product and so far I am unimpressed, with feed back from friends and family apple is a poor product and I am never going to invest money in it again
Amen, except I wouldn’t use the word “invest.”
My YouTube just slower. Thanks a lot.
If you are reading this site you were probably like me, really fed up with iPhone’s YouTube app! Try downloading the app ‘playtube free’. I tried all of the above and nothing worked but this did! Finally I can watch a YouTube vid with out it stopping on me!
http://www.cribs-to-college.com
heres a FIX for slow youtube streaming on ipod touch 4g and other new iphone 4 there the reason is because the ipod touch 4 and iphone 4 youtube app forces the videos streaming to highest quality like 720 or hd that causes too much buffering unlke the older ipod touch that limit the youtube to 360 in order to fix this just jailbroke your idevice and install 3G UNRESTRICTOR in cydia and then add youtube to 3g unrestrictor app to play medium quality thats it enjoy
Do u have to copy both numbers or just one of them
Thank u! WORKS!!!
Nope this did not work, this iPad is so frustrating!
I agree but I tried this many many times and my IPod touch is still being slooooooooooooooooowwww idk wtf is going on!!!
I actually put in the 208.67.220.220 in the DNS for my 8GB iPod Touch 4th Gen. iOS 5.0.1 and it is loading videos with ease now. I have only tested one so far but it seems to be working better
I compared Youtube in Safari vs Youtube app on my iphone4 and Safari is a lot faster!
thx it works
try videopind for ipad app..it solves all ur problem! just enable youtube as ur featured channel.
THANK YOU! After I followed the intructions it didn’t help at first but when I restarted my ipod the video buffered better than ever 😀
THANK YOU!
U just had to rrestart the thing
Yep…key is to turn off and restart iPad after entering #. Worked for me. 😉
what number did you put in?
Thanks for nothing!!!! I put the number in and i got signed out of youtube. When i sign back in it says username and password are incorrect. Ive had this ipod touch for 2 years now so WTF APPLE!! get ur b.s together please. Btw Im getting a tablet thats not apple becuz they actually work when watching videos and flash
Does this work only for iPad? If so I wasted my time copying and typing that number down:(
Yeaa didn’t help at all.. Here’s an idea. You probably have 29 apps using the internetmin multitasking… Close them. Works for me.
I always clear my multitasking bar. Never helps. I tried everything except changing the DNS which I will probably do right now.
Working a little better, but still slow. Thanks for the tip!
NO WAY IT WORKED THANKS!
I’m a poor sucker who still uses 3G and videos play normally but what’s slow is YouTube full site. Other full sites work fine most of the time but YT’s is nearly unusable as even responding to touch events crawls to a standstill. Posting comments is virtually impossible and their mobile site has no support for comments. After many years it’s still unsolved. 🙁
Hi,
The solution for this issue is very easy. The iPad App for youtube does not permit to change between HQ and LQ video. If you are under Wifi, the HQ version in download automaticaly, under 3G the. Downloaded video version in LQ. So youtube only work fine in very good net condition. The solution is:
Open Safari
Go to m,youtube.com
Do a direct access in your desktop
Use this instead the iPad Youtube aplication, you now can chooske between HQ and LQ video depending of the Internet condition in each moment.
Sorry for my bad English, I am spanish.
Regards
I tried using safari and access YouTube through m.youtube.com with my iPod touch. At first it worked great. Super fast. I thought my problem was solved. But after a few days of doing that, m.youtube.com just stopped responding. I mean, you can still search YouTube but when you try to play a video on low quality or high, it just starts to buffer forever. I tried accessing m.youtube through my cellphone and it works just fine. Therefore, it’s not my connection that’s the problem but my iPod touch.
I don’t have a wifi so wat can I do ?
I tried using safari and access YouTube through m.youtube.com with my iPod touch. At first it worked great. Super fast. I thought my problem was solved. But after a few days of doing that, m.youtube.com just stopped responding. I mean, you can still search YouTube but when you try to play a video on low quality or high, it just starts to buffer forever. I tried accessing m.youtube through my cellphone and it works just fine.
Same here *_*
I tried using safari and access YouTube through m.youtube.com with my iPod touch. At first it worked great. Super fast. I thought my problem was solved. But after a few days of doing that, m.youtube.com just stopped responding. I mean, you can still search YouTube but when you try to play a video on low quality or high, it just starts to buffer forever.
Did not help mine at all. It is so slow it is worthless. My IPhone is the first apple product I have had. For all the hype about how much better apple is, I am not impressed. How good can it be when I can’t watch a u-tube video and the stupid phone drops service constantly. The amazing IPhone that can barely make a phone call. Wish I had another so I could smash it with a hammer.
Holy shit it works for the 4s just do it then turn off your phone and back on!!
Woah! cant wait to get home to try this fixes..i have 2 options so far, the DNS & changing channels from auto to 13. Hope any of this works on my ipod touch 4g!
Wow! Changing the dns worked great, i wasnt going to comment but it worked great so i had to! Thanks so much
This works only because of that android phones uses googled dns wich also opendns uses too! Since google blocks phones coming from their own dns.
Changing the dns server didn’t work on my iPod touch 4g 🙁 apple should fix this on the next update for iPod touch 4g
THIS WORKED SOOOOOOO WELL THANK YOU!!!!
Thank you for the easy fix, works great!
This helped a lot! It was very frustrating it being so slow even with high speed Internet
SUCK SUCK SUCK
This DNS change crap does not work. There are two iPads in the house and both are slow as a snail with the DNS change implemented.
Seriously is this a joke. Send out the patch and get this nonsense resolved already.
I just want to watch YouTube in peace can someone please tell me what to do because the dns does not seem to help.
Some assistance would be so appreciated as the YouTube program was so good before and I would love to have it back.
Let me rephrase “and yet you are so obsessed with updates that end up making your “works of art” better”. Was suppose to say your “works of art” to become “supposedly” better but in the end do nothing except make the system worse. You create this us and them world and that’s why people hate your products. Your advertisements are annoying and they don’t deliver like nicole Kidman
Does absolutely nothing. You guys are suppose to be geniouses apple and yet you are so obsessed with updates that end up making your “works of art” better. Also what kind of idiot has an iPhone an itouch and an iPad. What’s the purpose of all three.
When using the new DNS do you replace it or add on to it? Ex. If my current DNS is 1234.5 do I delete that and replace it with 208. Or add to it? 1234.5,208.
Much better you tube speed. Thought I was going to have to scrap the iPad. Thanks for the fix
Wow! This definitely fixed it. YouTube on iPhone 4 went from being super slow and broken to now being fully functional. Thanks a lot!
Hallo, I use an iPhone 4.
I tried dns with no luck.
I triedto change wifi from AUTO to channel 13 and now is ok!
Very strange… using m.youtube.com on safari is ok even with auto channel!
Hallo, I use an iPhone 4.
I tried dns with no luck.
I triedto change wifi from AUTO to channel 13 and now is ok!
Very strange… using m.youtube.com on safari is ok even with auto channel!
Facebook like. This fixed youtube, thanks!
Thank you! dns fix worked like a charm
I used Googles Namebench and the speeds on youtube have dramatically increased. I use firefox and don’t save my history or cache so I used the 2000 most common websites took 10 minutes and now I can watch any video without lag.
Changin DNS works great. Thank you vey much.
The extra DNSs worked perfectly for me! Its not loading
super fast, but it never needs to stop playback and buffer whilst
the video is playing, user experience just went up! Here’s my
settings: In your wifi setting under the DNS field you’ll have
something like 192.168.0.x What I did was add a comma and put in
the extra DNSs like this: 192.168.0.X, 208.67.222.222,
208.22.68.222.222 (the numbers a wrong, use the ones in the post)
THANKS!!!
I changed the DNS and I see no difference. This is on an
ipod touch, 2nd generation. I don’t understand why youtube is so
slow. It literally is taking up to 20 minutes just to load a 30
second video. HELP!
Wow, the DNS fix really works. I have a brand new iPhone 4, but was still experiencing super slow Youtube download.
Thanks a lot!
That fix worked for 5 minutes and now youtube is slow again. Also does changing the DNS make the wireless connection on the iPad less secure?
Worked for my iPad too
Want to boost your wifi for fast videos on the iPad? Me too. I tried the suggested DNS fix, and it helped only slightly. Then I stumbled across the best solution for the YouTube slow connectivity issue: a Windsurfer antenna. The EZ-12 12 dB Parabolic Reflector Template V2.0 is found here: http://www.freeantennas.com. Took me less than 10 minutes and costs pennies to construct.
FIXED MINE!
After doing it, I’ve done the IP Renew (no success) and then a reboot concluded the fix. It’s works great with high def videos now. THANKS
Dom…why should DNS fixes work? Because they DO! YouTube.com only works with videos that have bee converted to HTML5; all others will give a Flash error, so using the web site is only a partial solution. DNS fix works. Telling the iPad to forget my wireless network and then re-adding it worked for about 2 days and the the pad slowed down again. Dns fixed it tho!
Hello,
Facebook is working very slowly on my ipad.
Sometimes I even dont get acces. On my laptop in the same house everything works very good. Surfing on internet works good on ipad but also mail is very slow. what is the problem?
Looking forward for your reply.
Best regards Frode
Thanks for putting up this solution. It worked for me. In fact I have noticed that not only is YouTube app buffeting faster, but videos on safari buffer really well as well. Thanks again.
hey guys, i HAD the same problem with my ipad. DNS fixes DIDNT helped (why should they anyway).
BUT what makes youtube real fast with the same quality is kinda weired.. just use the online version http://www.youtube.com. it buffers A LOT faster than the app.
i dont know why this occures, but fact is, that you can play youtube videos with safari on the ipad and it does load so much faster, that ALL videos in high quality do run very smooth and instant without any buffering. youtube native app from apple must be badly coded. maybe it isnt a internetconnection thing, more an “out of memory” thing because of the app itself.
just try it out, it does work!
have fun watching youtube fast now 🙂
cheers
dom
PS: btw take a look on casttoo.ch 😉
I have the same problem with iPad and YouTube.
The view stops after a few seconds most of the time. Occationally it will play an entire video but 90% of the time it is slow and stops constantly.
I would say that Youtube app on iPad in for me not possible to use at all.
I see many reports this everywhere. I have also tried all the DNS hacking and I have tried different wireless routers. Nothing helps. Sometimes you do something and you think it helps. But 5 minutes later it is broken again. The randomness of the problem makes people draw the wrong conclusions.
There is a real issue. If the root cause and “guilt” is Youtube’s or iPad’s is not really important. Apple needs to action this in next update.
Meanwhile I would pay money for a 3rd party app for Youtube that actually works.
Did not work. You only call the dns to get the ip address one time. This could not be a fix. I have two ipads and both are slow. apple we need flash
I tried changing the DNS, but didn’t have any luck with that.
I switched the wireless Channel in my access point from Auto to 13 and YouTube works perfectly on my iPhone now. This might also help you if your phone is dropping off the wireless network.
You might need to set it to a different channel depending on invisible conditions around the wireless network.
Wow. Thank you so much. The dns suggestion made a huge difference for me. I never thought it would be such an easy fix.
Thank you for the DNS, works. :DDDD
the 208… dns worked for my iPad!!!
I’m using Google’s DNS (8.8.8.8) and my YouTube is pretty snappy.and i often download youtube to iphone by use Aneesoft youtube converter,.lol……..and now im very enjoy it.
Changing DNS seems to have helped, though the initial buffering is still fairly slow compared to my Powerbook.
Fix absolutely works, apart from the slow initial load, the video streams perfect now.
Please help it still don’t work even with the open dns’s youtube is still very slow HELP
I changed this on my iPad, iPhone, and itouch. Worked great for all of them. Thanks! That was driving me NUTS!
Wow, the DNS change made a huge difference for me on my iPad. Why in the world does youtube (or IOS H.264 video player) require more than a couple of DNS lookups right at the beginning of playing the video? very surprising.
It’s the Trilateral Commission, actually!
Google is doing this to sabotage iPad.