You want to take a break from the boredom and watch something refreshing on your Mac. But, unfortunately, once you try to play the video, your Mac doesn’t follow your command.

That’s when the moment of frustration begins because you have no idea why videos aren’t playing on Mac.

It doesn’t matter what browser you use to play YouTube videos. The only concern is you can’t refresh yourself now without fixing the issue.

Therefore, this guide has a few methods to solve the “Videos aren’t playing on Mac” issue.

YouTube Videos Not Playing on Mac Browser

It’s not a wise option to download a movie or your favorite serial on your office’s Mac. That’s why almost all professionals head to YouTube to take a break. Also, playing YouTube videos has never been a big deal until you face the issue.

When you try to play a video on YouTube, it just doesn’t play. You might not even get a notification, message, or any alert regarding the actual problem.

There could be several reasons your Mac is not playing any video on YouTube. Therefore, we’ll discuss each method to help you eliminate this bizarre situation.

Note

We have applied the fixes to the Safari browser. Therefore, you can follow these steps on any browser you use on your Mac computer.

Clear Browser Cache

Every browser saves data on its local storage. The browser saves your settings whenever you visit a website and puts them in a temporary cache container.

The cache memory enhances your experience whenever you revisit a website.

Now, many websites have content that takes time to load. So when the cache is almost complete, you might not see that heavy content, especially videos.

Therefore, you must clear the browser’s cache to watch videos without trouble.

Therefore, you must clear the browser’s cache to watch videos without trouble. Besides, clearing the cache also solves other problems, like pages taking time to load, online payment being stuck, and not signing or logging in.

Cache Clearing Steps

Follow these steps to clear the cache of the Safari browser.

  1. Launch the Safari browser on your Mac.
  2. Click “Preferences” from the menu bar.
  3. Go to “Advanced” > “Show Develop menu in the menu bar.”
  4. Click on the “Develop” menu.
  5. Select shortcut Option + Command + E keys.
  6. Now, pick empty caches.
  7. After that, restart Safari and play the video again.

Clearing the cache of Safari might solve the issue for you. However, try the next method if the problem persists.

Check Browser Extensions

We install different extensions to enhance the functionality of the web browsers. Some of the standard browser extensions are:

  • Ghostery Lite
  • StopTheMadness
  • PiPifier

The above extensions allow you to get the most out of web browsers. As a result, you can browse the internet freely as you get anonymity instead of exposing your identity. Moreover, hard-to-use websites become more user-friendly using such extensions.

But these extensions sometimes become the reason why you can’t watch YouTube videos on your Mac computer.

Steps to Disable Safari

Therefore, let’s disable these Safari extensions and see if it solves the problem.

  1. Open the Safari browser.
  2. Select “Preferences” from the menu bar.
  3. Click on the “Extensions” tab.
  4. Disable all the extensions.
  5. Now, restart Safari and play a YouTube video.

If it has solved the issue, you must diagnose which browser extension(s) the culprit was. Therefore, enable the browser extensions and keep repeating the above method.

Once you catch the problem maker, it’s recommended to either update that extension or permanently remove it from Safari and install an alternative.

Enable JavaScript

JavaScript is a programming language that deals with user interaction on websites. Moreover, JavaScript allows you to play videos on browsers.

Steps to Enable Javascript

So if you have mistakenly disabled JavaScript from your browser, enable it by following these steps:

  1. First, select Safari on your Mac computer.
  2. Next, click on the “Preferences” option.
  3. Next, go to the “Security” tab.
  4. Finally, check the box against the “Enable JavaScript” option.

Now, close the Safari browser, open it again, and ensure the videos play this time.

Install Adobe Flash Player

Since the recent advancement in web development, most websites have moved to HTML 5 with new internet technologies. As a result, these websites no longer use Adobe Flash Player.

Therefore, if you visit an old website where playing videos is not allowed, you must re-install Flash Player.

Adobe Flash Player Installation Steps

So, follow these steps to re-install the software and fix YouTube videos not playing on an outdated website:

  1. Launch “Applications” on your Mac. Press Command + Shift + A.
  2. Go to the Adobe Flash folder.
  3. Open the Uninstaller. Now, it’s to install it again.
  4. Open a web browser and type “get.adobe.com/flashplayer” in the address bar.
  5. Download the latest version of Adobe Flash Player for Mac OS.
  6. Install.

After re-installing Flash player, try playing videos on a site. Besides, YouTube doesn’t want Flashplayer to play videos.

Now, try the following method to fix YouTube videos if the problem is still there.

Scan Your Mac

Many Mac users complained that while watching YouTube videos, the computer crashed. Sometimes the browser becomes unresponsive. Sometimes the whole Mac system freezes.

Moreover, online videos don’t play on almost any website.

If you have applied all the fixes but still get the same error while playing a video or video playback, the issue might be with the operating system.

Therefore, you must scan your Mac system and check whether it’s affected by malware.

Why Scan Your Mac

When an intruder attacks your Mac, it tries to get into the user’s personal information. In addition, the intrusion attempts to corrupt the primary Mac OS files that run basic functionalities like playing YouTube videos and other online media.

So, scan your Mac for possible intrusion. If the system diagnoses any suspicious files, quickly get rid of them. Then, restart your Mac and play a YouTube video to test the performance.

Unblock Ad Blocker

Another thing you can try is to disable ad blockers on a website that is not playing videos. No doubt, an ad blocker is proper through which blocking unnecessary content becomes accessible.

However, you must check if the content blockers intentionally block the videos on a website.

You can do that by opening the extensions you installed on the Safari browser. First, Safari loads the content on the websites, but the ad blockers block the online videos.

So, if that’s the ad blocker that was stopping you from playing videos, disable it.

Check Internet Connection

One last fix is to test whether your internet connection is stable to play online videos. You can run a speed test from different platforms that give:

  • Ping
  • Upload Speed
  • Download

The download speed is the key factor that determines how good your internet connection is. Therefore, check the speed of your network.

If it’s slower than your subscription plan, contact your internet service provider (ISP). They’ll tell you the issue with the internet connection.

FAQs

Safari Unable to Play YouTube Videos, Why?

The issue might be in the Safari browser, Mac system, or the internet connection. Therefore, first, diagnose the problem by applying the above fixes.

Why is Playing YouTube Videos Freezing My Mac?

If your Mac is freezing while playing videos on YouTube, force quit the Safari browser. After that, restart your Mac.

If the issue persists, scan your Mac and see if it’s affected by a virus. Then, finally, you have to clean your computer to enjoy watching videos again.

Why is Safari Gone Unresponsive While Watching YouTube Videos?

It’s happening because either Safari is outdated or the cache is full. Therefore as a Safari user, you have to update the browser:

  1. First, go to App Store from the Apple menu.
  2. Then, click on the Updates tab.
  3. If there are multiple updates available, click on the blue More button.
  4. Find Safari. You will see there’s an update available for the Safari browser.
  5. Click Update to update Safari.

Conclusion

Try the above troubleshooting steps to fix the videos not playing on your Mac issue. You can apply these general methods on Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and other browsers.

Once you diagnose and fix the issue, you can now enjoy YouTube and other online videos.