Jan 15, 2024 • Filed to: Photo/Video/Audio Solutions • Proven solutions
Video files are no doubt one of the most used file types of all. Video files store events, memories, entertainment clips, and knowledge, thereby playing a huge role in our day-to-day activities.
Indeed, it is a devastating experience for video files to stop playing without a reasonable cause suddenly. If that's the case with you right now, you're not alone. You've come to the right place. Moving on…
Are you currently battling to view a downloaded YouTube video or try to stream it online to no avail? Here are the 4 working solutions for videos that won't play on Mac without wasting much time.
Streaming videos online requires a strong Internet connection. Apart from loading the video, your browser constantly communicates with the servers of the streaming service. So, while the website, e.g., YouTube, might open over a slow internet connection speed, it may not load your videos till the browser/server times out. If you can't help your internet speed at the moment, then another option is to watch the video at a lower quality. Anything from 360 to 480p should do for a slower network connection.
While YouTube automatically determines the video quality to feed you based on your internet connection speed, device screen size, and the quality of the original video being requested, you can manually change the video quality from YouTube's settings. Simply use the guide below.
JavaScript has become inseparable from modern webpages. JavaScript powers the majority of the cool stuff you see on active webpages. Many services utilize JavaScript in building their services to provide the ultimate user experience –YouTube is not an exception.
YouTube uses JavaScript extensively to load up and "seek" your videos –that's how your videos load without your browser opening any further links. Other functionalities that depend on JavaScript on YouTube include: Loading up comments, suggesting new videos, minimizing the current video being played (if you decide to take another action), and populating the webpage with data. That's pretty much everything you'll find on YouTube… So you see? Simply disabling JavaScript in your browser or particularly for YouTube.com can change the whole course of YouTube.
Please follow the steps below to enable JavaScript in your browser.
Note: The use of images has simplified the steps, but you can simply change your browser to another with JavaScript support.
For Safari web browser:
Please follow the steps below to enable JavaScript on your Safari Browser.
Step 1. Click on the "Safari" option at the top left corner of the browser to open the menu. Next select preferences.
Step 2. Click on the padlock icon (Security) in-between Passwords and Privacy.
Step 3. From the list of settings displayed, select the "Enable JavaScript" option.
If it's checked, then JavaScript is enabled. Otherwise, JavaScript was disabled. Simply click on it to enable JavaScript.
Step 4. Close the settings window and reload YouTube.
The red dot with the x in it at the top left corner of any window will close that particular window. Click on it.
For the Chrome web browser:
Please follow these simple steps to enable JavaScript on your Chrome browser on Mac.
Step 1. Open the browser app and click on Chrome > Preferences or type chrome://settings/content into the address bar –like you're visiting a normal website.
Step 2. Inside the JavaScript panel below the images panel, you'll find "Allow all sites to run JavaScript (recommended)." Click on it.
Note: To enable JavaScript selectively, click on the "Manage Exceptions…" button.
For the Firefox browser:
Here are the steps to enable JavaScript on Firefox for Mac
Step 1. Open Firefox's preferences panel. Next, click on "Content."
Step 2. Confirm that the box beside the "Enable JavaScript" is checked.
All good. Now refresh YouTube or any other service you're trying to stream videos from and see if it fixes your video error. If JavaScript was already enabled or your issues persist, please move on to the next steps.
Most video streaming services nowadays, including YouTube, depend on browsers instead of external flash players. While YouTube no longer needs a flash player, this solution can be beneficial if you're trying to stream videos from a service that does use Adobe Flash to handle their videos.
The following steps will guide you on how to uninstall and reinstall Adobe Flash on your Mac device.
Note: The steps below are for Flash version 29 on macOS High Sierra. There might be minor differences if your specifications don't match these.
Use Adobe Flash Player Install Manager:
Step 1. Search for Adobe Flash Player on Spotlight or go to Applications > Utilities on your Mac and find "Adobe Flash Player Install Manager" and click on it to launch.
Step 2. In the window titled "Adobe Flash Player Install Manager," simply click on "Uninstall." You'll be warned that the program will be removed from your computer.
Step 3. Enter your Device's username and password, then select "Install Helper."
After that, you're done. Click "Done" in the next window alerting you of a successful action.
Next, reinstall Adobe Flash Player by simply visiting this link: https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/otherversions/.
After installing the software, return to the video and try playing it.
Before using the steps provided below to clear your browser data (cache or cookies for the particular service you're using for streaming), try disabling third-party extensions associated with the streaming service (YouTube, for example) on your browser.
Extensions gain access and permission to control or affect websites or certain webpages. Though the idea behind extensions is to enhance your browsing experience by providing features that aren't originally built into your browser, who knows what could happen if one of them suddenly begins to malfunction?
To find extensions on your Safari browser, open preferences again and navigate to the Extensions tab and then, disable all extensions from the list. Restart your browser and revisit the video to see if it works. If your video still doesn't work, simply revisit "Preferences" > "Extensions" and re-enable the poor innocent extensions. However, suppose the procedure fixed your error. In that case, you can carry out a little activity to single out the particular extension that went rogue by enabling the extensions from the list one after another. At the same time, you refresh the page to see if you can reproduce the issue.
Now, please follow these steps to clear your browser data on Safari (if the solution with extensions didn't work for you)
Step 1. Click on the "Safari" option at the top left corner of the browser to open the menu. Next select preferences.
Step 2. Go to the privacy tab (in-between Security and Notifications)
Now, it's advisable that you only clear the data of the particular service, as clearing data for a website clears all form data (usernames, passwords, addresses, zip codes, credit card details, etc.)
Step 3. Click the "Details" button below "Remove all website data…" to display all websites with cache stored on safari.
Simply select the particular service you're having issues with (youtube.com, for example). To select multiple sites, hold down the command key on your keyboard while you make your selection.
Step 4. Click "Remove" and then "Done."
By doing this, your browser clears cache and cookies from the particular website. This helps if your browser persistently fetched a cached version of the video page. Revisit the video's page, and everything should work as new.
Your videos that are not playing on Mac may need repair through a repair tool. To go through the repair process, you can turn Wondershare Repairit Online video repair website. This tool is newly introduced and does not involve length procedures and formalities. It helps you to forget about downloading, launching, and signing up for software. So, go to the tool through the browser, and it will be all ready to use.
To continue with this amazing software, you just have to follow the following easy steps.
Step 1: Uploading the respective video
The process will be initiated by uploading the video to be repaired. Click on the insert (+) sign and then browse the video to insert. After insertion, click on the option of upload. Your video will be uploaded.
Step 2: Repair
After the video is uploaded, the Wondershare Repairit will start repairing automatically.
Step 3: Saving the video
The video will be available to preview and save after repairing. In the end, you can save the video at the desired location.
The Wondershare Repairit Online website, with all its benefits, is available for you to help you with your corrupted videos. You can use the Online version and Desktop version according to your ease and suitability.
Using Wondershare Repairit for desktop is arguably a great way to fix your video file. It is very efficient when it comes to detecting and fixing your video issues–it does all the work for you. The software can fix errors that prevent MOV, MP4, M2TS, MKV, MTS, 3GP, AVI, and FLV video files from playing. The software has a straightforward, easy-to-use interface at the surface but is loaded with powerful algorithms deep down for efficient video recovery.
In just 3 steps, you'll have your corrupt video file repaired. Now, launch Wondershare Repairit and start the video fixing process.
Step 1: Add Corrupted Video
Navigate to the location of your corrupt video file on your device. Done that? Next, you drag and drop the corrupt file on the "Add videos and start repairing" section. You can click the "Add" button located on the software's interface's bottom-left area to select your videos, alternatively.
Step 2: Repair Video
Do you see the blue "Repair" button located at the bottom-right of the software? Okay. Click on it when the repair process is complete. A window asking you to preview and save the video you repaired will pop up. Click on the "OK" button to save your video to a folder.
Step 3: Preview the Repaired Video
To the right, you'll find a little black "play" button at the edge of the software. Click on it to preview your video. It isn't compulsory to perform this operation, but it is advised to do so as it enables you to confirm if the repair process was successful or not before saving it.
The software's Advanced Repair is used when the quick mode didn't repair your video. In the preview window, look to the bottom-right of the interface, and you'll see "Preview failed? Try Advanced Repair". Click on this option.
Step 4: Add Sample Video
A smaller window will pop up; you'll be required to add a sample video file. Click the folder below the "Adding Sample Video to Repair" label, then choose the sample video. If you don't know what this is, a sample video is a working video file recorded with the same device and in the same format as the damaged video.
The Advanced Repair mode takes the technical information of the uploaded sample video. It uses this info to repair the corrupt video Interesting, isn't it?
Click on the "Repair" button at the bottom of the window. It will close reopen the previous window. You should note that the video you repaired in Quick Repair mode wouldn't be saved if you initiate the Advanced Repair. You can save the video by clicking "Yes" on the window that shows up. Click "No" if you simply want to proceed without saving.
Step 5: Save Video
Click on the "Save" button found at the interface's upper-right section, and another dialogue box will pop up. You'll see this message on it: "Select a folder to save the repaired files. Please do not save files to the path where you lost them"
It's advised you rename the "new folder" to make your next search easier. This could be useful if you have a bunch of files in your drive. Wouldn't it? Next, you simply wait a few seconds, and the repaired video will be saved to the selected drive.
Wondershare video repair tool is pretty simple to use and understand, isn't it? It's indeed the easiest way to fix your corrupt video files.
Corrupted files are almost inevitable these days. The number of download sources increases as the days go by –with only a few credible sources. While you may sometimes carelessly download or receive a corrupted video or targeted virus from a source, other factors are responsible for corrupting videos on Mac. These factors may originate from you or your Operating System.
Here are a few things to be mindful of if you want to prevent your downloaded videos from eventually getting corrupted.
You should rename file extensions only with dedicated editors that handle the format in question. For example, be careful when renaming an MP4 file to maybe MOV, unless you know exactly what you're doing. If video files are not properly converted (i.e., from one MIME Type to another) before they're renamed, many media players may reject such a video file.
It's hard to resist the temptation to yank your flash drive out of your device after using it. But actually, you shouldn't. Try as much as possible to avoid abruptly ejecting a flash drive out of your device—especially while in use. While a drive is plugged into your device, the software reading might constantly modify files on its file system. If you're playing a video file, your operating system and your video player are constantly communicating to make that video work. Abruptly yanking out your storage device may affect your video headers.
Which way isn't crude?
Every good file manager has an "Eject" option for external drives in its menu. Right-clicking on the drive, you want to eject from your file manager will display a menu. Click the "eject" option —or something similar. After an "ejected successfully" alert by your operating system, you can proceed with pulling the drive out. That's the proper way.
Try as much as possible not to receive or download files indiscriminately from untrusted sources. You could receive or download a poorly encoded or corrupt video file in the process.
Your computer's operating system is the most important part of your device. You should always avoid activities that could bring about harm to your Operating System. Patches, fixes, and updates are frequently released from vendors of the major operating systems. Here are some tips for you.
Online streaming services like YouTube not working on Mac can be caused by several factors, some of these are:
To prevent YouTube not working or loading on your Mac device, you should perform the following troubleshooting actions:
We all view important videos/clips every day–hey, entertainment is important too. Whatever the case, a video that won't play as at the time it's needed isn't cool at all. Top solutions to videos not playing on Mac were introduced in this post, including the steps for using the ultimate Wondershare Repairit Video Repair tool.
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Eleanor Reed
staff Editor