Nothing is more irritating than watching a video on YouTube and having the playback lag or continuously freezing. Even worse is when you are unable to play any videos at all. Unfortunately, when you’re streaming YouTube on your Android device via cellular data, this can be a quite regular problem. The majority of the time, this problem occurs if you’re streaming HD videos on a phone with insufficient RAM. Whatever the reason, you can avoid lagging YouTube videos on Android by following the instructions below. Here’s how to fix YouTube Video Lag on Android. You can also use this guide to fix lag on streaming services.
What Actually is Steaming?
The continuous transfer of audio or video data from a host to a client is known as streaming. Simply put, streaming is what occurs whenever customers use Internet-connected electronics to watch TV as well as listen to podcasts. The media file that is played on the user’s device with streaming is kept remotely and sent over the Internet a few seconds at a time. Real-time streaming is quicker and more effective than downloading video files. When a media file is downloaded, a duplicate of the whole thing is saved to the device’s hard disk, and the video can’t start playing until the whole thing is downloaded. If the video is streamed instead, your web browser just plays it without copying and keeping it. The data that the web browser downloads is not stored locally, and the video loads in segments rather than the complete file all at once.
Comparing a lake and a river, consider the following: Both have water in them, and a river might have just as much as a lake. The exception is that in a river, the water isn’t all present at once. A downloaded movie file occupies a significant amount of hard disk space and resembles more of a lake than anything else. When it comes to how the video data is delivered to the user’s browser, streaming corresponds to a stream or river. When talking about how it works, audio and video data are divided into data packets just like other types of data transferred over the Internet. Each packet comprises a portion of the file, and the client device’s browser plays the data packet flow as audio or video.
How to Fix YouTube Video Lag?
The hardware is usually not the issue on modern devices as they come with ample resources. But we never know what bug might be affecting it. So, look at how you can fix YouTube video lag.
The Preliminary Solutions
Consider doing some initial checks before moving on to the more specialized fixes for this problem.
- Restart your device first. You can use this to get rid of any cache that may have accumulated on the device over time. Additionally, it will end all background-running apps that you may not be utilizing.
- Check the internet. YouTube videos may be laggy if you aren’t able to maintain a reliable internet connection. Your Android phone can be used to perform a fast speed test to see whether a slow internet connection is the root of this problem. You can use websites like Speedtest for this.
- Delete downloads: If you download a lot of videos, your phone’s storage capacity may become full, which could influence its performance and result in lagging videos.
- Check the router’s distance. In certain cases, you’ll discover that the problem is how close your Android phone is to the Wi-Fi router. By either coming close to the router or installing a reliable Wi-Fi extender, you may quickly fix this problem. You can improve your internet connection this way.
Update YouTube App
Updating the YouTube app will be the next step you must do. By doing this, you can be confident that the app is optimized and that you are using the most recent version.
- Open Google Play Store.
- Tap on Profile in the top-right corner.
- Select Manage Apps.
- Tap on Updates Available.
- Press the Update All button.
Alternatively, you could Reinstall the YouTube app.
Use Wifi
If you frequently watch videos on YouTube, you are aware of the importance of having a reliable internet connection. Even if you’re using cellular internet to watch videos, you may not always have a reliable internet connection. YouTube videos may lag when accessed through a mobile connection, or they may only play at poor quality. Switching from cellular data to Wi-Fi is a simple approach to get around this. A Wi-Fi network is typically more dependable, faster, and stronger.
Disable Data Saving
I recommend you do this only if you have a good data package, otherwise, you will burn through your data like butter. Data Saver is a function that most Android phones have. In order to keep you from exceeding your monthly data cap, it is made to limit the quantity of data utilized by background-running applications. This implies, however, that any app consuming data in the background would be prohibited from doing so unless absolutely necessary for proper operation. Since YouTube is one of those programs that require a constant data connection, adopting Data Saver mode may interfere with your ability to watch online videos. You will also need to disable this if you have already reached the data limit.
- Go to Settings.
- Select Connections > Data Usage.
- Select Data Saver and disable it.
You may also need to disable YouTube’s data saver feature.
- Open the YouTube app on your Android.
- Tap on the Profile icon.
- Go to Settings.
- Find and tap on Data Saving, and disable Data Saving Mode.
Disable Battery Saver
Additionally, Android smartphones come with a Battery Saver mode that activates when the battery level reaches a predetermined level. By lowering CPU speed and minimizing background data usage, it prolongs battery life. While this power-saving option is helpful, it also hinders your device’s functionality, particularly it’s capacity to stream videos. As a result, disabling Battery Saver can help fix the issue if your Android device’s YouTube videos continue to lag.
By sliding down to reveal the Quick Settings panel on some devices, you can quickly disable the feature by pressing the Battery Saver button. Or, you could do this the other way.
- Open Settings.
- Go to Battery and Device Care.
- Select Battery and disable Power Saving mode.
Use Web Browser
If nothing worked for you, use a mobile browser instead for some time before the developer rolls out an update to fix this issue. Because it includes the majority of the functionality included in the YouTube app, the browser version offers a similar user experience. However, ideally, movies will play more smoothly on the browser than they do on the app.
