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YouTube app virtually unusable. Constantly buffering. Older version vastly superior.

M

msp1518

Lurker
I have an HP Touchpad running Android 4.3.1 and the YouTube app was terrific. Videos would load fully and quickly as I would play them or on pause. However there seems to have been an update and for at least two weeks now videos will barely load at all and never go beyond a fraction of a second ahead of where the video is currently playing. Pause the video and it will not load. Frequently I end up in buffering hell.

My sister has the exact same android running tablet and is seeing the same thing. She has a Samsung Galaxy phone and it's YouTube app is according to her "now useless."

WTH is going on? I primarily use my tablet for YouTube so it is now useless. My cache has been emptied in an attempt to free up space and i have tried turning WiFi optimization off and then on and then back to off again. Neither is the problem.

One thing the app removed was the ability to pre-load videos. That feature is gone. Google says they removed it to improve our experience. Yeah right.

Is there a solution? This is completely absurd. It's so bad that if you have watched ten minutes of a twenty minute video and decide to go back five minutes, all of what is loaded is lost so it has to rebuffered and now you are loading content all over again.
 
I think you have something else going on here, because for me, the latest update (5.6.36) has been nothing but an improvement. Does your sister live in the same household? If so, maybe you share a lousy wifi or public data connection. Try clearing cache and date for the app and then rebooting. You'll have to sign back in and reset any config options you may have set, but it might resolve your problem.
 
My sister is across town with a completely different net provider. When i bring my tablet there its the same and hers here. I've already cleared cache, etc.

Is there a place with instructions for uninstalling YouTube updates because i'm stumped on that. I don't see where or how to do it.

Thanks.
 
Could be an issue with the particular tablets, has anyone else with the HPs been reporting this?

I'm also using the latest YouTube app and having no problems with it on Oppo and Samsung devices, and I'm in China using a VPN to watch YouTube.
 
msp1518 said:
Is there a place with instructions for uninstalling YouTube updates because i'm stumped on that. I don't see where or how to do it.
Click to expand...

Go to the Play Store. Go to My Apps. Then tap on YouTube. There should be a button that says Uninstall. Tap on that to uninstall. Then reinstall YouTube from the Play Store.
 
Or, if not connected to the internet, open settings > application manager > go to the 'all' tab, usually the rightmost > look for Youtube > open it and select uninstall updates.
 
I'm stumped. I don't see Application Manager under settings.

I also don't think this is an HP Touchpad problem because there is no question the YouTube app was kick ass before the update.
 
Is there a menu called "apps" or 'applications" in Settings?
As like chanchan says, if you go in there and "uninstall updates" you'll get the old version of youtube :thumbup:
 
Yes there is most certainly an apps section in the settings but no uninstall updates. My only option is to uninstall the entire app. But doing that won't solve my problem since its the latest version that has taken away my ability to watch videos without constant buffering and pausing.
 
Here is my app manager showing uninstall updates in upper right. It's weird that you don't have that
yhenu5a5.jpg
 
Ha... yeah that's the twilight program that you told me about. . I set it up to be irritating at night, which helps accomplish the objective of getting me to put my phone away and go to sleep. This screenshot was early in the morning at breakfast and filter is still on because it's dark outside even though I have no use for a filter in the morning. I don't think the program has any ability to discriminate between dark hours before I go to bed and dark hours after I get up.
 
electricpete said:
Ha... yeah that's the twilight program that you told me about. . I set it up to be irritating at night, which helps accomplish the objective of getting me to put my phone away and go to sleep. This screenshot was early in the morning at breakfast and filter is still on because it's dark outside even though I have no use for a filter in the morning. I don't think the program has any ability to discriminate between dark hours before I go to bed and dark hours after I get up.
Click to expand...

Oh, self induced annoyance. I disabled it on mine because I'm supposed to be awake late at night on duty shifts at the hospital anyway. Lol. I turn it on off duty days.

Back to topic, the OP should just try hitting the uninstall button anyway, and if it uninstalls everything, just reinstall and see if that works.

Edit:
Maybe you should try clearing data first before uninstall.
 
electricpete said:
Here is my app manager showing uninstall updates in upper right. It's weird that you don't have that
Click to expand...
The Uninstall updates button is only there if update(s) have been applied to a system app. If it didn't come pre-installed on the OP's phone, and was installed later as a user app, that would explain it.

The technical explanation is that system apps are installed to internal memory in /system/app, whereas user apps are installed to /data/app. If a system app is updated, the update goes to /data/app. That is, the app ends up being installed in two locations, with the newest version always in /data/app (which any unrooted phone has access to). "Uninstall updates" merely removes the copy in /data/app.
 
youtube is working well for me as well on all my devices. but along this line, it simply may be the device. netflix works well for me except on one device...i had to load an old apk to get netflix...else i'm left with the same buffering that you are getting on your youtube.

try a previous apk, and then make sure you don't have auto update set in the play store.
 
I have to agree with the OP. The new update has issues. The comments in the play store suggest many users are having various problems, like constant buffering, network errors, interface problems and crashes.
 
chanchan05 said:
Did youtube come with the tablet or did you install it separately?
Click to expand...

No I installed it.

I uninstalled the app two days ago and reinstalled. Well, it's no different. the only way to slightly improve things is by turning WiFi optimization off. That helps a little bit. it's iffy as sometimes it gives me a little bit of a buffer and often it does not.

Basically I am having to just live with it. As vosg stated, looking at recent reviews I see people complaining. I imagine Google flat out doesn't want us being able to fully load videos. They seem hell bent on controlling content and forcing us to stream, no matter how sh*tty the result.
 
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