Videos Not Playing In Google Chrome [Full Fix]

By: Ritika Purohit - Updated: December 18, 2018 8:17 am

A lot of people have recently reported that they’re experiencing issues while playing online videos on Google Chrome. Many have reported that the Chrome won’t even play the video, despite refreshing the page several times.

Google Chrome is by far the most used browser across the world. Google often releases updates to Chrome in order to increase its performance, security and make it more powerful. However, sometimes your Google Chrome may catch some minor issues and not work correctly.

When Chrome doesn’t play video, it can be due to several reasons. In this guide, we’ll be discussing why sometimes the videos won’t play in Chrome and how to fix this problem.

Quick Links:

Why is the Video Not Playing in Google Chrome?

There can be various reasons that your video won’t load, become blank or keeps on freezing and crashing while loading. Let’s check out why-

The site needs permission to use Flash: Your video might not be playing if you can see an error message “Click to enable Adobe Flash Player” or asks you to download Flash.

Some Videos won’t run without JavaScript : YouTube videos need JavaScript support, if the proper Java software is not installed on your PC, the video won’t play. (This is a rare case example.)

Fault in your extensions, plugins, cache, and cookies: Some faulty plugins or extensions or even stored cache data can also cause this problem.

Using the outdated version of Chrome : Some media applications require that latest version of Chrome.

Issues with the Internet Connection: Internet connectivity problem causes the video files not to work correctly on Chrome.

Your video might also have some issues while playing if the “ Use hardware acceleration when available ” icon is turned on in Chrome Settings.

Fix: Video not Playing in Google Chrome

Before we start with the solutions, here’s a quick fix that you should try at first:

Open Google Chrome and go to the Settings menu
Scroll down and go to the System section and turn off the “ Use hardware acceleration when available .”
Hit the Relaunch button to restart the Chrome

Now play the video again and check if it plays without any errors. If the above quick fix didn’t help, go ahead with the following solutions.

1. Enable or Download Flash

Lately, Adobe Flash has some security problems, and hence many browsers including Google Chrome have stopped making use of it. However, as some websites do require Flash support and won’t play a video if it’s off or if it’s not downloaded in your system. Let’s do it-

You’ll get an error message to either download or allow Adobe Flash as you start the video
Download and Install Adobe Flash (if you haven’t)
You can see the lock or (I) in a circle in the web address bar (to the left)
In the menu, go to the arrows which are to the right of the word Flash and select them all

Now click on “ Always allow ” icon to enable Flash for this site

We suggest you make sure that you are allowing Flash for a trusted website. You’ll have to enable flash for each website that requires Flash. Restart the video on your Chrome and see if it works.

2. Turn JavaScript on

If you’re having issues while playing video on YouTube, you should check if the JavaScript is turned on. Here’s how-

Launch GoogleChrome
Hit the More button (to the top-right corner)
Go to the setting option

Scroll down and tap on the Advanced icon
Choose Privacy and Security and select Content Settings

Choose JavaScript and select Allowed option

Reboot Google Chrome and try to play the video or game again.

3. Update Google Chrome

The video you are trying to play might only work with the latest version of Chrome. We suggest you keep on updating chrome regularly to make it run smoothly. Let’s see how-

Open Chrome
Click on the three small dots (More) to the upper right-hand corner
You can see the Update Google Chrome (icon) if you haven’t and click on it
Once it is done, restart the browser

Get back to the video you wanted to play and hit the Reload icon (to the upper left-hand corner) and check if your video is playing.

4. Clear your Cache and Browser history

The cache also known Cache memory, allows us to store surfing information and data about your recent visits on the website.

A cache can obstruct playing your video if it has used up much space on your CPU. Follow the steps mentioned below to clear cookies and Cache in your browser-

Tap on three buttons menu (to the upper right-hand side)
Select Settings from the list

Go to Advanced Settings
Click on Privacy and Security settings

To clear everything- Click on Clear browsingdata and open the Advanced Now, select the time-range, for example – All time to clear everything. Make sure that you put a check in the Cookies and other data site and Cached image and files. Hit the Clear data icon to clear the selected cookies.

Note - Note down all the log-in password and sites before you clear cache and cookies.

Clear some specific cache- Go to the Content Settings screen and tap on the Cookies (to the top)

Choose to See all cookies and site data icon and select the caches you want to delete and hit the trash icon next to the website you don’t want to keep

Great! Cache and cookies from Google Chrome browsers have been cleared according to your choice. Go back to your video and check if it is playing.

5. Check for Your extensions, plugins, cookies, and Cache

At times, your video might not play due to extensions, plugins or something wrong with your Cache and browser data. Here’s what to do-

Open GoogleChrome
Click More (to the top-right corner) and click on New Incognito Window

Now, open the video in the new incognito window and see if works

Incognito browses your data in a safe mode and doesn’t store any data in your web browser.

6. Check Your Internet Connection

Check if your Internet connection is set up correctly and the router’s lights are on. You can also run a speed test to see if your internet is working very slowly. To do so, go to speed testing site, our favorite site is speedtest.net and just hit the Go button.

It informs you if you have any issues with your internet connection.

Well, I am sure that you can now see videos on your Chrome browser without any interruption. If it still doesn’t work, try to reset your Chrome settings and check if it works.

Have any other issues with your Google Chrome browser? Drop in your queries in the comments section below.

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