Why can't I watch youtube videos?

These days just about everyone uses youtube at some stage or another. Whether it's to watch Wayne Rooney's latest goal, Cheryl Cole's newest video or just to spend a few hours watching random videos, youtube has it all. However, from time to time users have difficulty watching youtube videos.

First of all, Youtube videos are provided using Flash. In order to view a video you will need a version of Adobe Flash player. At the moment its Flash version 10. Adobe flash can be downloaded here. If you are upgrading from an older previous version, it is better to uninstall the old version first, before installing the newer version.

Javascript is also required or youtube to function correctly. We must make sure that it is enabled in our web browser. To do so, follow the below instructions (note this is for Internet Explorer only)

Open internet explorer.

Click on Toolsat the top of the screen in the menu bar

From here we Click on 'Internet Options'

On the window that pops up click on the 'Security' tab.

Click the 'Internet' icon and then click the 'Custom Level' button.

Scroll down through the list until you see 'Scripting' and find 'Active Scripting.

Here we turn it on by selecting 'enable'

Select 'Enable JavaScript' checkbox.

Click on OK and close all open windows.

Now with Flash installed and javascript enabled you should be able to view youtube videos. If not then you may be running ad blocking software that is stopping youtube from working. Try temporarily disable any ad blocking software to see if this resolves the problem. It may also be worth adding www.youtube.com as an exception to your firewall.

Occasionally videos get stuck when loading on screen so you may need to refresh the pages (F5 button). If you find the video plays slowly and stops and starts and tries to buffer then this is an issue of a slow internet connection. Unfortunately all you can do in this case is pause the video, let it buffer (let the red line move across to the right) and then play the video.