YouTube problem on iPad

Joined
Oct 31, 2017
Messages
10,263
Location
California
8th Gen iPad
iPadOS 16.4.1 (up to date)

I usually watch YouTube in the Chrome browser. Lately, free movies on YouTube won't play in Chrome. The player screen displays 'Your browser can't play this video. Learn more.' When I click 'Learn more' 'Your browser is up to date' is displayed.

This is a very recent problem. What is causing it?

In the YouTube app free movies on YouTube still play fine.

No such problems on my Android phone despite several effective ad blockers.
 
Just free movies or any YouTube videos? I checked my iPad mini 6 and I can view videos just fine in Chrome.

I tried again and I get the same message when I try to view an ad-supported movie on YouTube in the Chrome browser. I suppose it's that that critical if the YouTube app works.
 
Just free movies or any YouTube videos? I checked my iPad mini 6 and I can view videos just fine in Chrome.
What I wrote.

I tried again and I get the same message when I try to view an ad-supported movie on YouTube in the Chrome browser. I suppose it's that that critical if the YouTube app works.
I could watch free movies just fine until maybe three weeks ago in Chrome on the iPad. It still works fine on the PC and on Android. I suppose nobody is bothered because they all use the YouTube app on their iPad.
 
YouTube videos work just fine. It's the free (feature) movies they offer that suddenly won't play. Movies like Heat and Red Sun. I have no idea if this is Apple or Google's doing. I suspect Apple because Google lets me watch the same free movies just fine on my pc and Android devices even with aggressive ad-blocking enabled. This also started happening after an iPadOS update.
 
Sometimes I get a silent black screen and it seems like an advertisement didn't load or something and I can hit the back button and it will play. I guess Apple like you said is blocking the content somehow.
 
Could be that the system hasn't allocated enough ram to view a HD video etc. or that you have other apps running the back ground. You will need to systematically shut down all no essential apps or programs to see if this helps. But I suspect that something is loading in the background which is using your ram.
 
8th Gen iPad
iPadOS 16.4.1 (up to date)

I usually watch YouTube in the Chrome browser. Lately, free movies on YouTube won't play in Chrome. The player screen displays 'Your browser can't play this video. Learn more.' When I click 'Learn more' 'Your browser is up to date' is displayed.

This is a very recent problem. What is causing it?

In the YouTube app free movies on YouTube still play fine.

No such problems on my Android phone despite several effective ad blockers.
Curious

Why use Chrome to watch YouTube on an iPad?

Second time very recently that I've seen here that someone is using the browser to watch YouTube instead of the app on an iPad.
 
Most likely the ad formatting doesn't work right or something and they want you to use the app and watch more ads. I had something similar happen with an old Apple TV, then I upgraded to a newer one and immediately had like three times the ads as before.
 
I'm more curious about why use a browser instead of the YT app.

I’ve still got a 32 GB iPhone. Most of that goes to photos and video so I barely have any apps loaded and dumped the YouTube app. There are some disadvantages to using the app. Notifications don’t show new replies and search history isn’t like with a web browser. And it’s not possible to have multiple videos loaded since it doesn’t have tabs.

I do get annoyed in my iPad that it pulls up the app when I click on a YouTube link.
 
Most likely the ad formatting doesn't work right or something and they want you to use the app and watch more ads. I had something similar happen with an old Apple TV, then I upgraded to a newer one and immediately had like three times the ads as before.
That's possible or likely. However, I have all YouTube ads blocked on PC and Android and all content plays just fine. Something is different about Chrome for IPadOS. I just wonder whether it's Google or Apple.
 
Last edited:
That's possible or likely. However, I have all YouTube ads blocked on PC and Android and all content plays just fine. Something is different about Chrome for IPadOS. I just wonder whether it's Google or Apple.
A note about Chrome for iPadOS.

It's kind of, sort of, not really Chrome in the way that it is Chrome on an Android or Windows device.

It still runs on Apple's webkit, even though it's labeled as Chrome. All iOS and iPadOS browsers are this way.
 
A note about Chrome for iPadOS.

It's kind of, sort of, not really Chrome in the way that it is Chrome on an Android or Windows device.

It still runs on Apple's webkit, even though it's labeled as Chrome. All iOS and iPadOS browsers are this way.
That makes sense.
 
That's possible or likely. However, I have all YouTube ads blocked on PC and Android and all content plays just fine. Something is different about Chrome for IPadOS. I just wonder whether it's Google or Apple.

Doesn’t work on Safari for iPad. I also tried Microsoft Edge. Must be something with iPadOS.
 
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