You may face the problem of having a black screen when watching YouTube videos for some time or the full duration of the video. This may occur due to incorrect configuration of the browser, extensions, ad blockers, or due to hardware acceleration. The bugs in your browser are causing the trouble for you to watch the video smoothly.

YouTube Videos Black Screen

If you are facing the issue of YouTube displaying a black screen, you do not need to worry.  Here we have eight solutions for you to get rid of the problem.

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How to Fix YouTube Videos Black Screen

Solution 1 ⇒ Update your Browser

Updating to the latest version of your browser is necessary if you want to enjoy the latest modification. You might face the problem of having a black screen on YouTube because of your outdated browser. The reason for this is that it is still using the Adobe Flash Player plug-in, which isn’t supported by YouTube.

To know whether you need an update or if the problem is due to a particular browser or not, try streaming videos in a different browser than the one you are using.

If you are using any other browser than Google Chrome, you can uninstall it using the Programs and Features menu, and you download the latest browser from its official website. Then install it.

To do updates in Google chrome go according to the following way:

Step 1 ⇒ Open the chrome browser. At the top right of the screen, you will found three dots press them. A drop down will come in that click on “Help” and select “About Google Chrome.”

Step 2 ⇒ Chrome will search automatically for available updates and download it.

Step 3 ⇒ When the download will complete a prompt you to relaunch the browser will appear. Keep note that you should save everything needed then Press the “Relaunch“ button.

Wait till relaunching occurs. After that,  see that black screen on YouTube videos still exists.

Solution 2 ⇒ Check your Internet Connection

A slow network connection causes the incomplete download of the video. If you have a slower connection, it may loading prevent your browser from loading the complete video, or it may display a black screen.  In a few cases, it might be possible that you only hear audio with a black screen. A strong network connection is essential for streaming videos online. So you should if you have a stable and a relatively fast connection.

To check your connection change your connection; after that, refresh the webpage to load it and check if it is working correctly or not. Check if that there are no proxies involved because proxies hinder the data traffic of your computer many times.

Also, check the network status of other computers connected to your network; it might be possible that they are using as many resources that nothing much left for your computer. The running programs in the background many times, consume too much traffic. You should also check all the running programs on your PC to make sure that they are not consuming too much traffic.

Solution 3 ⇒ Clear Browsing Data

When you use the browser a lot, there are chances that a great amount of cache and history get accumulated in your browser. This high amount of cache data interferes with the smooth browsing experience. The browser may do not function well and sometimes cause the YouTube videos blackening.

Most of the internet market is dominated by Google Chrome browser, so here is the method to clear the cache data and browsing history from Google chrome. If you use another browser, they also have a similar procedure with a slight variation.

Step 1 ⇒ To launch the “Clear browsing data” window, press the keys Ctrl + Shift + Del on your keyboard.

Step 2 ⇒ Click on the “Advanced tab” present on the top and check all the checkboxes. Click “Clear browsing data”. You should keep in mind that this method will erase all your browsing history, preferences, and passwords from your browser so you will have to enter all the passwords and adjust all the preferences again.

Step 3 ⇒ After ending all applications using the task manager, restart your browser and check if you can stream videos with ease.

 Solution 4 ⇒ Disable AdBlockers and Extensions

If the above method doesn’t solve your issue, then it might be due to some problems in browser extensions. Adblockers block the ads and are known to cause problems while streaming YouTube videos when it tries to remove the ads from the video, and in response, the video refuses to display.

So you should check if there is any problem due to browser extension or adblockers. In that case, you need to disable all the problems causing extensions. It is suggested to disable all extensions from the browser to determine whether the problem lies in your browser or the server.

To check your browser extensions

Step 1 ⇒ Type “chrome://extensions” in the address bar and press Enter on the browser.

Step 2 ⇒ Disable any extension by unchecking the “enable” option. By enabling this, you will automatically get disabled that extension from making any changes to your UI. Make sure to disable all adblockers.

Step 3 ⇒ Restart your browser and check if the video play as expected.

 Solution 5 ⇒ Disable Hardware Acceleration

Hardware acceleration is done to boost the performance of some items in the browser; however, sometimes it tries to interfere with the smooth functioning of the browser and creates unexpected problems on your system. In that case, if you have enabled the hardware acceleration than you should need to disable it.

To disable the hardware acceleration use following methods:

Step 1 ⇒ Go to Google Chrome then click on the menu icon. Three vertical dots at the top right side of the screen represents it.

Step 2 ⇒ When the drop-down menu has opened, click on Settings present at the near end of the menu.

Step 3 ⇒ When the Settings tab has opened, navigate to the end, and click on Advanced.

Step 4 ⇒ Navigate to the end and find the subheading of the name as System. From there, uncheck the “Use hardware acceleration when available” option.

Step 5 ⇒ After that, a new option will appear, saying RELAUNCH. To relaunch your browser and to implement the change made, click on the Relaunch option.

Step 6 ⇒ After that, check if the video streaming problem has been fixed or not.

If it didn’t fix, you could follow some other method to disable “Hardware-accelerated video decode.” If you cannot find any improvement, you can always revert the changes back using the same steps.

Step 1 ⇒ In the address bar of your browser type “chrome://flags/” and press Enter.

Step 2 ⇒ You will go to flags. Navigate through the flags to find “Hardware-accelerated video decode.” On finding “Hardware-accelerated video decode,” Click on its “Disable” option.

Step 3 ⇒ A pop up will come up asking you to relaunch your browser.

Step 4 ⇒ Relaunch it and check for the problem streaming has been solved or not.

If your problem does not get solved, then you can use the following methods.

Solution 6 ⇒ Use Software Rendering (for IE and Edge Users)

If you use browser Microsoft edge or internet explorer, then you can solve this problem of YouTube having a black screen by software rendering. Microsoft Edge uses software rendering to run its processes smoother and to make it work properly

Following is the solution step by step to do so:

Step 1 ⇒ Launch the search bar of your start menu by pressing the Windows + S buttons.

Step 2 ⇒ A dialog box will appear in that box type Internet Options. Open the first result that appears.

Step 3 ⇒ Go to the Internet Options and navigate to the Advanced Tab. The first checkbox will ask to “Use software rendering instead of GPU rendering.” Check that option and press Apply to save all changes.

Step 4 ⇒ Restart your computer and check if the problem of having a black screen while streaming of video on YouTube persists or not.

Solution 7 ⇒ Stream Videos without Login or In Incognito Mode

Most of the users experienced the problem of not streaming the video YouTube only when they were logged into their YouTube. When they logged out, they can see the videos without any problem.

You can also try the same solution for yourself by opening a new Incognito window and try seeing videos in that tab.

Right-click on the Chrome icon then select “New incognito window” to open a new incognito window in chrome. Or you can use the shortcut keys Ctrl + Shift + N  if you are a windows user.

This will most probably solve your issue.

Solution 8 ⇒ Check Adobe Flash Player/Javascript

As stated earlier YouTube does not support Flash Player anymore. But, many web browsers consist of it. It widely embeds videos on several websites.

If you have preinstalled the Flash Player, you should try uninstalling the Flash Player and installing the latest version from its official website. Because YouTube has also switched Firefox users from Flash Player to HTML5 player by default.

Recommendation:

Conclusion

These were the eight best-known solutions for you to fix the YouTube Videos Black Screen error of YouTube videos black screen. I hope these solutions help you to get rid of this problem.