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YouTube Keeps Buffering: How to Stop It

Short answer: Constant buffering is almost always a connection-speed problem. Switch networks and lower the quality first.

TL;DR: quick fix
  1. Switch networks: if you're on mobile data, connect to Wi-Fi, and vice versa.
  2. In the player, open Settings > Quality and pick a lower resolution.
  3. Move closer to your router and reduce other devices using the network.

Is YouTube down?

YouTube has no public status page. If friends on other networks see the same problem, it's probably an outage: wait and retry.

How to fix it: step by step

  1. Switch networks: if you're on mobile data, connect to Wi-Fi, and vice versa.
  2. In the player, open Settings > Quality and pick a lower resolution.
  3. Move closer to your router and reduce other devices using the network.
  4. Quit and reopen the YouTube app.
  5. Restart your device.

FAQ

What speed does YouTube need?

Roughly 2.5 Mbps for 720p, 5 Mbps for 1080p and 20 Mbps for 4K, per YouTube Help.

More YouTube fixes

Last checked Oct 2026 against the official help page: Google Help. Menus can differ by app version; follow the official page if a step doesn't match.

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