Problem streaming video on Nexus 7

[jake1939]

Had this problem from day one. Always used at home. Used at Mcdonalds the other day and was amazed. Worked like never before.

 

[Ryano89]

I'd have to agree. I've played a number of the 15-ish minute Machinima videos on Youtube and they stream fine. I'm not saying that people aren't having streaming issues with Youtube, but it isn't "just" Youtube's fault.

If anything I would put wagers on the issue being a combination of their WLAN and N7. Possibly also some people have bad DNS server settings.

-Suntan

Got to disagree, it doesn't do it all the time, but there are times when YouTube is unusable for me. Strangely though, it will sometimes only be certain channels that buffer, others will work fine. I thought it was my wireless connection because I have the same problem on three different devices, but according to speedtest and a couple of other tests, my Internet connection is excellent. It doesn't happen as often on my galaxy s3, but Nexus 7, and asus tf101,struggle with it fairly frequently. I've tried everything I can think of, uninstalled updates, reinstalled updates, reset router, reset wifi password, factory reset all devices etc etc. It still happens a couple of days a week.

Sent from my Nexus 7

 

[Ryan Ridley]

This issue is starting becoming very annoying, there really needs to be a fix soon

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

[smkite]

Here is the fix that worked for me. I contacted Google Play who then referred me to Asus last night. Asus had me basically "uninstall and re-install" the Youtube app. Below are the steps:

1.) Select "SETTINGS" for your Nexus 7.
2.) Select "Apps".
3.) Swipe from right to left until the "ALL" apps heading is visible.
4.) Scroll down to the Youtube app and select it.
5.) Select "Force stop".
6.) Asus was going to have me select the "uninstall updates" button, but the choice was not available on my device.
7.) Select "Clear data".
8.) Select "Clear cache".
9.) Now hold down the Nexus 7 power button for 15 seconds. (I believe the device powered off, on, off, and back on again.)

What's important is that the device has to be immediately rebooted after steps 1-8. I had read somewhere else about clearing the Youtube data and cache and tried it, but I had never rebooted the machine afterwords. The buffering issue remained until I did steps 1-9 immediately after each other.

Anyway, I hope this helps. I know how frustrating the issue is. Hopefully it isn't just a coincidence, but not a single Youtube video has buffered since I followed those steps last night.

 

[Ryan Ridley]

Thank you very much

It's has now worked on 4 different nexus 7

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

[tlo07]

I've just started having problems with streaming too. I have been streaming movies from the Play Store and my N7 stops to buffer about 3 or 4 times during a movie! Its driving me nuts!

 

[hdpwipmonkey]

I had the same issue also, here is what I did:

I read somewhere that some of the older android OSs had a problem connecting and staying connected to higher wireless N routers. Now my droid 4 phone connects just fine but its on an older OS then the nexus. So I set up a guest wireless account and instead of having WPA2-PSK [AES] security on it I set it up to have wpa-psk [TKIP] security which is supposed to be easier to connect to for older legacy devices and now my Nexus 7 is able to stream video without issues (play store items, youtube, ect), even HD format. Now the only downfall is that you can only achieve 802.11G speeds with this setting so hopefully, if this is the issue, they get it sorted out soon so we can use the higher range and bandwidth of 802.11N. Like I said earlier my phone is version 4.0.4 and works fine on the main wireless account with WPA2-PSK [AES] security and higher speeds so whatever the issue is it seemed to come from the newer OS...

Hope this helps!

 

[Ryano89]

I had the same issue also, here is what I did:

I read somewhere that some of the older android OSs had a problem connecting and staying connected to higher wireless N routers. Now my droid 4 phone connects just fine but its on an older OS then the nexus. So I set up a guest wireless account and instead of having WPA2-PSK [AES] security on it I set it up to have wpa-psk [TKIP] security which is supposed to be easier to connect to for older legacy devices and now my Nexus 7 is able to stream video without issues (play store items, youtube, ect), even HD format. Now the only downfall is that you can only achieve 802.11G speeds with this setting so hopefully, if this is the issue, they get it sorted out soon so we can use the higher range and bandwidth of 802.11N. Like I said earlier my phone is version 4.0.4 and works fine on the main wireless account with WPA2-PSK [AES] security and higher speeds so whatever the issue is it seemed to come from the newer OS...

Hope this helps!

I'll try this when I get home. Thanks

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Android Central Forums

 

[Andrew Kennedy1]

Go to settings/WiFi/tik the three dots in upper right hand corner/advanced/untik minimize battery when on WiFi. That did the trick for me. Also, when using sip(skype) while driving or on the go, make sure WiFi is cut off because the device will drop your calls when it investigates random wifi hotspots to see if it can connect (the last statement concerns only 3g nexus 7)

 

[Suntan]

Got to disagree, it doesn't do it all the time, but there are times when YouTube is unusable for me. Strangely though, it will sometimes only be certain channels that buffer, others will work fine. I thought it was my wireless connection because I have the same problem on three different devices, but according to speedtest and a couple of other tests, my Internet connection is excellent. It doesn't happen as often on my galaxy s3, but Nexus 7, and asus tf101,struggle with it fairly frequently. I've tried everything I can think of, uninstalled updates, reinstalled updates, reset router, reset wifi password, factory reset all devices etc etc. It still happens a couple of days a week.

Sent from my Nexus 7

I had this issue, randomly, with netflix streaming on a couple of roku players a long time ago. It would stream just fine at one time, then other times of the day it would buffer like mad. Jumping on Speedtest showed plenty of bandwidth. Then one of the guys at AVSforum suggested testing the DNS server settings to find a better one. I ended up switching over to the google one (8.8.8.8 I think) and Netflix streaming has been full power from then on.

If nothing else, run the namebench test on one of your computers and then change the DNS setting on your router (make a copy of your current DNS settings first obviously.)

If you don't see any improvement in your browsing/streaming speed, you can always set it back to what it was.

namebench - Open-source DNS Benchmark Utility - Google Project Hosting

-Suntan

 

[bigtroutz]

If nothing else, run the namebench test on one of your computers and then change the DNS setting on your router (make a copy of your current DNS settings first obviously.)

If you don't see any improvement in your browsing/streaming speed, you can always set it back to what it was.

namebench - Open-source DNS Benchmark Utility - Google Project Hosting

-Suntan

I agree this is a very good idea but it does only cover one part of your video streams pathway home...

I recommend you spend the time to investigate the rest of the story with the links and info listed in this post:
http://forums.androidcentral.com/go...oogle-nexus-7-tips-tricks-15.html#post2491653

 

[Suntan]

I agree this is a very good idea but it does only cover one part of your video streams pathway home...

Pretty sure I acknowledged the other parts in my earlier post.

The part you quoted me on was specifically in response to Ryano89 commenting that streaming seems random, working sometimes but not others. Further, the fact that he said it happens with more than just his N7 and he's already reviewed his WLAN settings kinda made it pointless for me to tell him to just check his N7 or his WLAN settings...

-Suntan

 

[bigtroutz]

Pretty sure I acknowledged the other parts in my earlier post.

The part you quoted me on was specifically in response to Ryano89 commenting that streaming seems random, working sometimes but not others. Further, the fact that he said it happens with more than just his N7 and he's already reviewed his WLAN settings kinda made it pointless for me to tell him to just check his N7 or his WLAN settings...

-Suntan

sorry, Suntan, no criticism of your post was intended.

But intermittent problems with the internet are especially easy to diagnose with some of the other tools I mentioned like ping plotter, where certain servers (hops) are overloaded or malfing and causing packet dropping. The internet is actually not a web as far as your info (packets) are concerned but instead is a chain only as strong as the individual links on that chain and a ping plotter will show you the weak links. OTOH, DNS lookup only affects the resolution of the IP used to make the initial connection to your endpoint destination but can cause the entire process to lag as that time is consumed.

It is actually pretty rare for the DNS resolver itself to cause intermittent delay or packet loss but much more common for packet routing either to the DNS server or to the data source to be the actual problem.

 

[Ryano89]

Thanks for the suggestions, but I don't believe that the problem is my Internet connection. Netflix works fine, Google play movies works fine, Hulu works fine, it is ONLY YOUTUBE that works intermittently. It's bizarre, I've never had the buffering problem with any of those other services. It's a bit aggravating, but oh well. Lol

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Android Central Forums

 

[bigtroutz]

in that case, you can try one of the other YouTube app equivalents like PVStar+. There are lots, take your pick.

I believe someone has posted the steps for clearing youtube cache and commits someplace either on this thread (see SMKITE's post 64 above) or another, so it is not an uncommon problem and you would lose nothing to give that a try as well other than a bit of time.

 

[johnsaxon99]

Turning off Wi-Fi optimization seemed to help for a while but the problem came back. Hmmmm.

 

[Levolent com]

It sounds like you might have too many apps running in the background. Try finding which apps constantly run and dont need to and uninstall or disable them from running in the background.

 

[kuzniarpawel]

Settings, WiFi, advanced, uncheck WiFi optimization. This finally fixed my issues.

Thanks turning off WiFi optimization solved YouTube slow buffering issue on my Nexus 7.

 

[Bartelby Huxtersandwhich]

Ugh When I first got my N7 the Youtube video buffering wasnt awful, but lately it buffers so badly I keep giving up on even watching them. I haven't found a single solution online to my problem and since youtube watching is a primary use for my N7 I'm beginning to seriously regret my purchase. It only happens for me when using youtube. TVportal steams very fast and actually the movietube app streams fast as well considering it utilizes youtube to function.

 

[pjniez]

Ugh When I first got my N7 the Youtube video buffering wasnt awful, but lately it buffers so badly I keep giving up on even watching them. I haven't found a single solution online to my problem and since youtube watching is a primary use for my N7 I'm beginning to seriously regret my purchase. It only happens for me when using youtube. TVportal steams very fast and actually the movietube app streams fast as well considering it utilizes youtube to function.

Strangely, what worked for me was uninstalling all of the Youtube updates. I also originally had the WI-FI optimization turned off as has been recommended . But I have since turned it back on to help save some battery life and generally and Youtube rarely buffers now.

You should try uninstalling all of the Youtube updates and see if it helps.