According to user-submitted posts over at both Apple Support Communities and Google Product forums, an unknown portion of Mac owners who run Yosemite are having issues playing certain YouTube videos, with some getting Safari crashes when attempting to watch a clip.

It seems to affect some, not all, HTML5 videos and does not manifest itself when using the resource-hog Flash Player, causing Safari to fall back to Flash for video delivery.

Others are reporting that the video simply remains settled on a black display, with the loading circle endlessly turning in the middle. On top of that, some users are complaining that while the video fails to load, the YouTube page will go completely unresponsive as well, forcing the user to close the tab/page altogether.

Many users have pointed out that video playback worked on November 17, and leading all the way up to today, so it has led many to believe that the error is on YouTube’s end, and not inherently tied to OS X Yosemite 10.10.1.

I myself also noticed YouTube hiccups in Safari this morning, but initially dismissed them as a temporary glitch. For those wondering, clearing cookies and caches or resetting PRAM does nothing to fix the problem.

Several posters have suggested changing user agent in the Safari browser to Google Chrome. You can change browser user agent under the Advanced tab in Safari’s Preferences.

First tick the checkbox next to “Show Develop menu in menu bar” and then choose “Google Chrome — Mac” in Develop under Safari’s menu bar.

See if this trick works for you.

Others have suggested deleting all Site Data and Settings data for Flash Player under System Preferences > Flash Player Settings > Advanced, but the trick doesn’t seem to be working for everyone.

So have you been facing any issues with YouTube ?

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