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Videos on websites keep pausing themselves

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Anonymous
2023-09-23T21:46:53+00:00

This is a really bizarre issue that I started encountering a couple months ago. Videos on websites (Slack, WhatsApp, YouTube, etc) sometimes do not play correctly. Specifically, when I start playback, the video plays for a fraction of a second, and then pauses. The same exact behavior can be observed on multiple unrelated websites, and happens in every browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox), even in browsers that are newly installed.

I am seeing this problem on two separate machines (one laptop and one desktop), each running Windows 11, which is why I've posted this as a Windows 11 problem. I do *not* have issues on my Android phone and tablet playing the same videos. I also run a Linux VM on my desktop, and that VM is able to play videos correctly. The common thread for all my troubles seems to be Windows 11.

Both of my machines have plenty of CPU, disk space, memory, and Internet bandwidth. They can play 1080p videos in VLC just fine, and do everything else just fine, including high-powered gaming. But there seems to be a really nasty software bug in Windows that is blocking the correct playback of videos inside browsers.

Any ideas?

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Internet and connectivity

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-10-28T16:26:30+00:00

    I finally figured this out! :-D

    I was reading over a similar issue (https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/videos-on-all-media-players-and-browsers-keep/2d1027c2-58f0-49d8-b01d-653d895ad99c?correlationid=0fb4762a-3b41-40e6-8319-6bb480407d33&from=ContactUsWebBCQR) where someone was encountering a similar problem and they tracked it down to a Bluetooth connection. In my case, my computers are connected to a Bluetooth speaker in my room, but so are some other devices (phone, tablet, etc). This problem happens when something else is playing to the Bluetooth speaker. Windows 11 realizes it can't play the audio, so it immediately pauses the video.

    It's incredibly non-obvious that this is happening, but once you know this, it's easy to fix (stop the other audio playback or disconnect from the speaker).

    I still think this is a Windows bug - video playback should not pause entirely just because the speaker is in use.

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-09-24T15:56:01+00:00

    I don't think any of these suggestions are applicable here.

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-02-11T02:49:24+00:00

    Didn't help me, and I so wanted to blame bluetooth.

    But after I disabled it (Win+I, Bluetooth & devices, Off) I was still getting video pausing and resuming at random, on windows that did not have the focus.

    I'm seeing spontaneous pauses and resumes on HBO-Max with Chrome, and Apple TV+ on Firefox.

    UPDATE: Nope, this is NOT a bluetooth thing. At least not for me. Even after disabling bluetooth and rebooting, I still get occasional spontaneous pause/resume of YouTube and Hulu videos in Chrome. And volume spontaneously goes up and down.

    Beware of thinking you've affected this issue when you have not. Intermittent problems can be devilishly deceiving.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-12-23T16:22:02+00:00

    This works for mobile devices too! I was having this issue on both my computer and cell phone that was connected to the same Bluetooth speaker. Simply disconnect the speaker from the device you don't want to use - problem solved. Thanks for the share!

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-10-14T18:09:08+00:00

    I just encountered this same exact problem with a native Windows app (Snipping Tool). After recording a screencast, I am unable to play it back, because playback stops every time I click the play button. I think this further proves that this is a Windows 11 issue (and not related to any browser or website). If I save the video to disk, and then open in VLC, it plays correctly.

    Sigh, this is really frustrating. No one else is seeing this?

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