HTML5 video playback (YouTube and other streaming sites) keeps breaking in Tahoe. Not lagging… I mean *completely* broken!

[markpaterson]

I have a Mac Studio M2 Ultra with Tahoe 26.0.1.

Everything in Tahoe was fine for a few days until suddenly any site with HTML5 video would fail to play back video. (ie YouTube and basically any streaming site). When you click play it would just spin forever and then YouTube would throw up an alert saying "If playback doesn't begin shortly, try restarting your device". I restarted, and it doesn't fix it.

Other things I've tried, to no success…
(1) Cleared Safari cache
(2) Tried Chrome instead of Safari
(3) Rebooted modem and router
(4) Tried WiFi instead of Ethernet
(5) Created an new user account

The only thing that fixed it was booting into Recovery mode and reinstalling macOS Tahoe over top of my existing installation. Nothing is wiped during this process, but every system component is replaced. It's like a deep OS level component got corrupted at some point?

I thought that was the end of it, until today it started happening again!

YouTube works fine on my other updated devices (M2 MacBook Air with 26.0.1, iPad Pro with 26.0.1) but I don't use those as much so I don't have a true comparison.

This is incredibly frustrating. I can't be reinstalling Tahoe every couple of days. What a sh*t show!

UPDATE - I can completely rule out a network issue! I just tried running my own portfolio website locally in Safari and Chrome and the HMTL5 video does not playback! These mp4 files play back just fine in Finder.

 

[snakes-]

Can be because of add-ons or adblockers. I solved this with refresh button and wait some seconds or try it to play in a new tab.

 

[markpaterson]

Can be because of add-ons or adblockers. I solved this with refresh button and wait some seconds or try it to play in a new tab.

Happy that worked for you but that's not the solve here.

As I said, it even affects local websites. My extremely basic hand coded portfolio site doesn't care if you use an ad blocker or not, yet it fails to play back HTML5 video in Tahoe, even when running locally.

Yes, I have Stop The Madness Pro installed, but I still had that installed after reinstalling Tahoe (which fixed the issue first time around). For what it's worth, I just disabled the extension, and it didn't make any difference.

 

[markpaterson]

Ok, I once again just re-installed Tahoe over top of the existing system and lo and behold, HTML5 video is working again. Like I said previously, this appears to be the only fix!

 

[markpaterson]

I’ve set up an hourly monitoring script that computes MD5 checksums of all video frameworks and caches, and logs any changes along with GPU/video decoding services and all LaunchAgents/Daemons, creating a new timestamped log each run. It also sends a macOS notification if anything changes. This way, I can capture exactly which file or process causes the HTML5 video playback to break when the issue reoccurs.

All is fine right now, but as soon as it stops working again hopefully I will have a better idea what is causing the issue.

 

[Starfia]

This feels like something I've occasionally encountered (but, like Snakes, apparently hadn't found insoluble). Please feel free to reply and update if you get to bottom of it – I'd be curious.

 

[markpaterson]

This feels like something I've occasionally encountered (but, like Snakes, apparently hadn't found insoluble). Please feel free to reply and update if you get to bottom of it – I'd be curious.

It's much MUCH worse than I thought.

After a couple days with no issues, I needed to reboot. After restarting I immediately saw that not only was the problem back (YouTube once again failed to play) but it actually affects almost ALL MEDIA, not just HTML5 web video. MP4 files do not play LOCALLY (either through QuickLook, QuickTime, IINA, etc), MP3 and M4A audio files do not play back. Weirdly, the only files I've found that can actually play back ok are HEVC encoded MOV or MP4, or ProRes MOV.

My script to monitor MD5 checksums found no corruption in between the last time it all worked and after, so I'm really out of ideas.

The only fix is to re-install Tahoe. I refuse to re-install Tahoe for a 3rd time just to have this work for a couple more days. I'm done. I'm rolling back tonight. I'm so pissed off.

It's not even the only issue I've seen. Spotlight is completely broken. I can find files in Finder but nothing shows in Spotlight.

What a total disaster.

 

[Starfia]

After a couple days with no issues…

Thanks for following through and telling me.

That really does sound like an issue I'd encountered in the past, and I wish the memory was clearer. I want to say it seemed like the main media frameworks began failing to play media generally – such as in QuickTime Player – after the machine woke from sleep for some reason; but in that case, restarting helped, and the system-level fix was forthcoming. I really have no idea what to think, hearing that media works after installing Tahoe for a period of days before permanently failing (unless you've eventually done the same seemingly innocuous thing both times). Hopefully you can at least narrow it down to Tahoe by moving back to Sequoia.

The Spotlight issue, it turns out, I'm dealing with as well. The main steps you find online are to re-index the drive and restart the machine. The only measure I've found that's worked is to use Activity Monitor to force quit any processes with "spotlight" in them, and there's a time limit before it all stops working again. It's not the only issue of that magnitude I've ever had with Spotlight, either. I expect it to resolve itself with 26.1, but considering my hesitant upgrade to Tahoe was largely "I'm rather concerned about the new visual design, but at least there are other really good features like Spotlight," it's still uniquely frustrating on balance.

Anyway, here's to stuff.

 

[JoeyAnthony]

Just wanted to add that I'm having the same exact issue. Since upgrading to Tahoe, I can't play videos. At first I thought it was a network issue as I got the same, "If playback doesn't begin shortly, try restarting your device" error on YouTube. But I can't even play videos locally. Thankfully, restarting my Mac temporarily fixes the issue. But it's really annoying that this keeps happening — and it's just one of several different bugs I'm experiencing on Tahoe.

This is truly one of the worst macOS upgrades I've ever seen. And I've been a Mac user since the Performa days.

 

[Belperite]

Early days but I think this might be fixed in 26.1 Beta 4.

 

[markpaterson]

Early days but I think this might be fixed in 26.1 Beta 4.

I hope so, but how would we know for sure? I'm still operating under the assumption that this is a very rare problem. Do Apple document bug fixes in any detail, eg "Addressed an issue involving media frameworks and media playback" or is it the usual boilerplate generic "Bug fixes and improvements" lol.

If not, and given how frequently the issue plagued me, I'd have to use the OS for a week or two to know that if it was truly fixed. Things are so stable back on Sequoia that I really don't want to go through the ordeal of upgrading and rolling back again (because Time Machine restore did not work and I had to start over in Sequoia, but that's a grumble for another time).

 

[markpaterson]

Just wanted to add that I'm having the same exact issue. Since upgrading to Tahoe, I can't play videos. At first I thought it was a network issue as I got the same, "If playback doesn't begin shortly, try restarting your device" error on YouTube. But I can't even play videos locally. Thankfully, restarting my Mac temporarily fixes the issue. But it's really annoying that this keeps happening — and it's just one of several different bugs I'm experiencing on Tahoe.

This is truly one of the worst macOS upgrades I've ever seen. And I've been a Mac user since the Performa days.

I'm sorry this is affecting you too, but I'm also a little bit relieved to know that it's a real problem and not something I'm imagining. I could never fix it with a restart btw. The only fix was to boot into Recovery and reinstall Tahoe over the top of the existing install.

I did file a bug report about it. Might be a good idea for you to do that too. https://www.apple.com/feedback/macos
As a side note, the character limit on Apple feedback forms is ridiculous. I've seen longer Tweets. And no attachments are allowed either.

 

[markpaterson]

Thanks for following through and telling me.

That really does sound like an issue I'd encountered in the past, and I wish the memory was clearer. I want to say it seemed like the main media frameworks began failing to play media generally – such as in QuickTime Player – after the machine woke from sleep for some reason; but in that case, restarting helped, and the system-level fix was forthcoming. I really have no idea what to think, hearing that media works after installing Tahoe for a period of days before permanently failing (unless you've eventually done the same seemingly innocuous thing both times). Hopefully you can at least narrow it down to Tahoe by moving back to Sequoia.

The Spotlight issue, it turns out, I'm dealing with as well. The main steps you find online are to re-index the drive and restart the machine. The only measure I've found that's worked is to use Activity Monitor to force quit any processes with "spotlight" in them, and there's a time limit before it all stops working again. It's not the only issue of that magnitude I've ever had with Spotlight, either. I expect it to resolve itself with 26.1, but considering my hesitant upgrade to Tahoe was largely "I'm rather concerned about the new visual design, but at least there are other really good features like Spotlight," it's still uniquely frustrating on balance.

Anyway, here's to stuff.

Thanks for the thoughtful reply, I appreciate everyone who has chimed in.

It's certainly better than the replies I got from the official Apple-can-do-no-wrong discussion forum (such as this entitled bozo, screenshot attached) who simply bullies people into installing an incredibly intrusive system scraping program called "Etrecheck" and posting the results. How about no.

 

[Belperite]

I hope so, but how would we know for sure? I'm still operating under the assumption that this is a very rare problem. Do Apple document bug fixes in any detail, eg "Addressed an issue involving media frameworks and media playback" or is it the usual boilerplate generic "Bug fixes and improvements" lol.

If not, and given how frequently the issue plagued me, I'd have to use the OS for a week or two to know that if it was truly fixed. Things are so stable back on Sequoia that I really don't want to go through the ordeal of upgrading and rolling back again (because Time Machine restore did not work and I had to start over in Sequoia, but that's a grumble for another time).

All I'll say is that I've been using Beta 4 for a few hours in total now (2019 16" MPB) and the problem hasn't reappeared, whereas previously it would appear a few minutes after a restart, without fail.

 

[markpaterson]

All I'll say is that I've been using Beta 4 for a few hours in total now (2019 16" MPB) and the problem hasn't reappeared, whereas previously it would appear a few minutes after a restart, without fail.

That's promising. Please could you provide an update after a week or so of use? I typically was able to go 3-4 days before the problem would return, at which point I'd have to re-install Tahoe over the top to fix it for another 3-4 days.

 

[nmt1900]

Thanks for the thoughtful reply, I appreciate everyone who has chimed in.

It's certainly better than the replies I got from the official Apple-can-do-no-wrong discussion forum (such as this entitled bozo, screenshot attached) who simply bullies people into installing an incredibly intrusive system scraping program called "Etrecheck" and posting the results. How about no.

While I have actually found Apple discussion forums almost 100% useless when real problems arise, it would be good to acknowledge how actual technical support process works. When you use Apple's Feedback Assistant, you send "scraped" diagnostic information with the feedback report.
When you want to issue support ticket to any professional equipment vendor, you usually need to provide some type of logs/diagnostic report with it.

EtreCheck is an application for similar purpose (among others).

https://etrecheck.com/en/index.html

Then again it is up to anyone if one wants to trust anybody on Apple forums with that information - although EtreCheck is made in a way that sensitive information is not included in its' outputs.
While I am not able to regard Apple forums highly (even after 15 years), I think that this kind of attitude cannot be productive what comes to finding actual cause of the problem...

 

[markpaterson]

While I have actually found Apple discussion forums almost 100% useless when real problems arise, it would be good to acknowledge how actual technical support process works. When you use Apple's Feedback Assistant, you send "scraped" diagnostic information with the feedback report.
When you want to issue support ticket to any professional equipment vendor, you usually need to provide some type of logs/diagnostic report with it.

EtreCheck is an application for similar purpose (among others).

https://etrecheck.com/en/index.html

Then again it is up to anyone if one wants to trust anybody on Apple forums with that information - although EtreCheck is made in a way that sensitive information is not included in its' outputs.
While I am not able to regard Apple forums highly (even after 15 years), I think that this kind of attitude cannot be productive what comes to finding actual cause of the problem...

Agreed. I found their forums useful like 20 years ago but not any more. I wouldn't have a problem running a diagnostic tool at the request of Apple Support or an Apple Care agent. I just didn't feel comfortable posting that on a public forum and didn't like the guy's dismissive attitude.