Slow Seek times with YouTube

[gizmo777]

For some reason if I use any device now and use YouTube through my BT fibre internet, it is now taking 5-10 seconds to start a video and about the same if I forward a video. It wasn’t doing this a few days ago. There’s a huge delay with just YouTube

it happens on every device, YouTube tv app, YouTube on my computer, YouTube on my phone. But only through my Internet connection with BT.

i have a good connection and getting decent WiFi 1000mbps speeds or close to it on everything apart from YouTube. It was working perfectly fine a few days ago. Now I can’t even watch a 1080p video without a huge amount of spinning circle seek time appearing. 

i tried connecting to my cellular network without WiFi and it doesn’t happen at all. I also tried a VPN while still connecting through BT and it doesn’t happen then either. I have no idea why this has suddenly started happening last couple of days. YouTube is basically unusable on a 1000mbps connection!

can someone please fix this 

[orozz]

Yeah I’ve noticed YouTube videos are taking an age to get going. I agree this only started in the past few days. 

[gizmo777]

Yeah it’s obviously a BT fault with how it’s routing traffic with YouTube or something.

[Leanne_T]

Hi @gizmo777 @orozz 

Thanks for coming here.

I've reached out to you both in a private message for some extra details. 

Leanne.

[jagsingh]

I noticed I’m also getting the same issue, regardless of type of device being used. If I connect via a VPN the videos load immediately. 

[Kimberlin]

You could try using a different DNS resolver or even a different browser to view Youtube if viewing on a PC to see if that makes a difference. Whilst DNS doesn't affect data rate, it can affect the time taken to connect to a particular server. I have a personal preference for Quad9 DNS, but there are plenty of others out there, Google, Cloudfare etc.

Bearing in mind that if you are using BT's router, you can't change DNS settings on the router itself, so you would have to do that manually on a PC etc.

If you're using a 3rd party router, you should easily be able to access and change DNS settings to one of your own choice. I've changed mine at router level.

Make sure your browser/OS is up to date. Disable ad blockers if you have them to see if it improves page loading response times.

Admittedly I'm on Plusnet 500mbps FTTP, but my service and experience has not changed since switching from BT 14 months ago. I use my own router, DNS settings and a more privacy focussed browser and my YouTube experience is unhindered and that includes the use of strict adblocking that bypasses all of YouTubes attempts at popups. It's just pretty much instant page loading all of the time.

[Azileo]

I'm posting to see if anyone else is experiencing this and hopefully get it escalated to the relevant network team.

I have BT Full Fibre and consistently achieve around 900 Mbps download speeds with no issues on general internet usage. Speed tests, large downloads, cloud services, gaming, and other streaming platforms all perform as expected.

However, YouTube has become increasingly problematic. Videos often take a long time to start, buffer unexpectedly, or struggle to maintain higher resolutions despite the connection having more than enough available bandwidth.

A few observations from my testing:

• The issue appears to be isolated to YouTube/Google video delivery.
• Multiple devices on my network experience the same behaviour.
• The issue occurs regardless of browser, operating system, or device.
• General network performance remains normal.
• There is no packet loss or local connectivity issue evident on my connection.
• Other BT customers appear to be reporting similar symptoms on various forums.

The most interesting finding is that when I connect through a VPN, the problem disappears immediately. YouTube videos load instantly, seek without delay, and stream at high resolutions without buffering.

This would suggest the issue is unlikely to be related to my local network, Wi-Fi, router, device, or available bandwidth. Instead, it points towards a potential issue somewhere within BT's routing path to Google's infrastructure.

Possible areas worth investigating could include:

• Routing inefficiencies between BT and Google ASN paths.
• Peering congestion during peak periods.
• Issues with BT's connection to Google Global Cache (GGC) servers.
• CDN path selection problems.
• Traffic engineering or load-balancing issues affecting YouTube traffic.
• Increased latency or packet loss on specific transit routes.

The fact that a VPN completely bypasses the problem suggests that changing the route to Google's network resolves the issue, which makes me suspect this is a network-level issue rather than a customer-side fault.

Could a BT representative please forward this to the relevant network engineering team for investigation? I'd also be interested to know whether BT is aware of any ongoing issues affecting YouTube performance across the network.

Thanks.

[SnowyDoc]

Came here after seeing this as an issue on a comment made at Reddit. I posted this as my reply to that Reddit thread asking about the sudden appearance of buffering and slow starting of videos:

I have exactly the same problem - noticed it yesterday and today. On my Apple TV connected to my TV if I play a YT video it buffers for about three or four seconds, there's then a black screen before the video starts playing for another three or four seconds, and then the video plays. And it's as annoying as hell.

My Apple TV does not have a VPN installed.

On my desktop or laptop - no issues at all. Press play and it plays.

My desktop and laptop do have a VPN installed - Mullvad BTW. My ISP is BT.

So I've just tried an experiment on my desktop. I played a random video with the VPN on and it plays instantly. I then turned the VPN off and played another random video, and guess what - buffering and waiting for it to play. I'm guessing that YouTube does not like us having a VPN connected and is actively trying to detect their usage to mess with us.

[tyencyu]

I'm on Plusnet 900mbps FTTP and I am having an issue, The page loading isn't an issue however there does seem to be an issue negotiating with google servers that result in Youtube's stats for nerds showing a far lower network speed than I actually get (tested via fast), to the tune of 1-3mpbs rather than closer to gigabit. 

It's immediately resolved by turning a VPN on. Which would indicate there's an issue somewhere

[orozz]

Tonight has been horrific but only for certain videos.

The Walk With Me Tim channel was horrific with resolution drops and buffering yet GeoWizard played out fine with a healthy buffer.