This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Why do I get a blank screen when I play a You Tube video?

  • 2 cavab
  • 45 have this problem
  • 25 views
  • Last reply by janice939

more options

The You Tube screen is black while the video plays. The sound is fine, the video plays, but the screen is black.

The You Tube screen is black while the video plays. The sound is fine, the video plays, but the screen is black.

All Replies (2)

more options

The screen around the video is black, or the video area is black?

Sometimes incompatibilities with your graphics card drivers can cause strange display artifacts. Here are two places where you can change a setting to try to rule that out.

(A) In Firefox, un-check the box here and restart:

orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Options > Advanced > General > "Use hardware acceleration when available"

(B) In Flash, see this support article from Adobe: http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/video-playback-issues.html#main_Solve_video_playback_issues

Any difference?

more options

jscher2000: I was unable to resolve my issue by implementing suggestions (A) & (B) in your post. However, suggestion "(B)"did help me. I reviewed the support article you suggested. Because of the article I decided to install 6 recommended windows updates. I also enabled a few disabled Add-ons in Firefox. The problem was caused by disabled real-player, and flash-player Add-ons. YouTube videos are now visible and playing well. I appreciate your prompt reply to my post! Thank you!!

Modified by janice939