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

Youtube Fullscreen Lagging/Freezing Firefox

  • 3 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 4 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

more options

I recently downloaded the latest security update for my Macbook Air running Sierra, and everything seemed fine. Then while watching a 2 hour video in fullscreen mode at 1080p60FPS, the video suddenly froze. The audio continued, so I tried exiting out of full screen, but my cursor wouldn't move. I couldn't press escape, or pause the video, or force quit Firefox, but the video was still playing fine. I hard reset my computer and the video resumed and everything was normal again.

The problem went away but just a few minutes ago while watching another video at 720p60FPS in fullscreen the video began to lag. I managed to move my cursor, which was very laggy, and exit out of full screen. After a few seconds of laggy cursor, I clicked out of firefox, and my computer began running normally again, the video was fixed and everything was smooth. I checked activity monitor and it told me everything is fine.

Is this a problem with my Mac, or a problem with Firefox and Youtube? As I said I've never had this issue on this computer and I've had it more than a year, and I've used Firefox the whole time. I only run into this issue at night after using my computer all day, and my computer has felt slightly warmer than usual lately, but nothing to the point of needing to worry. I don't have Time Machine set up because I've never had the need to use it.

I recently downloaded the latest security update for my Macbook Air running Sierra, and everything seemed fine. Then while watching a 2 hour video in fullscreen mode at 1080p60FPS, the video suddenly froze. The audio continued, so I tried exiting out of full screen, but my cursor wouldn't move. I couldn't press escape, or pause the video, or force quit Firefox, but the video was still playing fine. I hard reset my computer and the video resumed and everything was normal again. The problem went away but just a few minutes ago while watching another video at 720p60FPS in fullscreen the video began to lag. I managed to move my cursor, which was very laggy, and exit out of full screen. After a few seconds of laggy cursor, I clicked out of firefox, and my computer began running normally again, the video was fixed and everything was smooth. I checked activity monitor and it told me everything is fine. Is this a problem with my Mac, or a problem with Firefox and Youtube? As I said I've never had this issue on this computer and I've had it more than a year, and I've used Firefox the whole time. I only run into this issue at night after using my computer all day, and my computer has felt slightly warmer than usual lately, but nothing to the point of needing to worry. I don't have Time Machine set up because I've never had the need to use it.

All Replies (3)

more options

Link to the freezing video so other can see where the problem is. User of Windows but if there is a problem it should show up and that can be tested to see where the problem is.

more options

WestEnd said

Link to the freezing video so other can see where the problem is. User of Windows but if there is a problem it should show up and that can be tested to see where the problem is.

The first video I was watching that completely crashed my computer was this. I was about 10-15 minutes away from it ending when my computer froze. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YPhgDW-Urk

The second video was this one, which only slightly lagged my computer at about a quarter of the way in then was fine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj1wtJYKe3s

I watch Youtube a lot and these are the only 2 times I've experienced this.

more options

This could be a memory (OOM; out-of-memory) problem where Firefox uses all available memory.

You can try to keep an eye on the memory usage in the activity monitor and possibly check the about:memory page when the lagging starts.