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Browser video sometimes stops working; how can I figure out why?
I leave my Mac (Mini, not laptop) running all the time, only rebooting when something forces me to (like a software update). My uptimes are usually measured in weeks, sometimes months.
Occasionally, browser-based streaming video (Youtube, Google Hangouts) will stop working, in all browsers, though everything else is fine. I can't correlate it to anything. This has happened under my current OS (12.2.1, Monterey), most recently last night, but it also happened under 11.6 (Big Sur) and 10.12 (Sierra -- that one was on different hardware).
When this happens it affects all browsers. It happened today and I checked Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Brave (all up to date except Safari) -- same behavior. Rebooting fixes the problem.
I've already rebooted after today's problem (needed the video), but for next time this happens: what diagnostics might I be able to perform? Or is this a known problem with a known solution?
2 answers
I noticed a random lagginess and/or freezing in my browsers from time to time. After carefully switching off and on all plugins and things related to the network I found out it was the Apple Private Relay security service that come with my iCloud subscription, since I disabled it browsing and streaming has become smooth and stable.
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As an alternative to rebooting, you might try to use "Force Quit Applicaitons" (Command-Option-Escape), select one web browser then click Force Quit. If there was another web browser in the list, repeat until there isn't any web browser.
You could use the Activity Monitor if you still want to go deep. For details for macOS Ventura, see Activity Monitor User Guide.
Hint: Try to find memory leaks.
Reference
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