Tutorial - Troubleshoot YouTube


"We're sorry, this video is no longer available."


Eh? WHAT?


We all love YouTube, sort of.

Many people, however, experience the frustration of being unable to view numerous videos on the site as the YouTube engine insists that the video in question is no longer available.

Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelled of elderberries.... now go away, or I shall taunt you a second time...


"But of course it's available. It's my video, I uploaded it, and I know it's there!".

At this point some people will just give up...

Other, more technically minded people reinstall the latest version of Flash on their computers, go back to YouTube, find their videos still won't play, and then give up.

Forget about reinstalling Flash. And forget too, about giving up. In the vast majority of cases where YouTube (wrongly) reports that a video is unavailable, the culprit, while the most unlikely of suspects is simple to unmask...

Here is a clue. Look at the icons in your system tray. That's the little bunch of gizmos that are typically to be found at the bottom right of your screen, next to your computer clock. They may look broadly similar to this:

Windows System Tray

There are thirteen possible suspects in this example. You may see more, you may see less. But which is the guilty party - and what exactly are they guilty of? Mrs White committing murder most foul with the dagger? Professor Plum knocking off Miss Scarlet with the revolver? Maybe it's Colonel Mustard with the fishnet stockings over his head and the tangerine in his mouth?

Sorry, got a bit confused there. I will now expose the culprit, and here it is. Brace yourself for this...



You may also see the felon peeking at you from your menu bar at the top of the screen: Peek-a-boo...


What do you mean, you don't know what it is? It's Google Web Accelerator **, that's what. Do you recall downloading it, with the promise that it would "Use the power of Google's global computer network to make web pages load faster..."?

Well, maybe it does did, and maybe it doesn't didn't. What it did do - and continues to do, for those people still unfortunate enough not to be in on this particular loop - is conflict with the YouTube service (owner, Google Incorporated, ironically enough). Put plainly, Google Web Accelerator does for YouTube what substance abuse has done for Ozzy Osbourne.

The method best guaranteed to have YouTube back up and running at full capacity is to have Google Web Accelerator go cold turkey. Right click on the Web Accelerator icon and select the Stop command...


VoilĂ .

That is it. Stop the dang thing. Better still, disable it from loading when you start Windows, or just uninstall it.

You will now find that those tricky "won't play" YouTube videos will now play. How easy was that?

** For those people reading this who are now thinking, "Hang on a minute, that's a programme made by Google, they get everything right, surely?"

Apparently, not.


Your Mother Was A Hamster...
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