How can I force YouTube to not use HTML5 player because it is not working on the latest version of Firefox and now I can't see any video?

Question

This is really annoying. Yesterday everything was working fine, now I wake up only to realize that all the videos on YouTube are using the HTML5 player.

Here is what I see when I try to play a video on YouTube: enter image description here

I tried what was suggested by the accepted answer in this question, but it didn't work, even after restarting Firefox.

Also I would like to note that YouTube works fine in Chrome (HTML5 player) and Internet Explorer (flash player).

Yes, shockwave flash 17.0.0.134 addon and the flash player from https://get2.adobe.com/flashplayer/ — jsguy, Apr 02 '15 at 11:45
Yes, here are all the plugins. http://s12.postimg.org/3o2do8ni4/Untitled.jpg — jsguy, Apr 02 '15 at 11:51
The greatest thing about this is that it doesn't even work in google chrome. — Tomáš Zato, Jun 30 '15 at 13:52

score 12 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 02 '15 at 15:47

12

Check if the latest version of Flash is properly installed on your browser. If not, download the latest version and install it.

Then, install the YouTube Flash Player extension:

This add-on forces YouTube to play videos using Flash Player instead of the HTML5 player.

answered Apr 02 '15 at 15:47

galacticninja

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this worked like a charm, thank you. Still kind of makes me wonder what went wrong with this HTML5 player,but I will accept your answer. – jsguy Apr 02 '15 at 15:52
@jsguy Was the HTML5 player working in Firefox (for YouTube or other sites) before you encountered this issue? – galacticninja Apr 02 '15 at 16:45
I am not sure, I never made a check since I was thinking that I was using flash all the time. The first time I heard the term "HTML5 player" was today. – jsguy Apr 02 '15 at 17:25
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This worked for me! When i installed firefox i nearly threw the laptop out of the window when youtube didn't work. So i just reinstalled latest version. WORKING :D – May 30 '16 at 11:48

MA-Maddin · Answer 2 · 2016-05-30T11:59:30.960

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You can force YouTube to play a video with flash player by adding &nohtml5=1 or &nohtml5=True to the URL.

Found this after I had uploaded a video to YouTube and there was "&nohtml5=False" automatically added by any reason.

edited May 30 '16 at 11:59

answered Apr 12 '16 at 18:08

MA-Maddin

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In May 2016, this suggestions does not work. – Criggie May 26 '16 at 10:06
Thanks for note. If **`True`** does not work use **`1`** instead. Have updated my answer. You may take back "-1" ;) – MA-Maddin May 30 '16 at 11:47
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I can say that **&nohtml5=1** works, but true does not. This is an answer and should be treaded like it @Criggie ... +1 from me – May 30 '16 at 19:18
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I can confirm that **&nohtml5=1** still works. +1, saved me a bit of frustration. – insaner Jan 23 '17 at 05:58
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This is may 2017 and the nohtml5=1 no longer works neither does nohtml5=true work – Mike -- No longer here May 18 '17 at 22:48
Seems like that youtube has dropped their flash player after all. Since also Google has disabled flash from Chrome 56 on by default. – MA-Maddin May 19 '17 at 08:23
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I can confirm: nohtml5=1 does not work anymore. – Xan-Kun Clark-Davis May 23 '17 at 11:47

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 02 '15 at 21:45

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Firefox has release MSE support for HTML5 playback. This uses the system hardware decoders unless the driver is blacklisted. Setting media.windows-media-foundation.use-dxva=false in about:config will use software decoding.

answered Apr 02 '15 at 21:45

Anthony Jones

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Going to about:preferences#advanced on the General tab and unchecking "use hardware acceleration when available" should do the same thing. It may require a restart. If that does not work then try Firefox Nightly from https://nightly.mozilla.org/ to check if it is https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1136484 – Anthony Jones Apr 02 '15 at 23:20

How can I force YouTube to not use HTML5 player because it is not working on the latest version of Firefox and now I can't see any video?

3 Answers3