Joe Maring/Android Authority
TL;DR
- YouTube’s web player apparently has a rendering bug that sends browsers into an infinite loop of visual changes.
- Processor and RAM usage is increasing due to the constant page rendering loop, with users reporting memory consumption in the gigabytes.
- Users with the browser suffering from the bug are seeing excessive lag, stuttering and frame drops during video playback.
YouTube users are reporting issues with the platform’s web player, causing the site to cause unexplained browser lag and excessive memory usage. According to the post, stuttering, frame drops, and RAM consumption are affecting users of multiple browsers, including Firefox and Brave (1, 2) on Reddit.
Developers on Mozilla’s forums say that the “ytd-menu-renderer” tag, which contains the like, dislike, and share buttons, is causing the visual bug. It is a flexible menu that dynamically shows and hides buttons depending on the available screen width. The developers explain that “ytd-menu-renderer” works by automatically removing a button when it overflows the screen and placing the button back when the menu element is widened. The purpose of the code is to ensure that only buttons that fit comfortably on your screen are shown.
However, developer comments state that “hostElement.clientWidth” increases when “ytd-menu-renderer” automatically hides a button. This makes YouTube’s code think the menu area is wide enough to fit the button, so it adds the button back. Of course, since there really isn’t enough visible space, “ytd-menu-renderer” removes the buttons again. The menu container expands once again, and you’ll probably get the idea. It’s a never-ending cycle that forces your browser and PC to calculate, resize, and render YouTube’s flexible menu.
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This bug puts additional pressure on the user’s system resources. Users noticed that their browser’s RAM usage increased from a few hundred megabytes to several gigabytes after attempting to play a YouTube video. Others saw their CPU core usage skyrocket when using YouTube’s web player, as documented by another Reddit Post.
YouTube web player rendering bug is affecting users of multiple browsers including Brave, Firefox and Microsoft Edge. Mozilla is looking into the infinite loop issue as it relates to its Firefox browser, but it’s unclear when a fix might be available from YouTube.
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