What If Video Keeps Freezing on PC/Phone/Camera?

It can be frustrating when your videos on your PC, phone, or camera freezes, and while occasionally occurrences are normal, you might want to delve deep if the problem persists.

This article serves as a beneficial guide discussing various underlying issues that could be causing frozen videos on your computer, mobile phone, or web camera.

Part 1. Why Does A Video Keep Freezing?

Videos might freeze for several reasons: an outdated graphic card, a lack of cooling systems, a hardware fault with the cooling system, and not enough RAM. Some of the causes for this are:

  • The video player pauses to buffer data into memory. Once the buffer has been filled, the playback continues and later possibly pauses again if the buffer runs empty. It will run empty again if the bitrate remains the same and if the connection speed has not increased.
  • A computer could be the reason for your lack of video freezing problems. It could be a hardware issue that could be at the heart of the problems you might be facing.
  • It could be that a faulty camera device could be a reason, or you don't have an updated driver for your camera.
  • If you have an Android phone, the problem could be with the outdated software or a video app.

Part 2. Fix Frozen Videos Due to Video Corruptionhot

Inevitably, no one likes to be interrupted while watching a video. Often, while streaming online or on a media player, the video files freeze and keeps on pausing in between. Situations such as this can be extremely unpleasant, which can also affect your viewing experience.

Solution 1. Properly ventilated system:

First things first, you need to ensure that overheating is not the reason behind the freezing. To prevent overheating, you can ensure that your device has proper and has adequate ventilation. We would also suggest installing a new cooling system as the heat generated by the system adversely affects its functionality.

Solution 2. Update graphic card drivers:

It could be that the media player on which you're running the video could be outdated, or you might be using an old set of drivers. Adequate video card drivers are important for the efficient functioning of your operating system. Sometimes, video files look for more up-to-date drivers, look up for the latest driver sets by following the below-mentioned steps.

Step 1. Go to the control panel and select device manager

Step 2. In this menu, select display adapters

Step 3. Right-click on the video card and choose update driver software

Step 4. After applying the necessary changes, restart your system

Solution 3. Change screen resolution:

It makes sense to check out if your video is set to an optimal resolution. You may have noticed that there are minimum specifications requirements for running a virtual game on your PC. For the game to work properly, you may need to change the screen resolution, and the same applies to video files. Set the video files at correct native resolutions so that your videos will run seamlessly.

Solution 4. Repair frozen video with Wondershare Repairit

A reliable option to repair frozen video problems is through the Wondershare Repairit Video Repair program. It is a software application that helps you repair corrupted video files. The software comprises a simple and user-friendly interface, and the results are remarkably efficient.

  • Repair damaged videos with all levels of corruption, such as video not playing, video frozen, video no sound, out-of-sync video or audio, playback errors, header corruption, flickering video, missing video codec, etc.

  • Repair videos of diverse formats, including MOV, MP4, M2TS, MKV, MTS, 3GP, AVI, FLV, MXF, KLV, INSV, M4V, WMV, MPEG, ASF, etc.

  • Repair damaged or corrupted videos caused by video compression, system crash, video format change, etc.

  • Repair critically damaged or corrupted videos available on SD cards, mobile phones, cameras, USB flash drives, etc.

  • Repairit has a quick and advanced scanning mode. You can use either depending upon the level of corruption the video file has undergone.

  • Compatible with Windows PC, Mac OS, and supports PC to mobile transferring/sharing.

The software repairs any other kind of video corruption in addition to just frozen videos. The following steps demonstrate how to repair videos that keep freezing.

Step 1: Add corrupted video

Click the "Add" button on the home screen and add damaged video files from your local drive or another storage device.

add the frozen videos

Step 2: Repair frozen video.

Select frozen video files and click the "Repair" button to process.

repair the frozen videos

Step 3: Preview and save repaired frozen video.

Click the "Repair" button to start the repairing process with selected multiple video files. With the selected video file repaired successfully, you can preview the repaired video before saving it.

Note: If the video is severely corrupted and doesn't meet repair expectations, try the "advanced repair" mode by adding sample videos to repair. A sample file is a valid file created with the same device and format as the corrupted video.

By doing this, Wondershare will perform a deeper repair process. After that, it will take a few seconds to save the repaired video. Congratulations, the process is completed, and your video files are repaired.

preview frozen videos

Part 3. Fix "Videos Keep Freezing" Issue on PC/Camera/Phone

If you come across video freezing issues while watching Youtube videos, see if the following can help.

Solution 1. Check your internet connection

A fast internet connection is important if you want your Youtube videos to run without freezing. Most of the videos are FHD and QHD, which require fast data to load and stream. For Wi-Fi users, make sure you have maximum signals.

Solution 2. Change quality

If you have already had a slow internet connection and cannot upgrade it, you need to turn down the resolution. Just like on the desktop version, you can choose the video quality on the YouTube app too. Open a video, tap the Gear icon, and select the desired resolution.

You can choose from Auto, 144p, 240p, 360p, 480p, 720p HD, 1080p FHD and more. It is all based on the original resolution of the video.

Solution 3. Sign out

Sometimes your account can get corrupted, and you may need to fix it. To do so, remove your Google account and then add it again. Reboot your phone and wait for a few seconds. This will fix the freezing problem on the YouTube app on Android and iOS.

Part 4. How to Fix Your Webcam

Sometimes on video calls, you might be confronted with a situation where you may be unable to stream videos on video calls. One of the methods to fix this issue is to use the Registry Editor.

Here's the standard warning: The Registry Editor is a powerful tool, and misusing it can render your system unstable or even inoperable.

First, open the registry editor by opening the Start menu, typing "Regedit," and pressing Enter.

What to do if video freezes but audio plays, the clip plays without sound, or audio is not synced to video? The answer is – install the right Video Player app!

Part 5. How to Avoid Video Freezing Everywhere

To make sure your video doesn't freeze, be it on your computer, mobile phone, on a web camera, make sure you do the following as a general guideline.

Upgrade your graphics drivers,

  • Check your cooling system and see if there's any problem concerning temperature. If the CPU cooler does not work properly, that may affect video performance.
  • Check your plug-ins if you watch videos online (Flash player)
  • Run a clean install for OS if it's prolonged.
  • Install some RAM if you have 2 GB or less RAM on your PC.
  • It's less probable, but if your computer is too old (older than Pentium Dual Core), then it's likely to have such issues. Could you upgrade it?
  • Don't forget to blame the Player. Try another one to make sure.

If the above-mentioned steps do not work for you, try using the Windows Registry tool "regedit" and follow the steps below:

Step 1: Open "regedit" through the windows search bar.

open regedit

Step 2: Then, navigate to the following key in the left sidebar:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Media Foundation\Platform

navigate the key

Step 3. Right-click the "Platform" key in the left sidebar and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.

right click for video repair

Step 4. Name the value "EnableFrameServerMode". Double-click it and set the value to "0".

set the value

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows Media Foundation\Platform
Add the same setting here, right-clicking the "Platform" key and adding a DWORD value with the name "EnableFrameServerMode" and the value "0".

Finally, having your videos frozen on your PC, phone or camera can be a frustrating and mind-boggling experience. However, most of the time, these issues can be addressed and solved by following the guidelines as elaborated in this guide.