Is YouTube having a sudden memory increase, slowness, or lag spikes on Chrome?
I’ve personally faced this issue myself and managed to fix it after some trial and error.
Initially, YouTube was fast, thumbnails loaded quickly, and videos played smoothly.
However, when I was browsing YouTube on Chrome a few days later, the website started loading very slowly.
For example, when I was scrolling through the subscriptions tab, the thumbnails were not generating.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to fix the YouTube slow, lag spikes, choppy, delays, or memory increase issues on Google Chrome.
Why is YouTube having sudden memory and lag spikes on Chrome?
YouTube is having sudden memory and lag spikes on Chrome most likely because of one or more Chrome extensions.
Chrome extensions can cause YouTube to load slowly because they are either outdated, corrupted, or not compatible with the website.
For example, the AdBlock extension was the culprit for the lag spikes for me.
After I disabled the extension, YouTube started loading quickly again.
Other than extensions, having too many tabs and applications open can cause YouTube to lag.
How to Fix YouTube Slow on Chrome
To fix YouTube slow on Chrome, you need to disable your ad-block and other unwanted extensions.
You can also try closing unused tabs/apps and deleting temporary files in %temp%.
Fix 1: Disable your ad-block extensions
- On Chrome, click on the three dots on the extreme right of the URL field.
- Select “Extensions” followed by “Manage Extensions”.
- Disable your adblock extensions (e.g. AdBlock, uBlock Origin).
Fix 2: Disable unwanted Chrome extensions
- On Chrome, click on the three dots on the extreme right of the URL field.
- Select “Extensions” followed by “Manage Extensions”.
- Disable unwanted, outdated, and suspicious extensions.
Fix 3: Close other tabs and apps to free memory
- If you’re running other tabs on Chrome, close them to free memory.
- Press CTRL + ALT + DEL, select “Task Manager” and end the task for unused applications.
Fix 4: Delete the files in %temp%
- Search for %temp% using Windows Search.
- Press CTRL + A to highlight all files.
- Right-click and click on the trash icon to delete everything.