Tech Solutions Expert

YouTube Switches to 480p on Toggling Full Screen

This is what I usually do on YouTube when I’m on a slow connection:

1. Click play, then immediately pause the video
2. When the video is done loading, full screen and play it smoothly
3. Until recently, this has changed. Step 3 would be “Get pissed when the video is automatically bumped from 360p to 480p. The loaded 360p is gone. Now wait for the 480p version to load, all over again!“

Are you experiencing the same? If yes, this is something you can do:

1. Go to your account settings (Click on username on top right > Account)
2. Select Playback Setup (left sidebar)
3. Select “I have a slow connection. Never play higher-quality video.”

Works well for me. I can now watch 360p videos in full screen without any interruption. If you’d like to watch the video in higher quality, you can manually bump it up to 480p.