How to get YouTube videos to play in Safari on Mac

Tell me if this feels familiar: you open up Safari on your Mac and head to YouTube to watch some videos. But a problem arises when you can't seem to play anything, and you keep getting the same message when you try: "Your browser does not currently recognize any of the video formats available".

There are a couple of ways that you can tackle this problem. First, there might be an issue between YouTube and one of your extensions. If disabling an errant extension doesn't work, you might also need to clear website data, which you can do by following the guide below.

• How to manage website data in Safari in macOS High Sierra
• How to manage extensions in Safari
• How to remove an extension from Safari

How to manage extensions in Safari

If your YouTube problems stem from one of your extensions, you'll need to disable them all, then reactivate them one by one, refreshing YouTube with each activation to see which extension causes the problem.

1. Open Safari from your Dock or Applications folder.
2. Click Safari in the Menu bar.

3. Click Preferences...
4. Click Extensions.

5. Click the checkbox next to an extension so that it is unchecked in order to disable the extension.
6. Click the checkbox again if you want to turn the extension back on.

How to remove an extension from Safari

If you feel the need to uninstall the offending extension, here's how you go about it.

1. Open Safari from your Dock or Applications folder.
2. Click Safari in the Menu bar.

3. Click Preferences...
4. Click Extensions.

5. Click on the extension you want to remove.
6. Click Uninstall.

7. Click Uninstall.

Questions?

If you have any questions about getting YouTube videos to play in Safari after receiving the "Your browser does not currently recognize any of the video formats available" message, let us know in the comments.