It has been a while since I have written a YouTube ‘How To.” I think the last one I did was in November 2023! If you want to check that article out, here it is:
How To Switch Between YouTube Accounts
This time I wanted to go over something that I feel is important. What is that, you might be asking? We are talking about how you can adjust the Playback Settings on your YouTube account. That is right, you can adjust if the captions always show or not show and what the quality of the playback in a video is. There are a few more options that I will cover but this is something I think you all should learn. Before I start our lesson, make sure to check out these other articles I have written on the subject:
- How To Save YouTube Shorts
- How To Turn On/Off Captions On YouTube App
- How To Manage YouTube Channel Playlist
- Adjust YouTube Channels Upload Default
- How To Create A YouTube GIF
- How To Edit YouTube Channel Settings
Time to pull out those computers and get started.
How To Adjust Playback Settings – YouTube
I will be showing how to do this on my Windows 10 laptop using Google Chrome.
Step 1: Head over to YouTube.com and sign into your account.
Step 2: Once on, look to the top right and click on your Profile image. A menu will appear and you will want to find Settings. This option is near the bottom. Click it.
Step 3: On the Settings screen you will see a menu on the left. On the menu, find Playback and Performance. Click it.
Step 4: Here is the screen that will help you adjust the Playback settings.
Control your video viewing experience (Playback settings apply to this browser only)
On this screen, they give you some choices:
- Info Cards (Show in-video info cards): Allows creator info cards to appear on video. This doesn’t affect ads that may appear on videos
- Subtitles and Closed Captions: Always show Captions or Include auto-generated captions (when available)
- AV1 Settings: Auto (Recommended), Prefer Av1 for SD, or Always Prefer Av1
- Playback area: Shows your location here – Update or Clear (For some accounts it will offer this but not all)
- Browsing: Video previews (Video previews will play when you hover over thumbnails)
All you need to do here is select the ones you want and it will automatically update. The Playback area is telling them your location. You will need to look at it since it might not show on your screen.
That is how you can adjust some of these Settings. Done!
Now you know how this works it is time to share this knowledge with everyone.
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