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Take back control of YouTube and STOP it downloading.

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IainB:
I was unimpressed when Google unilaterally made a mandatory change to YouTube so that the user could not control it and stop it downloading.
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(Copied below sans embedded hyperlinks/images.)
Add the ‘Stop Download’ Option Back to YouTube
Posted on Monday, July 22, 2013 by Kaushik | No comments

About a month ago, Google removed the ‘Stop Download’ option from YouTube that allowed users to instantly stop download and buffering of a video. This option was available in the context menu when a user right-clicked over the YouTube video player. You may have noticed it or you may have not, depending on whether you used that option. Many did, and it was sorely missed.

Google removed it in favor of the Pause button that is already present in the video player. When you pause a video, it buffers partially and then stops buffering until you play the video again. This is different from the ‘stop download’ option that used to stop video buffering instantly. With the pause button, video buffering will continue for some time after you have clicked the button. This is a problem for those users with slow internet connection, when more important downloads are in progress.

The workaround to the missing ‘stop download’ feature will be to close the page entirely to prevent the video player from sucking on valuable bandwidth. However, you may not want to close the page because you want to watch the video later.

Now a userscript has been created that beings back the removed feature.
How to Stop Downloading YouTube Video

Method 1 – Using a Bookmarklet. This is the easiest way because the bookmarklet works with all browsers. To use it, simply drag and drop the linked bookmarklet to your Bookmarks toolbar. To stop a YouTube video while watching, just click on the bookmarklet and your video will stop right there.

Method 2 – Using a Userscript. The userscript adds a Stop Video button on the YouTube interface. Unlike the original ‘stop download’ button on the right-click menu, the ‘Stop Video’ button appears next to the Subscribe button under the video player. Clicking on it stops the video from downloading.

stop-youtube-video

Firefox users, install the Greasemonkey add-on and then install the userscript.

Chrome users, install the TamperMonkey extension and then install the userscript. TamperMonkey improves Chrome's userscript compatibility allowing you to use Greasemonkey userscripts on Chrome.

Opera users, install ViolentMonkey extension and then the userscript. ViolentMonkey improves Greasemonkey scripts compatibility in the browser allowing users install scripts from UserScripts.org using the install button.

via Webtrickz

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So far as I have tested it, the script seems to work just fine in Firefox and Chromium.

vlastimil:
Well, I noticed that change too. It was not the only technical change related to streaming. Youtube now also automatically switches quality of the video depending you you screen size and connection speed. In my opinion, both these changes are good. Buffering and quality are technical details that are best kept hidden. The computer can make better choices than 99% of users.

Also, the scenario described in the article is a non issue. If the user has a more important task, why did he open the youtube page and started the video? Plus there is the watch later button...

Tinman57:
I was unimpressed when Google unilaterally made a mandatory change to YouTube so that the user could not control it and stop it downloading.
-IainB (July 22, 2013, 06:16 AM)
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  DUDE!  I was just about to go to a help site to find out what was going on with this.  Thanks for the post.....

IainB:
...The computer can make better choices than 99% of users....
-vlastimil (July 22, 2013, 03:22 PM)
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Well, that may be true, I don't know, but in this case it is not so much the computer that is making the choices, but Google's algorithms.
"Google knows what's best for you."
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Yeah, right.

Forgive my skepticism.    ;)

Edvard:
If you're using Chrome or Opera, try Youtube Options, and check out the "disable auto-play" options.
 :Thmbsup:

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