May 4, 2026
Now buffering... your whole PC
Suspected YouTube bug spikes RAM over 7gbs users report lag and frozen tabs
YouTube tabs are allegedly turning PCs into space heaters and users are absolutely losing it
TLDR: Users say YouTube may have a bug in its video controls that makes browser tabs hog huge amounts of memory and freeze systems. Online, the reaction is a mix of panic, blame, and jokes, with many wondering whether Google or recent browser changes turned watching videos into a stress test.
YouTube users are in full "it’s not just me!" mode after reports that a single video tab can gobble up more than 7GB of memory, choke browsers, and in some cases make whole computers feel like they’re crawling through mud. The suspected villain? A weird little button area under the video — the Like, Share, and other controls — that may be stuck in a ridiculous hide-and-show loop so fast it sends browsers into a meltdown. In plain English: the page keeps changing its mind about whether the buttons fit, and your computer pays the price.
The community reaction is the real spectacle. On Reddit and browser forums, people are swapping horror stories like disaster survivors. One Firefox user said they kept a CPU monitor open "just for this purpose" because clicking some videos would send usage soaring to 230% before the tab had to be killed. Others are side-eyeing Google hard, with early suspicion landing on the company’s anti-ad-blocker crusade before reports from Brave and Edge users widened the blame. Then came the snark: one commenter joked that this sounds exactly like the kind of mess you’d get after Google bragged that 75% of new code is AI-generated. Another chimed in with a deadpan "bigquery studio will do this on a fresh page load," basically saying, welcome to the club. The vibe is equal parts rage, validation, and dark comedy: users are annoyed, developers are digging, and everyone online is making memes while their tabs quietly eat the machine alive.
Key Points
- •Users reported YouTube tabs freezing, stuttering, and in some cases consuming more than 7GB of RAM.
- •The reported issue affected multiple browsers, including Firefox, Brave, and Microsoft Edge.
- •The article says developers investigating via Mozilla’s Bugzilla suspect YouTube’s frontend interface logic is responsible.
- •The suspected trigger is the menu container below the video player repeatedly hiding and showing buttons based on available width.
- •The resulting rapid layout recalculations can create a layout thrashing or reflow loop that drives high CPU and memory usage, and no confirmed fix had been announced.