HTML forms the base of every website you visit on the internet. It’s a markup language that determines the structure of a page and how content is presented and delivered to you. That said, it isn’t always perfect and can sometimes throw errors that are confusing to the end user.

In this article, we’re talking about the “HTML5 error loading please refresh” issue, its causes and what you can do to fix the problem.

---

What causes this error?

There are a number of reasons why you might run into this error on a webpage. Some of the most common reasons include:

• Backend issues
• Browser incompatibility
• Issues with the embedded video. 

Also read: Omegle error connecting to the server: 7 Fixes

---

How to fix this?

Here are five fixes you can try out. 

Download the required codecs

Although rare, the error can indicate that you don’t have the required codecs installed on your PC. While fixing this should be as simple as updating your browser to the latest version, you can always contact the website developer to get the list of required codecs and install them on your own. 

---

Clear your browser’s data

Corrupt files in your cache or otherwise can cause this error as well. Clear them out to see if you can get the browser to work.

Step 1: Type in chrome://settings/clearBrowserData in your browser’s address bar and hit Enter.

Step 2: Select the cache and cookies options and make sure the Time range is set to All time. Click on the Clear now button to clear out all the data. 

Restart the browser after clearing all data and try again. 

---

Check for updates

If the issue is in the browser itself, chances are developers might release an update to fix the problem. Regardless, you should always make sure you’ve got the latest version of the browser installed to avoid running into problems that could otherwise be avoided. 

Head over to chrome://settings/help and make sure you’re on the latest update. If you’re not, update immediately and try again. 

Restart the browser after the update and it should work fine. 

---

Toggle Hardware acceleration

Hardware acceleration helps speed up GPU-intensive tasks like playing games or videos in your browser. Try enabling it to see if your browser works fine again.

Step 1: Click on the three-dots icon on the top-right and click on Settings from the options below.

Step 2: Search for Hardware acceleration. You’ll find the setting under System. Just toggle the switch on and then use the Relaunch button to restart Chrome. 

Alternatively, disabling hardware acceleration forces the browser to use software to play any videos. While this may give you bad performance, it should get the video playing. 

---

Use incognito mode

Try using incognito mode to see if you can access any websites and play videos or not. If you can, chances are the error isn’t in your browser but in the website itself. Contact the webmaster or developer to get specific instructions on how to fix the issue as each website tackles embedded videos differently. 

Also read:  How to fix Chrome-error://chromewebdata/?