This is a years long known issue.
Saddly, when you call Verizon, they pretend like you are the first person to ever call about it.
On any of my 5 STB, when watching youtube through the built in widget, usually after the 3rd or 4th video, youtube videos will completely freeze. This last for anywhere from 3 to 10 minutes.
At this Point No buttons on the FiOS remote will work. The system completely freezes up.
The ONLY options are to wait the 3 to 10 minutes. Or, to unplug the STB and wait the 3 to 5 minutes it takes to reboot itself! Not much of a choice!
Doing either, is a temporary fix. As this problem persists endlessly every 3 to 5 videos.
The longest I've gone without a freeze up in the past two + years is about 7 very short videos. Most freeze ups last 5 to 7 minutes sometimes a few as 3, sometimes 10+.
I have had the boxes replaced twice, the complete ONT box outside the house once, as well as the cabling to each tv, the router, A booster added and removed, Splitters added and removed etc. We have also had, Three Home visits from Verizon Technicians for this issue in the past two years. and countless phone calls.
All pretend its something new, Several, claim they didnt know Youtube was even built in . One said I needed a booster, the other removed it. One said I needed a splitter? the other removed it They are all just guessing.
We have been with FiOS internet since it was first introduced in South Jersy in 2007 and The TV service a Few months later. In that time we have constantly upgraded and changed packages and equipment. Silver Big Motorola boxes, Black Motorola One, Silver ring router, red ring router etc
Currently, I am on the Fastest Gigabit service with the quantum gateway router and the quantum TV new style boxes
Uuntil Just recently, the internet portion of FiOS has been Rock solid! I can count on one hand the amount of times the internet went out in ten years and each was for a minute or two. Recently, Iin the past 3 to 5 months, Somethings changed. The internet has gone out at least 6 times, one of which lasted several hours and the others 15 mins to an hour+.
Somethings deffinitely going on at big red.
The TV portion has had numerous issues since weve had it, especially with DVR, On Demand or Streaming content. But overall, the picture quality was night and day compared to what Comcast offered.
We left Comcast a decade ago, because the internet went out multiple times daily.
Since then FiOS (the TV side) has remained stagnat at best, while Comcast has improved and surpassed it in many ways. Time for a Change???
The only known fix for youtube freezing on FiOS STB's is to NOT use it!
Get a chromecast or Chromecast enabled TV and cast from a phone , tablet etc. When you do, the issue will never appear again.
Verizon is completely aware of this , but wont fix the issue which is on their end and the way they have implemented Youtube into their OS.
Even TVS with youtube built in do not have this issue, so it is 100% a Verizon FiOS issue!