Find out what to do if you’re not having a good user experience using X (Twitter) inside Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, or other web browser on your Mac or Windows PC.
The problems you may face
I’m a heavy Twitter user and spend more than an hour every day browsing my For You feed on a computer. I have noticed the following problems firsthand:
- Sometimes, posts with video refuse to play and keep showing the processing icon.
- Video playback starts but then stops midway or lags even on a super-fast internet connection.
- Some on-page buttons like ‘Show more replies’ refuse to be clicked.
- New tweets do not load on the timeline.
- New replies I make are not sent successfully.
- Tweets with photos or videos refuse to be posted through the web browser but work when I post them from the X app on my phone.
If you’re facing similar issues scrolling Twitter in a computer browser, here are all the fixes.
1. Be aware of the new Twitter limits
From time to time (read as Elon’s mood for that day), Twitter may put some intentional limits in place, which can leave you with a blank timeline if you have been browsing it for hours and have exhausted the daily limit of about 600 posts per day. People with X Premium have a significantly higher limit and may not be affected by this.
If you exceed this number, you may see an error. Try again after a while, or buy X Premium (at a significant discount).
To address extreme levels of data scraping & system manipulation, we’ve applied the following temporary limits:
– Verified accounts are limited to reading 6000 posts/day
– Unverified accounts to 600 posts/day
– New unverified accounts to 300/day— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 1, 2023
2. Refresh the Twitter Home page
You can browse Twitter for a long time and rely on the on-page “Show N posts” button to see the new tweets. But after a while, if it starts to lag, use the refresh button for that browser tab, and then it should work smoothly.
3. Close extra browser tabs and windows
If you have a ton of unnecessary tabs or browser windows open, close them to improve your Twitter scrolling experience.
When you cannot seem to click the like, bookmark, share, or some other button on Twitter in a web browser, slightly swipe up or down on that page and then try clicking the same button.
5. Restart your Mac or PC
Your browser may not function properly because of glitches or build-up of temporary system files. Simply restart your computer, and everything should start feeling snappy again, including Twitter inside Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge, etc.
6. Twitter may be down
Even when everything is in order on your end, things may go south because of problems on Twitter’s side. The best way to know about this is to search “Is Twitter down in [your city/country name].” Sites like Downdetector will give a clear picture.
7. Try your hand at Twitter data-saver mode
Twitter has a built-in data-saving mode for folks on a limited cellular or Wi-Fi plan.
If Twitter scrolling in a web browser lags significantly, try turning on its data saver mode which will not load all images and videos and thus may show plain text posts faster.
Alternatively, if you don’t see images and video previews on your Twitter timeline, and are unhappy with this behavior, turn off the data-saving mode.
To do that, click More > Settings and Support > Settings and privacy > Accessibility, display and languages > Data Usage. From here, check or uncheck the Data saver box and also decide whether you want to Autoplay videos & GIFs or turn it off.
8. Turn off the computer’s Lower Power Mode and browser’s energy saver mode
If your Windows notebook or MacBook is in Low Power Mode, head over to its battery settings and deactivate it. Secondly, browsers like Chrome have in-built power-saving modes. Go to its preferences and turn it off.
After this, your Twitter scrolling and video playback experience may be smoother and lag-free.
9. Update your web browser
Most web browsers update automatically in the background. But if you’ve not restarted your computer in a long time, the new update may not have been installed. Head to our tutorial on this topic and update Safari, Chrome, or Firefox.
10. Toggle Hardware Acceleration off and on
Hardware Acceleration is an important feature inside Chrome and other browsers, which is switched on by default. If you turn it off, you may not be able to use sites like Canva in that browser or enjoy 4K playback and such.
However, if you constantly feel that you have a poorer experience with Twitter and other sites in that particular browser, go to its settings, turn off Hardware Acceleration, and see how it works out for you. Alternatively, if Hardware Acceleration is already on, turn it off and note any improvement or decline in performance.
To access Hardware Acceleration in Google Chrome, open the browser and click the three dots icon from the top right, followed by Settings > System.
11. Clear browser history, cache, and retry
Not just Twitter, but whenever you start facing loading, scrolling, or similar issues with specific websites inside a browser, and the above troubleshooting tips bring no improvement, go ahead and clear the entire browser history and cached data.
Sure, it will log you out of all websites, but doing this periodically can keep your browsing lag-free.
Related: How to fix websites not loading in Safari
12. Switch to Chrome from Safari
I use two Twitter accounts – one for tech tweets, which I use inside Google Chrome, and another private account for going through political news events, which I use inside Safari on the same Mac.
I almost never face issues while using Twitter in Chrome. But video playback is poor inside Safari, the buttons may not be clickable, and the For You timeline may not refresh.
When an interesting Twitter video does not play in Safari, I directly open that Safari page in Google Chrome, and the video starts playing in a second!
If you also use Twitter in Safari on your computer and are fed up with the constant inconveniences, try switching to Chrome. You may have a better experience.
Other Twitter tips for you: