How to Fix Real-Debrid Buffering Issues

I’ve noticed lately that some streams are buffering really badly.  Since I use Real-Debrid, I found it to be quite strange.  Usually Real-Debrid gives me fast and reliable streams.

Well, it turns out I’m not alone.  Many others are experiencing the same thing.

Luckily there is a fix you can try that many people are reporting works great!

Real-Debrid Slow Streaming and Buffering

First, I want to describe this problem to make sure you are having the same problem and not something different.

Using any add-on that is hooked up to your Real-Debrid account, when you start streaming (and throughout the video), Kodi occasionally pauses to buffer some video content.  It has a “Cache 0%” and maybe starts to climb a little, but eventually just starts playing again saying “Read rate to slow for continuous playback.”

The Real-Debrid CDN Setting Fix

Many are saying that this fixes their problem immediately.

• Login to your Real-Debrid account
• Click on “My Account”
• Toggle the CDN Server Selection setting
  • Many say that setting it to disabled fixes their problem, while some people find that setting it to Cloudflare helps.

What is CDN Server Selection?

CDN stands for Content Delivery Network.  Cloudflare is by far the biggest and best one.  In fact, this blog was served to your browser by a Cloudflare server near you which is one of the reasons it loaded so fast.  Read this if you’re interested in making your WordPress site load fast.

Anyway, CDNs aren’t just for serving website, but they are also used for serving online content of all kinds… like videos.

Real-Debrid uses Cloudflare to distribute their video files across their global network of CDN servers.  That way, no matter how far away the video is being hosted geographically, it will stream from the server closest to you, which makes it much faster.

Why Disable CDN in Real-Debrid?

Good question.  I don’t know exactly why, but I do know that Cloudflare sent an email recently talking about the adapting they are having to do because of Coronovirus (COVID-19).  Because so many companies across the world have shifted to having their employees work from home, the traffic patterns and peak traffic have changed drastically.

My guess is this change in peak traffic is giving Cloudflare a little trouble, making it hard for them to keep up with the bandwidth demand.

Overall, if you’re on Automatic or Cloudflare and you’re having buffering problems, try disabling it to see if that helps, otherwise I suggest leaving it on because long-term it’s going to improve your stream bandwidth.

CDN Setting Not Helping?

If this setting doesn’t do anything to fix your problem, I recommend you check out my comprehensive list of troubleshooting tips for Kodi streaming issues.