Funimation Keeps Buffering? Here’s How To Speed It Up

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Couple stuck with Funimation issue on TV

Does Funimation keep buffering like you’re connected to a ’90s network?

That sucks! A big part of being able to relax while streaming your favorite shows is continuous playback and an immersive experience.

I can only imagine how frustrating it must be to be constantly interrupted by buffering, as it can quickly turn an intense action scene into a lame couple of minutes.

But don’t worry, you came to the right place for answers. Below, you’ll find a list including many simple ways to solve this problem for good.

The 5 most efficient ways to stop Funimation from buffering and speed things up are:

  1. Relaunch Funimation
  2. Check Funimation’s servers
  3. Check your internet connection
  4. Clear your cache & cookies
  5. Update Funimation

Read on to enjoy streaming again!

#1 Relaunch Funimation

I’d like to start off by trying something really simple but very effective – relaunching Funimation. And if you’re wondering why this works so well, here’s the answer.

Whenever we use our favorite devices/apps, there are thousands of processes that run in the background at the same time. In most cases, this happens successfully, and we don’t even notice it. But occasionally, one or more of these can crash either due to a bug, a corrupted file, or a glitch.

Any of these situations could explain why Funimation keeps buffering, and why you might be having other issues with the platform.

By closing and relaunching the platform, you’re setting the perfect conditions to allow it to reload vital resources from zero, and patch up anything that might currently be giving you trouble.

Do not hesitate to try this on other devices or apps, as this is what I like to call a universal fix that can solve about 95% of technical difficulties out there.

#2 Check Funimation’s Servers

Next, let’s take a closer look at Funimation’s servers.

If you’re well-versed in Tech terminology, feel free to move on to the solution. But if you’re a newcomer and want to learn as much as possible, please read on to get a quick explanation.

Long story short, servers are tech equipment responsible for backing up data in the cloud and managing user traffic, so millions of subscribers can enjoy their favorite anime at the same time. These devices are usually located in companies’ headquarters and there are engineers who specialize in maintaining and improving them often.

Modern servers are light years ahead of their predecessors in terms of processing capacity, storage availability, and resistance to threats, but there are still some of them out there that can affect them.

Things like black-hat hackers, overheating, short circuits, and coding bugs can cause a world of trouble and might explain why Funimation keeps buffering, or why the platform keeps crashing on systems like Roku.

Solution: More than a way to fix this, you need a clear perspective of what’s going on. To better understand the situation, you’ll have to check the live status of Funimation’s servers.

Here’s how to do it in a couple of clicks:

  1. Open the search engine and type “Is Funimation Down?”, then hit Enter
How to Google search if Funimation is down
  1. Locate “Downdetector” on the search results, and click on it (or click on this link: https://downdetector.com/status/funimation/)
How to check Funimation server status on Downdetector
Make sure you’re entering the official Downdetector website
  1. Once you’ve entered the webpage, you’ll see a bunch of data, and a large graph
Funimation Downdetector graph
Tall spikes mean trouble, whereas short, wide ones, are usually isolated issues

Ideally, you want to see a clear graph. But if you spot several spikes over a long period, it means that the platform is currently having problems. In scenarios like these, there’s not much you can do on your end. Be patient and wait for Funimation’s IT department to handle things. In most cases, everything goes back to normal within a couple of hours.

If you’re like me and need to double-check everything, you can also go to the service’s Twitter account and see if they have posted anything regarding their server status. They usually share live updates to notify users of their progress.

Funimation server status updates on Twitter
Visiting the platform’s Twitter account is a great way to double-check the status of their servers

#3 Check Your Internet Connection

Now, let’s rule out your internet connection as the culprit.

This might be hard to believe, but sometimes diagnosing a bad network is trickier than you think. Occasionally, even when your connection is weak or failing, you might still be able to text or do some Google searching while also noticing that Funimation keeps buffering.

This is mainly due to the network requirements of each activity, as online streaming typically requires more horsepower.

Most streaming services recommend a network speed of 5 Mbps for Full HD (1080p), and 25 Mbps for 4K (2160p). Now, as opposed to other shows and movies, anime is still drawn and broadcasted at HD resolution (720p) and upscaled to Full HD when needed. This means that 5 Mbps should be more than enough to prevent buffering, but your home situation could complicate the equation.

Solution: A network’s bandwidth is typically divided equally between the number of devices connected to it. So, if there are 4 people in your home (including you), and everyone is using a different device, a 10 Mbps internet plan would be giving every person 2.5 Mbps to work with, which might not be enough.

I recommend hiring a service that allows everyone within a home to have at least 15 Mbps to go about their business. Take that number and multiply it by the number of people living with you. That should give you an estimate of your network requirements.

Assuming that speed is not the problem, try calling your provider and ask if everything’s ok on their end. If the answer is yes, then resetting your modem would be the next logical step.

Here are a couple of simple steps to do it:

  1. Without unplugging the modem, turn it around so that you can see the back of the unit
  1. Locate the reset button (more often than not, it’s not a button, but a small hole with a “Reset” label on it)
  1. Use a paper clip or a thin toothpick to press down on the actual button inside this hole. Hold it down until all the lights at the front of the unit turn on, and then turn off
  1. For a brief moment, all lights on the modem will be off, that’s your cue to stop holding down the reset button
  1. Wait a couple of minutes and try streaming something. If your connection was to blame, Funimation should no longer keep buffering

#4 Clear Your Cache & Cookies

Cache & cookies can often be problematic, so let’s make sure yours are not acting up.

If you’re not familiar with these, I’m more than glad to give you a quick walkthrough, starting with the cache.

In a nutshell, this is where your favorite apps store user preferences, login credentials, audio, video, and more. By keeping this data in a folder on your devices, Funimation can load much quicker when launched, which is a great advantage if, like me, you’re a little impatient.

As for cookies, they’re tools that you can find on websites and are mostly exclusive to PCs (although this is slowly changing, and every day they become more and more common on smartphones as well). Cookies help make your browsing simpler and increase the accuracy of targeted ads.

In most cases, leaving them both alone is for the best. But occasionally, a corrupted file can be stored within them by accident, causing Funimation to keep buffering.

In that scenario, you’ll want to clear them.

Solution: Here’s how to go about it on Android systems and Google Chrome.

Android:

  1. On your device, go to “Settings”
  1. Select “Apps”
  1. From the new menu, select “Apps” again
  1. Find Funimation and select it
  1. Find “Storage” on the menu
  1. Select “Clear Cache” from the available options 

Google Chrome:

  1. Open the browser
  1. Click the Menu button (the three dots in the upper right corner of the screen). Select “More Tools” > Choose “Clear browsing data”
How to clear cookies on Google Chrome
  1. Select “All time” when prompted with a window asking the time range you want to delete data for. 
How to clear cookies, cache & data on Google Chrome
If you’ve never done this before, the process might take a while
  1. Make sure “Cookies and other site data” is ticked. 

#5 Update Funimation

Lastly, let’s make sure you have the latest version of the app installed.

I know that keeping an eye on this is not very exciting, but trust me, it’s essential to prevent many technical difficulties in the future.

Now, more often than not, you don’t need to be too vigilant, as automatic updating takes care of everything. But now and then, a bug, a corrupted file, or a glitch can get in the way and keep an outdated version of the platform installed on your devices.

When this happens, the best course of action is to manually download the latest update yourself.

Solution: Here’s how to do it in a couple of simple steps:

For iOS:

  1. Open “App Store”
  1. Locate your profile button in the upper right corner of the screen, and tap on it
  1. Find the “Update All” button. This should update Funimation if there’s a newer version available
How to update all apps on iOS
This would be a good time to update any apps you have pending

For Android:

  1. Go to Play Store and click on your profile, located in the upper-right corner of your screen
  1. Select “Manage apps & device”
  1. If you just want to update Funimation, select it and update it individually
  1. If you want to update all pending apps, select “Update All”
  1. Wait for the updating process to be completed

Conclusion

All done!

I know thinking of troubleshooting when you should be relaxing can be very frustrating. Especially if you don’t get much leisure time.

But I hope this piece has helped you see that, oftentimes, stopping Funimation from buffering constantly is very easy. In 99% of cases, checking the status of your internet connection, and making sure that you have the latest update installed, should do the job.

Thank you for sticking with me all the way to the end. If this article piqued your interest and proved useful, you’ll be happy to know that there’s new content to learn from every week. While we work on our latest release, please check out our other resources below to become a Tech Detective yourself!

Have a wonderful week.