Most playback problems come down to network, browser, or access level. Walk through these in order.
The video does not start
Q: I press play and nothing happens. What should I check first?
A: Open the browser developer tools and check the network tab for failed requests. The most common causes:
- Ad blocker or privacy extension blocking the HLS manifest. Try in a private window with no extensions.
- Corporate firewall or proxy blocking the CDN. Try on a different network.
- The video has not finished transcoding. Look at the dashboard; the status should be "ready". If it shows "processing" or "failed", playback will not start.
The video buffers constantly
Q: The video plays but stops to buffer every few seconds. Why?
A: The viewer's connection is too slow for the chosen quality. The player should automatically switch to a lower bitrate; if it does not, the connection may be intermittent rather than slow. Have the viewer test their speed at fast.com. If it is below ~3 Mbps, the player may struggle on the lowest rendition; reduce video resolution at upload time.
The video plays but has no sound
Q: Video is fine, audio is missing. Where do I look?
A: Three possibilities:
- The browser's auto-play with sound is blocked. Click into the player and unmute manually.
- The system volume or browser tab volume is at zero.
- The source upload had no audio track. Check the source file in another player.
The video plays out of sync
Q: The audio is ahead of (or behind) the video. What now?
A: Audio-video drift is almost always a problem with the source file. Re-export the source from your editor with the audio properly muxed and re-upload. If the source plays fine in other players but drifts in VideoPlayer.ai, send a sample to [email protected].
The captions are wrong
Q: The auto-captions have errors. Can I fix them?
A: Yes. Open the video in the dashboard, click Captions, edit line by line. See edit captions.
The video says "video not available"
Q: I see "video not available" instead of the player. Why?
A: The video is private or password-protected and the viewer is not authenticated, or the video has been deleted. Confirm the access level from your dashboard. If you deleted the video and want it back, you cannot recover it; re-upload from your local copy.