Video uploads and appears in media manager but will not play

[TRW]

I just uploaded and tried to add my first product video trying to step up my game. The video uploaded wo issue, appears as if it is ready to play (you see the preview image in the media mgr at left of product)...but when you click play, all that happens is a greyed out screen. Am I doing something wrong? The video is in mp4 format and runs 8 seconds long. 

[Sara_H]

@TRW 

You're doing nothing wrong just missing a bit of patience.

It takes time for videos to fully settle in.  I had a similar experience with one of my video uploads yesterday but gave it patience and now plays as expected.

[MOM]

Exactly, Sara is right . Same for me early this morning. Took about twenty minutes to settle.

[Cat]

I'm not convinced it's a patience issue (even though my patience molecule is pretty darned small 😁) Seriously though, I've got videos that I uploaded months ago that are suddenly not working, or they're only working now and then. I think there might be some sort of a technical issue though I haven't been able to trace down any patterns - they just intermittently won't play. 

[MOM]

@Cat @No, it’s somehow a Zazzle issue because the videos run everywhere else immediately and without any problems. I was just saying that eventually they will work on Zazzle, most the times after a couple of minutes but twice now it took about twenty minutes. Maybe the server is reaching its temporary limit (maybe busy with some Cron tasks)? I’m just guessing here.

[Cat]

Yeah... it does seem like maybe the system is overloaded or something. But it is somewhat concerning because in the marketplace - at least in the web version - when people mouse over the image, it automatically starts to play the video if there is one... and if the video won't play, it just shows a blank box instead of the cover or image of the product. And I don't think customers will sit there for 20 minutes waiting for the video to play while they're browsing through a bunch of products, they'll just move onto the next one.

[MOM]

@CatI meant to say it might take initially twenty minutes (after your initial upload) to kick in. But once it works none of my videos have ever not played when I have checked them - if in search or in my store - it was all just fine in the end.

[DesertSky]

I'm having the exact same issue. Videos in mp4 format uploaded months ago work sometimes, sometimes they don't. I don't see any pattern either, it's just sporadic. It happens in the Media section of the store Home page as well. 

[Cat]

OK... so here's a product with a video that was uploaded months ago. It worked fine when I uploaded it, but today it won't play.

Rustic Pinecones and Pine Branches Elegant Wedding Program | Zazzle

Would some of you guys mind checking it out to see if it plays for you or not? 

 @MOM @DesertSky @Sara_H @TRW @tiffjamaica 

[Sara_H]

@Cat 

won't play in vivaldi logged in - went to a private browser (firefox - not logged in) and it says no video with supported format and MIME type found

edit to add - searched google and firefox says it could be cookies if this error appears. I cleared my cookies and

 (on firefox)

[MOM]

@Sara_H @Cat Interesting. I had checked on my iPhone just a few minutes ago. I’m currently on a boat and during day time I see squat on my laptop (to much sun on the water reflecting) but I will check your listing with all browsers I have installed on my laptop including Vivaldi tonight.

Hmm. Cookies. Interesting. I have to think about that. I didn’t realize cookies could be responsible. I’m all self trained and I have still lots to learn (obviously).

[Sara_H]

@MOM I rarely use a phone to view listings so my observations are 100% desktop based (the phone screen is too small for my eyes 🤣😂👓)

A lot of problems can be cured on desktop with clearing cookies (not always though)

And it's always useful to check multiple browsers and when you're not logged in too (for some reasons - results differ if you are and also which browser you use)

You'll learn lots as you go along!

[MOM]

@Cat It played for me. I noticed that you have the video on third place. I put mine first in order because then people who will browse through the listings will see something moving and I hope that will entice them to click on my product among all those other mockups. Maybe my thinking isn’t really beneficial for me as I have sold very little until now but that’s the reason I put the video as image number one.

I also noticed that last night my video was immediately ready. Maybe the Zazzle server had no Cron job (if???) running at that time. I don’t know that - I just think that could be the reason for the videos sometimes lagging. Cron jobs are being used for some regularly scheduled server tasks (like maybe indexing the market place with new products?). I really don’t know, I’m just guessing here.

[Cat]

@MOM I'm not sure what the best strategy is in terms of where to position the videos among the cover images. When videos first became a thing, the guidelines said that we should NOT make them the primary image for a product (at least that's what I remember) but maybe that's changed now that videos can play in the marketplace? Anyhow, I only do videos on products that I also do a static cover for - I actually thought you had to have a cover before you could add a video, but once again that might be old or incorrect info.

But if you have a collection cover (or like in this case are using a collection RealView as the collection cover,) it automatically puts the collection cover in the top spot - even though it defaults to showing the product cover. So while it looks like the video is in the 3rd place, I actually put it in the second place if that makes any sense! 

Anyhow, that's all I know. Basically, my placement wasn't done strategically, I was just following what I thought the guidelines were! 😁

[MOM]

 @Cat Oh no - an other thing on my plate to find out, lol. I certainly do not wanted to do something against the rules. I always do (nowadays) a mock-up first so I can than include it in the video (see https://www.zazzle.com/dandelion_seed_heads_on_teal_pastel_peel_and_stick_wallpaper-2560643627766790... as an example). Tonight it took some time again until the video worked - maybe ten minutes or so?

And since so many have already checked I won't test it anymore in my browsers.

And on we go, smile.

[tiffjamaica]

playing just fine today. i'm on desktop, chrome browser. 

[Marcia]

@Cat Works just fine for me. On Safari, on an iMac. Beautiful collection, btw!

[Cat]

@Marcia Thanks so much for your kind words. This was actually a customer request that I made into an entire collection. Pinecones never would have occurred to me, but obviously somebody wanted it! 😉

[Marcia]

@Cat I just love it when customer requests turn out well! I've had my share of getting burned but I've also had a few best sellers come out of these requests – things that never would have occurred to me to make!

[TRW]

plays fine for me running chrome

[Cat]

Thanks for checking everybody. It seems to be working fine for me too now - and I didn't do anything at all. I didn't even re-load the page! I have no idea what it means.

[TRW]

well, I am pretty sure I waited at least 20 mins trying to refresh and get it to play, and it never did, so I removed it. I am focusing on non video mockups for now and other long neglected tasks. I will try the videos again once these chores are done, I am really ADHD so need to stay on task! 
Hopefully it will eventually work!