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Can't play facebook videos

  • 16 replies
  • 48 have this problem
  • 88 views
  • Last reply by Sudaloo

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Hi, I'm hoping someone can help me out, I've tried everything I can think of. I cannot play facebook (FB) videos, I get a black screen. All other videos like youtube etc play fine.

When FB tries to autoplay videos in my newsfeed I get the thumbnail as normal but the loading icon, the spinning circle is a really low res blocky one. The icon spins and then stops and the video doesn't play. If I click on a video to play it I just get a black screen. If I click on a video and change the www of the web address from www.facebook.com/... to m.facebook.com/... to force the site into Mobile version I can get videos to play.

I have tried; Removing all Add ons Resetting Firefox (FF) Reinstalling FF Creating a new FF profile Reinstalling Flash Installing an older version of Flash Reinstalling Java I've looked for anything I've got blocking videos and I can't find anything.

Next I tried in other browsers FB videos play fine in Chrome but I assume this is because it has it's own built in Flash player. FB videos do not play in IE either. Same symptoms as FF. I then disabled all my security and firewall etc. This did not resolver the issue.

I'm completely out of ideas now. Can anyone help?

Hi, I'm hoping someone can help me out, I've tried everything I can think of. I cannot play facebook (FB) videos, I get a black screen. All other videos like youtube etc play fine. When FB tries to autoplay videos in my newsfeed I get the thumbnail as normal but the loading icon, the spinning circle is a really low res blocky one. The icon spins and then stops and the video doesn't play. If I click on a video to play it I just get a black screen. If I click on a video and change the www of the web address from www.facebook.com/... to m.facebook.com/... to force the site into Mobile version I can get videos to play. I have tried; Removing all Add ons Resetting Firefox (FF) Reinstalling FF Creating a new FF profile Reinstalling Flash Installing an older version of Flash Reinstalling Java I've looked for anything I've got blocking videos and I can't find anything. Next I tried in other browsers FB videos play fine in Chrome but I assume this is because it has it's own built in Flash player. FB videos do not play in IE either. Same symptoms as FF. I then disabled all my security and firewall etc. This did not resolver the issue. I'm completely out of ideas now. Can anyone help?

Chosen solution

I've fixed it! This is what I did; I uninstalled Firefox. I uninstalled Flash Player I unistalled Flash Pluggin

This still left over 1,300 Firefox & flash files on my PC so I manually deleted the following files;

\Windows\system32\Macromed\Flash \Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash %appdata%\Adobe\Flash Player %appdata%\Macromedia\Flash Player C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Flash Player C:\Program Files (x86)\mozilla %appdata%\mozilla

Then did a clean install of Firefox Then clicked a video and a install flash plugin box appeared and I installed the flash plugin. The flash version was 14.0.0.179 (the one I'd been working with was 14.0.0.145).

It all works perfect now, to which I can only conclude that there was a corrupt file somewhere that was never being deleted on an uninstall. Either that or the Flash version 14.0.0.145 was buggy. Thanks for your time :)

Read this answer in context 👍 2

All Replies (16)

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Have you tried change settings in Flash? (Disable hardware acceleration)

[http://mzl.la/MJCpZW] http://mzl.la/MJCpZW

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Yeah I've tried that :(

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Have you in your computer RealPlayer? Firefox 13 had problem with playing videos. Videos had black screen . http://mzl.la/LA0mpi

Here's how to fix common problems with video and sound. I think you've already tried. http://mzl.la/LL9mLw

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Does the website offer an HTML5 media player if you disable the Shockwave Flash plugin? I assume that you get such a player if you switch to the mobile site.

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I don't have Real player installed

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I've not tried that Cor-el, I'll try that when I get home from work tonight.

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Cor-el, I disabled flash and I just get a 'you need to install flash warning.' and it doesn't play.

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Well here's an interesting thing I've found.

When I'm logged in to Facebook I can't view videos. So for example I can't play this public video https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=3809792413185&set=vb.1528716977&type=3&theater

But if I log out of Facebook, the same link works and plays correctly???

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I've cleared cookies and deleted cookies.sqlite and that didn't resolve it either

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Is that file still being send as a Flash file and not as n HTML5 file that uses the video element?

Do you see a text that the Flash player is disabled when you set the Shockwave Flash plugin to "Ask to Activate"?

You can try these steps in case of issues with web pages:

You can reload web page(s) and bypass the cache to refresh possibly outdated or corrupted files.

  • Hold down the Shift key and left-click the Reload button
  • Press "Ctrl + F5" or press "Ctrl + Shift + R" (Windows,Linux)
  • Press "Command + Shift + R" (Mac)

Clear the cache and cookies only from websites that cause problems.

"Clear the Cache":

  • Firefox/Tools > Options > Advanced > Network > Cached Web Content: "Clear Now"

"Remove Cookies" from sites causing problems:

  • Firefox/Tools > Options > Privacy > "Use custom settings for history" > Cookies: "Show Cookies"

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem.

  • Switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance
  • Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window

Modified by cor-el

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Chosen Solution

I've fixed it! This is what I did; I uninstalled Firefox. I uninstalled Flash Player I unistalled Flash Pluggin

This still left over 1,300 Firefox & flash files on my PC so I manually deleted the following files;

\Windows\system32\Macromed\Flash \Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash %appdata%\Adobe\Flash Player %appdata%\Macromedia\Flash Player C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Flash Player C:\Program Files (x86)\mozilla %appdata%\mozilla

Then did a clean install of Firefox Then clicked a video and a install flash plugin box appeared and I installed the flash plugin. The flash version was 14.0.0.179 (the one I'd been working with was 14.0.0.145).

It all works perfect now, to which I can only conclude that there was a corrupt file somewhere that was never being deleted on an uninstall. Either that or the Flash version 14.0.0.145 was buggy. Thanks for your time :)

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I had the same problem on Windows 7 with Firefox 32 and could fix it by deleting the folders

%AppData%\Roaming\Macromedia\Flash Player %AppData%\Local\Macromedia\Flash Player

Explanation: I realized that it had to do with my user configuration files by verifying with the Windows guest account that Firefox can play the video fine. Since also resetting my Firefox account didn't help, I suspected the Flash config to cause a problem.

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fkbreitl, how do you do this?

I've tried every other solution above and none are working on this extremely aggravating issue! TIA

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HI fkbreiti,

If you go into Windows Control panel > Programs & Features > Uninstall and then uninstall these programs

Firefox Flash Player Flash Pluggin

This deletes the programs but it doesn't delete all your personal settings which is where I think the issue is.

Now you have to open My Computer and copy and paste each of these folder locations in to the address path at the top and then delete the folders

path \Windows\system32\Macromed\Flash \Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed delete Flash

path

%appdata%\Adobe

delete Flash Player

path %appdata%\Macromedia delete Flash Player

path C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe delete Flash Player

path C:\Program Files (x86) delete mozilla

path %appdata% delete mozilla

path C:\Users\ {insert your user here} \AppData\Local delete mozilla

This removes all traces of firefox and flash.

now you should be able to reinstall firefox and flash without issue.

Modified by BigGr33n

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ljordan00, I just deleted the two folders and it worked. Does deleting these folders not help in your case?

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I have the same problem, but I only have Flash Player installed, not Real Player....do I have to have Real Player too? Do I need both?