Why Your Video Doesn’t Play on Mobile: Causes and Solutions

3 min readFeb 13, 2025

Videos that play smoothly on desktops may not always work on mobile devices. If you’re facing issues with a video not loading on mobile while it works fine on a laptop, there are multiple potential causes. In this article, we’ll explore the key reasons behind this issue and effective solutions to ensure seamless video playback across devices.

1️⃣ Common Reasons Why Videos Don’t Load on Mobile

1. Unsupported Video Codec

Mobile browsers (especially iOS Safari and older Android versions) have stricter codec requirements. If your video is encoded in an unsupported format, it might fail to load entirely.

✅ Best Practice:

Convert your video to the H.264 codec (MP4 format) for maximum compatibility. You can use FFmpeg for this:

ffmpeg -i hero_ambience.mp4 -vcodec libx264 -acodec aac hero_ambience_converted.mp4

This command ensures that the video is encoded in H.264 for video and AAC for audio, making it playable on most modern devices.

2. Autoplay Restrictions on Mobile

Many mobile browsers block autoplay videos unless they meet specific conditions:

• The video must be muted.

• It must include the playsInline attribute.

✅ Solution:

Ensure your video tag follows this format:

<video 
  autoPlay 
  muted 
  loop 
  playsInline 
  className="w-full h-screen object-cover"
>
  <source src="/your_video.mp4" type="video/mp4" />
</video>

3. Mobile Browsers Blocking Autoplay Interactions

Some browsers, even when autoplay is enabled, require a user interaction (click/tap) before allowing the video to play.

✅ Solution: Use JavaScript to detect autoplay failure and require user interaction:

import { useEffect, useRef } from "react";

const Hero = () => {
  const videoRef = useRef<HTMLVideoElement | null>(null);

  useEffect(() => {
    const video = videoRef.current;

    if (video) {
      video.play().catch(() => {
        console.log("Autoplay blocked, waiting for user interaction");

        const enablePlayback = () => {
          video.play();
          document.removeEventListener("click", enablePlayback);
          document.removeEventListener("touchstart", enablePlayback);
        };

        document.addEventListener("click", enablePlayback);
        document.addEventListener("touchstart", enablePlayback);
      });
    }
  }, []);

  return (
    <video ref={videoRef} autoPlay muted loop playsInline className="w-full h-screen object-cover">
      <source src="/your_video.mp4" type="video/mp4" />
    </video>
  );
};

export default Hero;

With this script, if autoplay is blocked, the video will start playing as soon as the user clicks or touches the screen.

4. Incorrect File Path or CORS Issues

If the video isn’t appearing, the file might not be loading correctly due to incorrect paths or Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) restrictions.

✅ Solution:

Ensure the video file is in the public directory in Next.js:

<source src="/your_video.mp4" type="video/mp4" />

❌ Avoid using public/hero_ambience.mp4, as Next.js already serves it from /.

2. Test if the file is accessible by opening the video directly in a mobile browser:

• Visit https://yourwebsite.com/your_video.mp4

• If it doesn’t load, the issue is in your file structure or server settings.

3. Check the browser console for CORS errors. If found, enable CORS headers on your server:

add_header Access-Control-Allow-Origin *;

5. Video Being Lazy-Loaded or Hidden

Some CSS frameworks apply lazy-loading techniques that delay video loading.

✅ Solution: Add preload=”auto” to force video preloading:

<video autoPlay muted loop playsInline preload="auto" className="w-full h-screen object-cover">
  <source src="/your_video.mp4" type="video/mp4" />
</video>

Also, check if CSS styles (like display: none or visibility: hidden) are preventing the video from showing.