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JWPlayer not playing in Facebook's browser on the iPhone

Hi,

I'm using JW Player 6.8.4616 (Ads edition). I run a website with many videos. The JW player works fine and videos can be played in all browsers, except when it comes to Facebook's own browser on the iPhone Facebook app.

We routinely share posts on our fan page so that users can click the post and be brought to the website to play the video. Users have been complaining that when they try to play the video from within the iPhone Facebook app that nothing happens. The video player loads and shows a big play button but clicking it does NOTHING.

If you visit this same page from safari or chrome on an iPhone browser outside of the Facebook app, the video works perfectly.

Our fan page is https://www.facebook.com/killsometime

If you click on a video share link you will be brought to a video page similar to: http://www.killsometime.com/videos/14264/Guy-Tries-To-Break-Car-Jump-Record-Crashes-Hard

The videos on these pages just wont play inside a Facebook app browser.

Is there a setting I need to get them work?

14 Community Answers

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maddhacker24

User  
0 rated :

I'm not sure if this will help or not but I found someone else who was having the same problem.

http://support.jwplayer.com/customer/portal/questions/6241791-jwplayer-not-playing-in-facebook-browser-on-iphone

I need to figure this one out. It's a high priority!

Any insight would help! Thanks!!!

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maddhacker24

User  
0 rated :

This same behavior also occurs on the JWPlayer homepage.

To test this, share a link to http://www.jwplayer.com/ or just send yourself a message on Facebook with a link to http://www.jwplayer.com/.

From within the iPhone Facebook app, click on the link you just shared. The facebook app will render the JWPlayer homepage within the facebook app internal web browser.

If you try to play the video on the JWPlayer homepage it wont work.

Up Down

Ethan Feldman

JW Player Support Agent  
0 rated :

This is an issue that is known. The page needs to be scrolled slightly first, and then the player will work.

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maddhacker24

User  
0 rated :

Hi Ethan,

Is this issue something that is being worked on or is it a technical limitation of the JWPlayer?

As for the scrolling...

I just tried loading up the JWPlayer homepage within the Facebook browser and swiping down to the bottom of the page and then back up. Still cant play the video.

Is there a hack or something I can do with the code so that people are able to use the JWPlayer on my website when coming from the Facebook app?

A lot of pages containing video are shared on Facebook every day. I can't imagine this being a limitation of the player on mobile?

Up Down

Ethan Feldman

JW Player Support Agent  
0 rated :

This is something that I have seen once before, and I put in a ticket for it to be fixed. It has something to do with the position of the player on the page + inside of the Facebook app’s native browser. If the player is lower down on the page, it seems to be fine as well.

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maddhacker24

User  
0 rated :

Would the ticket be somewhere on this page?
http://developer.longtailvideo.com/trac/report/3

I need to follow this bug because this is a game changer for my site. A great deal of traffic for my site comes from the Facebook app when users share my content. That number will only increase as more and more people use mobile vs desktops.

If people cant use my site when coming from the Facebook app I may be forced to use an alternate video player until this bug gets fixed. 8-(

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Ethan Feldman

JW Player Support Agent  
0 rated :

That page is out of date. All current tickets are internal in Pivotal Trackers now.

I would try to make the player lower on your page to see if that helps for the time being.

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maddhacker24

User  
0 rated :

Ok, well hopefully your ticket will get addressed in time for the next build.

Unfortunately, moving the player further down the page is not an option for me. The content needs to be as much above the fold as possible for usability and SEO purposes.

I'll have to research an alternative player until this one gets fixed.

I appreciate your help Ethan,
Thank you

Up Down

Ethan Feldman

JW Player Support Agent  
0 rated :

Np

I was just suggesting to try it to test to confirm that doing that indeed works.

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maddhacker24

User  
0 rated :

Ethan, just to confirm...you are correct about placement of the video. I made a couple small pages to demonstrate the bug.

ABOVE the fold: (video DOES NOT play inside FB app browser):
http://www.killsometime.com/fb1.htm

BELOW the fold (video PLAYS inside FB app browser):
http://www.killsometime.com/fb2.htm

Maybe your guys can use this to help fix the bug. I will leave the sample pages up.

Thanks!

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Ethan Feldman

JW Player Support Agent  
0 rated :

Ok, thanks. Please leave these up.

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maddhacker24

User  
0 rated :

I will leave these pages up for you Ethan.

My quick fix was to detect the Facebook App browser user agent and serve up HTML5 video tags instead of the JWPlayer.

For all other user agents I use the JWPlayer.

I'll be looking forward to seeing this fixed.

Thanks for all your help.

Up Down

Ethan Feldman

JW Player Support Agent  
0 rated :

Np

Up Down

maddhacker24

User  
0 rated :

I'm just here to confirm that this bug still exists in 6.9.

Hoping it gets fixed in 7.0.

Thanks

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