nextcloud
Improve error handling of unplayable videos
⚠️ This issue respects the following points: ⚠️
- [x] This is a bug, not a question or a configuration/webserver/proxy issue.
- [x] This issue is not already reported on Github OR Nextcloud Community Forum (I've searched it).
- [x] Nextcloud Server is up to date. See Maintenance and Release Schedule for supported versions.
- [x] I agree to follow Nextcloud's Code of Conduct.
Bug description
I can't play videos from within Nextcloud (tested on c.nc.com)
Tested with Firefox 141.0 on Linux and Chromium 138.0.7204.183
Steps to reproduce
- Navigate to a video (in my case a mkv-file)
- open it
I will see a spinner but the video never starts:
Interestingly the talk desktop client seems to have a different player build in. The Talk desktop client plays at least the audio, but the video stays black.
Expected behavior
Nextcloud plays the video in the browser
Nextcloud Server version
31
Operating system
None
PHP engine version
None
Web server
None
Database engine version
None
Is this bug present after an update or on a fresh install?
None
Are you using the Nextcloud Server Encryption module?
None
What user-backends are you using?
- [ ] Default user-backend (database)
- [ ] LDAP/ Active Directory
- [ ] SSO - SAML
- [ ] Other
Configuration report
List of activated Apps
Nextcloud Signing status
Nextcloud Logs
Additional info
No response
Yes, the browser cannot play your file. We should improve the error catching of that error.
you are right, I should have checked it before creating the ticket. 🙈 It is indeed simply Firefox which doesn't support it. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1422891
But a nice error message in such situations would be welcome.
I mean, mkv are here since ages. It's 2025 and we're still struggling to decode many video formats in Browsers, it's frustrating 👍 I totally get that you assumed it should work out of the box 😅