How to set correct mime-type on videos in Amazon S3

Do you have any trouble getting your videos to play in some browsers with FV Player (or any other HTML 5 video player)? Here's how to fix it.

If your mp4 videos on Amazon S3 do not have the proper MIME type, also known as content-type, you will have to edit them to be able to play these videos. This can be fixed as a batch operation using Bucket Explorer.

Follow these simple steps to fix the problem:

1. Where to check if MIME type of my video is set up properly?
   Log in to your Amazon Web Services (AWS) account at https://console.aws.amazon.com, and click S3 in the menu:



2. Click the bucket to which your video was uploaded, and click Properties:


S3 bucket page in AWS management console

3. and then click Tags:
   

   
   Properties tab in S3 bucket options

    

   There should be the following values:
   Key: Content-Type  Value: video/mp4
   
   but definitely NOT application/octet-stream.

4. How to fix it?
   In your AWS account, click your username and then click My Security Credentials.

   
   Accessing My Security Credentials in Amazon account

   If a window shows up, informing you that you are accessing the security credentials of your AWS account, close it by clicking X in its top-right corner.



5. Select Access Keys. You will need both your secret Access Key and Access Key ID.

    

   
   Access Keys on My Security Credentials page

   You cannot view your Secret Access Keys. If you do not know them, you can create a new pair by clicking Create New Access Key. At the next window, click Download Key File to save it, as you will not be able to get it later.

   Creating new access keys

6. Download a trial version of Bucket Explorer by following this link: https://bucket-explorer.en.softonic.com. Once downloaded, install it.
7. When opening Bucket Explorer for the first time, click Get 30 days Free-Trial License. The other times just click Continue with trial version.
   

    

   
   Bucket Explorer license verification

8. When Bucket Explorer opens, enter the access and secret keys from Amazon Web Services and type "Amazon S3" into the Name field. Then press GO.

    

   
   Enter Amazon Web Services credentials to work in Bucket Explorer

9. Choose the Save Without Password option when the dialogue box opens.

    

   
   Save Credentials dialog box in Bucket Explorer

10. Now you can see all your buckets from Amazon S3. Choose a bucket and press Show Full Path.

    
    Buckets from Amazon S3 in Bucket Explorer

11. Now you can see the full path of the selected bucket.

    
    Full path of the selected bucket

12. Click on the magnifying glass icon and select the Search By Prefix and Delimiter option.

     

    
    Search by prefix and delimiter

13. In the new window, type mp4 into the Delimiter field and press Search.

     

    
    Type mp4 into the delimeter field

    
     

14. Now you can see how many items match the search request.

     

    
    Result of search for items with mp4 delimiter

    
     

15. Select all the files. Click on the Batch Operation icon in the bottom row of icons. Select Update Metadata and then Edit Metadata.

     

    
    Editing metadata using batch operation

    
     

16. A new Edit Metadata window will open. Press Add to continue.

     

    
    Bucket Explorer edit metadata window

    
     

17. Another box will open. Choose Content-Type from the drop-down list in the HTTP Header field.

     

    
    Choose HTTP header from the drop-down list

18. Type video/mp4 to the Header Value field and press Add.

     

    
    Adding header value

    
     

19. The Content-Type key with the video/mp4 value will appear in the Custom Header field of the Edit Metadata window. Click Edit Metadata.

     

    
    Key and value are added to custom header

20. You can see the progress of editing when you click on the Queued Files tab. The duration of the editing will depend on the number of files. It may take several minutes.

    
    Progress of editing

21. The actual count of the queue is available in the Statistics tab.

     

    
    Count of files edited by Bucket Explorer

     

22. When the editing is finished, choose a video from the edited bucket to test if it played correctly. The Video OK admin note will appear above the video.

     

    

    
     

From now on, your videos should play well in HTML 5 and specifically in FV Player. If you run into any other issues or have any further tips for using Amazon S3 for HTML 5 videos, do not hesitate to let us know.

Thanks for using FV Player!