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Hi, I’ve just discovered that my videos will not play on mobile devices when linked from Facebook using Facebook’s built-in browser. To replicate:
1. From iPad or iPhone FB app search for the page @guitaranimal
2. The first post contains a link to a page with a video (How to Play Make It Last by Montrose). Tap that post. The page opens on my site via the FB browser. The video will not play.If opened in any other browser, it plays normally: https://guitaranimal.com/song-make-last-montrose/
I need to run some FB promotions but cannot do so until this issue is resolved.
Thank you!
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Correction. It’s now the second post down on the FB page. I had to post one and link to YouTube instead.
Hello Deborah,
We tested the video from the post on your Facebook page in the Facebook app browser on iOS and the video was really not working. Could you please switch to one of the default WP themes (for example Twenty Sixteen) and test it again?
Thanks,
Eduard
Hello Deborah,
I forgot to add that we also tested it with our YouTube demo (also by accessing it throught the Facebook app browser) and the video played fine, so the problem seems to be specific for your website – that’s why I suggested temporarily switching to another theme.
Thanks,
Eduard
Thanks so much for the reply. Yes, in temporarily switching to another theme, the video does play when launched from the FB app browser. My theme (Extra/Divi) does have it’s own video player, so likely they’ll want me to just switch to that if I ask them for support. Of course, that’s not an option for me. Is there any way I can get more support from you guys help me fix this?
Hello Deborah,
it’s almost impossible to debug the iOS Facebook App browser, but I read it’s using the standard web view of the iOS and that the following tools can be used to debug it:
https://github.com/creativelive/FacebookWebbrowserDebugApp
https://github.com/paulirish/iOS-WebView-AppThanks,
Martin
Hello Deborah,
I checked it out and it appears fv_player_load() is not properly called even though it’s hooked to the document ready JavaScript event. Seems like anything in
jQuery(document).ready( function() {
...
});
doesn’t run. However it works for other sites when browsing to them with the browser in Facebook App.
Thanks,
Martin
Thanks so much for looking at it. I’ll provide that info to the theme developer. Assuming that’s where I should start to fix it, right?
Hello Deborah,
Yes, that’s right.
Thanks,
Eduard
Hello Deborah,
it might be pretty tricky actually, but with https://github.com/creativelive/FacebookWebbrowserDebugApp you should be able to use the JavaScript debugger to figure out why fv_player_load() is never executed. As a quick fix you can try to force run it in page footer.
Thanks,
Martin
Thank you again. I’ve still not heard back from the theme devs. I just tried adding the plugin “Scripts to Footer” but that did not work. Would you mind telling me exactly what to add to the footer? And I’ll give it a try. At least on a temporary basis until I can get a more permanent fix. Thank you!
Disregard the last message. I was able to handle it in the footer for now. Thanks again for all your help. Hopefully, the theme dev will help me from here.
Bah! Thought I had it fixed with adding to the footer, but that broke any videos on the site that have a playlist. So, I had to remove it. My theme provider is not being much help so far. I’d pay you guys to fix this for me quickly. I just spent some money boosting a video on FB and unfortunately anyone that clicks through on mobile gets an unplayable video.
Debbie
Hello Debbie,
in that case putting this JavaScript into footer might help:
document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", fv_player_load );It runs that fv_player_load() function once the page finishes loading. FV Player does exactly that, but it uses jQuery to hook it in. Perhaps that part is somehow broken on your site.
Thanks,
Martin
