Google Drive is a useful application for storing important data, photos, and videos. However, you may occasionally encounter problems when attempting to play videos from Google Drive. Typically, you’d encounter an error message that says something like, “This video cannot be played” or “Whoops! There was an issue with playing this video.”
Fortunately, there are numerous possible solutions you can try to resolve this issue and get your video to play. This article will walk you through the various causes, as well as how to fix the “This video cannot be played” error in Google Drive.
Why Are You Getting the “This Video Cannot Be Played” Error?
Before we get into possible ways to fix the “This video cannot be played” error, let’s take a look at what might be causing it. Here are the most likely causes:
● Internet connection problems
● Incompatible video resolution or unsupported video file format
● The “hardware acceleration” feature
● Video file is corrupted
● Cookies and browser cache
● An obsolete browser
● Large RAM (Random Access Memory)
● Plug-ins from third parties
● Google’s service terms and restrictions
● The video is pirated
How Can I Fix the “This Video File Cannot Be Played” Error in Google Drive?
Google Drive is without a doubt one of the most user-friendly cloud storage platforms. However, it’s inconvenient when this tool displays error messages like “the video cannot be played on Google Drive.” Here’s what you should do to fix the error.
Examine Your Internet Connection
First, ensure that your internet connection is stable if you want to fix “This video file cannot be played” error. Google Drive requires a stable and high-speed internet connection to play videos stored in your cloud storage. As a result, playing videos with slow internet or a fluctuating network is likely to cause problems.
Test your Wi-Fi speed if you suspect you have internet speed issues. If your internet speed is adequate, consider resetting your router and reconnecting.
Launch the Video in a New Tab
Instead of double-clicking to play a video, try opening it in a new window. This could aid in fixing the “this video file cannot be played” error and any others you might encounter in Google Drive.
Here’s how to open your video in a new window:
● Open Google Drive, right-click the problematic video, and then choose Preview.
● In the top-right corner of the screen, click the menu icon (three vertically aligned dots).
● Choose the Open in a new window option.
Check to see if your video has been corrupted
Your video may be corrupted, resulting in the “Video cannot be played in Google Drive” error. When you download the video, the video players on your computer may also be unable to play it.
If it’s a corrupted video that’s causing the problem, no need to fret. There are several video repair tools available (such as Stellar Video Repair) that can help fix a “this video file cannot be played” error in Google Drive. The best part is that most of these tools can repair videos in a variety of formats, including WMV, AVI, MKV, FLV, MPEG, MP4, and others.
Turn off Hardware Acceleration
Hardware acceleration allows a browser, such as Google Chrome, to access and use your GPU for rendering video results. If it is too large, the video will not render and will not play. The only way to fix the “this video cannot be played” error in this case is to disable this feature.
● Navigate to the Chrome Settings page.
● At the bottom of the Settings page, select ‘Advanced,’ and then select ‘System.’
● You will now see a ‘Use hardware acceleration when available‘ option. Toggle the button beside it, then restart the browser. Then play the video to see if it works.
Free Up RAM and Clear Your Browser’s Cache
Clearing the RAM may also help you fix the “This Video cannot be played” error in Google Drive. Since you’ll likely not want to install new RAM, this solution will concentrate on clearing it.
There are two options for clearing it a browser’s cache. Begin by closing the background application. If it doesn’t work, try deleting the browser’s cache files.
Here’s how you do it in Chrome:
● Open Chrome and click the three-dot button in the upper right corner.
● Open the ‘History‘ option by navigating to it. By pressing CTRL+H, you can also open history windows. Now, select ‘Clear browsing data,’ check the ‘Cache and cookie‘ box, and then select ‘Clear Data.’
Alternatively, go to Chrome Settings > Clear Browsing Data to access the clear data option.
Check for Browser Updates
If you’re still unable to fix the “video cannot be played on Google Drive” problem, you might be using an old browser version that can’t play certain videos. This means you have to update your browser.
So, here’s how you can update popular web browsers like Chrome.
● In the top-right corner of the screen, select the menu icon (three vertically aligned dots).
● Go to Help > About Google Chrome.
● To apply any available updates, select the Relaunch option.
In conclusion, as you can see, the solutions we’ve discussed above can help you fix the “This Video Cannot Be Played” Error in Google Drive.