Embedded video sometimes not playing correctly in Safari

[OPWorkshop]

Hi guys, I have an issue where the video in my homepage will often not play on entering the website when using Safari - both mobile and desktop. It seems to happen most commonly if I type the address into the address bar, let the website load, and then type the first few characters of the address, allowing Safari to autofill the remainder of the address. When doing this, the website is almost guaranteed to fail to load the video immediately, and instead displays a very pixelated image from the video for around 10-20 seconds, before the video actually plays correctly. I wonder if it might be cookie related, or something to do with a redirect. This behaviour does not happen with Google Chrome.

The theme is Impact, from the Shopify store.

The website is www.outpostworkshop.co.uk

Thanks,

Mike

[PaulNewton]

If it's a shopify made theme report it to shopify support and be VERY specific with the reproduction steps someone needs to follow even going as far as providing supplementary video.

If they can't reproduce in specific browser, it may still come down to specific browser version, hardware version, operating system version, etc. 

But still leans towards indicating a problem with your systems not the theme.  

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@OPWorkshop wrote:

 let the website load, and then type the first few characters of the address, allowing Safari to autofill the remainder of the address

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That 99.9% sounds like a browser issue, operating issue, or hardware issue, and not a website issue.

Should be replicable on other sites, if you got a theme meant for video find that themes demo stores and test.

Clear browser caches, run hard disks scans, run software updates, update graphics driver, etc. Retest.

If a developer you could confirm it by setting up a reduced test case of however the theme loads video with more simple html to try and reproduce the issue.

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@OPWorkshop wrote:

.. if I type the address into the address bar, let the website load, and then type the first few characters of the address, allowing Safari to autofill the remainder of the address.

...

  or something to do with a redirect

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Do you mean the website is loading, you start typing AND press enter for autofill causing a navigation.

In that case there is no problem just user behavior.

Otherwise .01% still not a website issue unless safari has some little unknown api letting sites read the users address bar which is unlikely because that is privacy creepiness.

Good Hunting.

[OPWorkshop]

Hi Paul, thanks for your reply! The problem is repeatable across 3 different devices running Safari - a Macbook, and two iPhones. Unfortunately I need to fix it on my end so that users can access the website correctly. I've tried other websites displaying videos in the same manner and Safari displays these websites correctly.

It doesn't seem to matter if I'm on a different website before typing the first few characters into the address bar - if I allow autofill (it seems to be 'top hits') to add the rest of the address, then the video fails to load correctly. It also seems to load incorrectly when typing the full www.outpostworkshop.co.uk more commonly than typing outpostworkshop.co.uk

Thanks again for your help!

[OPWorkshop]

Does anyone have any ideas? Theme devs have identified the issue but said it was likely to be an app issue, however even with apps disabled the problem persists. I'd like to have the video rather than a static image.

[BillLumbergh]

I have the same issue with Motion. Amazing how little help Shopify offers in this forum.

[triangl_io]

I'm encountering something similar on https://triangl.io/ -- did you ever find a fix?

[BillLumbergh]

For me it was just having the YouTube link set to private. 🤦‍♂️

[triangl_io]

Happy you found a solution (if even a simple one)! I still have the issue with files hosted/uploaded to Shopify directly, yet linking to YouTube works. The performance suffers a bit but at least it's a workaround until I find an actual fix.

[BillLumbergh]

Not sure the theme you're on, but I reached out to the developers for Motion and they were super helpful.