Top 5 Ways to Fix Google Photos Not Playing Videos

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Basic Fixes

Fix 1: Force Stop, Clear Cache, and Relaunch

In most cases, force-stopping and clearing the app’s cache can resolve the issue. To do that, first,long-press on the Google Photos app iconand open the info menu. Then, tap on ‘Force Stop‘. Next, tap on ‘Storage and cache‘. Here, tap on ‘Clear cache‘.

And that’s it. Open the Google Photos app and it should be able to play videos now.

Fix 2: Check Video File Type

If you receive a slow-motion or hyper-lapse video from an iPhone, your Android phone may fail to play such videos properly. That might happen the other way around as well. The Google Photos app supports popular video extensions like MP4, AVI, MKV, and more.

However, you may run into errors when playing WMV, MOV, WebM, Theora, and other video files. So, to play those files, you’ll need to the videos to a supporting video format in Google Photos. Our recommendation is VLC Player. Here’s how you can use it.

Step 1:Download and install theVLC Playerfrom the Google Play Store. Once done, launch VLC Player and give it the required permission to read stored videos on your phone.

Step 2:VLC shows all your videos under the Video tab. If the app doesn’t show a newly added video, tap the three-dot menu in the top-right corner and select Refresh.

The default video player on VLC is packed with useful features and gestures. You can tweak brightness levels, change playback speeds, enable subtitles, and make other tweaks from VLC settings. We highly recommend digging into the VLC settings to get the best out of it.

Fix 3: Download the Full Video

While most users use Google Photos to view their offline media, chances are that you’re trying to stream a video saved in your Google Photos cloud backup. If the video file is too big or your internet speed is slow, the video might not stream properly.

As such, the best solution is to download the video file completely, and then play it. To do so, open the video file inside Google Photos andswipe up to view its info. Here, tap onDownload.

Once the video file has been downloaded, try playing it again.

Fix 4: Remove and Add Storage Media

Are you trying to play a video from a microSD card or a USB drive on Google Photos? If you continue to run into errors, try removing the external storage media from your phone and inserting it after some time. Alternatively, you can also try to restart your Android phone to fix any issues related to external storage.

Fix 5: Update Google Photos

An outdated Google Photos app may fail to play videos. As such, you need to update Google Photos to the latest version from the Play Store. Simply open theGoogle Photosapp page on the Google Play Store, and tap on Update. Once the latest version has been downloaded and installed, try playing back the video file.

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Last updated on 28 June, 2024

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