Resolved Safari on iPad can’t play video

[bw44]

I posted a message five days ago on another formum. Sorry for the re-post but there have been no responses. Can’t believe I’m the only one with this problem. Some videos on web sites don’t play on my iPad running 17.6.1. The same videos play on my iPhone (17.6.1). They also play fine when browsed with Firefox and DDG on the iPad. They also play on my Macs. The error message is “Sorry, the video player failed to load.(Error Code: 101102)” Sometimes the error code is 101104.

I Google searched the symptom and MS/PC users have reported the problem with Chrome, but I couldn’t apply any of the suggestions there.

Can anyone help?

Thanks.

 

[sparksd]

I posted a message five days ago on another formum. Sorry for the re-post but there have been no responses. Can’t believe I’m the only one with this problem. Some videos on web sites don’t play on my iPad running 17.6.1. The same videos play on my iPhone (17.6.1). They also play fine when browsed with Firefox and DDG on the iPad. They also play on my Macs. The error message is “Sorry, the video player failed to load.(Error Code: 101102)” Sometimes the error code is 101104.

I Google searched the symptom and MS/PC users have reported the problem with Chrome, but I couldn’t apply any of the suggestions there.

Can anyone help?

Thanks.

Can you post a link to a video that does not play? I have not run into this on 17.6.1.

 

[bw44]

Can you post a link to a video that does not play? I have not run into this on 17.6.1.

Here’s one from the AP news site: https://apnews.com/. Scroll down to “Latest Videos”.

This only occurs for some web sites, which I guess are using a particular video player. I don’t have any idea which one. Is there a way to tell?

Have tried clearing website data for apnews.com but that didn’t help.

Thanks for responding. Please let me know what you find!

Edit: I should add the iPad is a 6th generation 9.7 inch.

 

[sparksd]

Here’s one from the AP news site: https://apnews.com/. Scroll down to “Latest Videos”.

This only occurs for some web sites, which I guess are using a particular video player. I don’t have any idea which one. Is there a way to tell?

Have tried clearing website data for apnews.com but that didn’t help.

Thanks for responding. Please let me know what you find!

Edit: I should add the iPad is a 6th generation 9.7 inch.

hmm, gave it a try and worked fine - 13" M4 Pro.

 

[bw44]

hmm, gave it a try and worked fine - 13" M4 Pro.

Happy for you — but was hoping someone else also had the problem!
seems like it must be a Safari/iPad/model problem (for me anyway). Guess I’ll have to apply my limited technical savvy to further investigation.

Thanks again.

 

[bw44]

Just a note to say I traced the problem to the jwplayer(tm) video player and found the error codes it issues on my iPad:

Setup failed because the player could not load a necessary javascript component.

101102

Failed to load the jwplayer.core.controlscomponent

101104

Failed to load the jwplayer.core.controls.html5component

It looks like there is a problem on my particular iPad between jwplayer and javascript. I checked to be sure javascript is turned on my iPad and it is. Toggled it off, restarted Safari and no video OR error messages appear. Toggled it back on and the problem still exists.

I've no experience with javascript or video players. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can pursue this further? Is there any way to reinstall javascript on an iPad (if javascript is the problem)?

 

[sparksd]

Just a note to say I traced the problem to the jwplayer(tm) video player and found the error codes it issues on my iPad:

Setup failed because the player could not load a necessary javascript component.

101102

Failed to load the jwplayer.core.controlscomponent

101104

Failed to load the jwplayer.core.controls.html5component

It looks like there is a problem on my particular iPad between jwplayer and javascript. I checked to be sure javascript is turned on my iPad and it is. Toggled it off, restarted Safari and no video OR error messages appear. Toggled it back on and the problem still exists.

I've no experience with javascript or video players. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can pursue this further? Is there any way to reinstall javascript on an iPad (if javascript is the problem)?

As I check, I turned JavaScript off and the videos would not play but there was no error message.

 

[bw44]

As I check, I turned JavaScript off and the videos would not play but there was no error message.

Thanks for confirming this. I’m convinced the problem lies between jwplayer and JavaScript. Given the fact they’re working together on all my devices and with all browsers except Safari and my iPad I’m pretty sure. But I don’t have time (or inclination) to learn all I’d need to know to debug this problem.
(Could be time to buy a new iPad—I’m surprised the old one has bee supported this long!)

 

[goodthymes]

Here’s one from the AP news site: https://apnews.com/. Scroll down to “Latest Videos”.

This only occurs for some web sites, which I guess are using a particular video player. I don’t have any idea which one. Is there a way to tell?

Have tried clearing website data for apnews.com but that didn’t help.

Thanks for responding. Please let me know what you find!

Edit: I should add the iPad is a 6th generation 9.7 inch.

FWIW couple videos I checked worked on my Mini 4 with an A8 processor on iPadOS 15.8.3. Do you have any extension active? Does the video load when you go into the artile itself?

 

[User #07242024]

I agree with others. Try check if:
- cookie is blocked?
- JavaScript is off?
- extension or content blocker is causing the issue?
- there is any change to safari experimental features?

 

[bw44]

Many thanks to sparksd, goothymes and User #07242024! The problem was Wipr, my ad blocker. I had tested before by disabling it (it has to run all the time to refresh the ad lists) But at your suggestions, I uninstalled it completely and Safari can display the videos. I guess Wipr treats jwplayer videos as ads — the videos do contain them on the AP news site.

I’ll mark this thread RESOLVED!

Cheers

 

[User #07242024]

Glad it works! If you need an adblocker, you can try AdGuard or Ghostery.

 

[bw44]

Glad it works! If you need an adblocker, you can try AdGuard or Ghostery.

Thanks —that was my next question! Years ago I used Ghostery with Firefox when still a PC user, but will look into AdGuard as well.

 

[User #07242024]

Thanks —that was my next question! Years ago I used Ghostery with Firefox when still a PC user, but will look into AdGuard as well.

I used AdGuard before then I ran into a problem: AdGuard would not just block Google Analytics tracker but also websites or articles containing the word ‘Google Analytics’. Since then, I switched to Ghostery. I’m sure the problem is fixed by now because that was years ago but now I’m comfortable with Ghostery so I stick with it.

 

[bw44]

I used AdGuard before then I ran into a problem: AdGuard would not just block Google Analytics tracker but also websites or articles containing the word ‘Google Analytics’. Since then, I switched to Ghostery. I’m sure the problem is fixed by now because that was years ago but now I’m comfortable with Ghostery so I stick with it.

I installed Ghostery and like it so far. Thanks again for the suggestion.