Bernard says my lesson video is stuck loading
You ask an assistant to check a lesson, and it comes back worried: the video is stuck on "Loading the video", it never plays, and it wonders whether your students are affected.
They are not. Your video is fine. The assistant is looking at the one place a lesson video cannot play.
Why it looks stuck
Your course videos are not sitting on the page for anyone to take. When a student opens a lesson, the page asks for the video, the answer comes back only once it knows who is watching, and the link it hands over lasts a few minutes. That is what keeps material you charge for from being downloaded by people who have not paid for it.
An assistant checking your lesson takes a picture of the page for itself. Nobody is signed in to that picture. So the page never asks for the video, the box where the player goes stays empty, and the words "Loading the video" sit there - because the loading never starts.
It looks exactly like a stuck player. It is an empty seat.
How to actually check it
Open the lesson yourself:
- Go to your course and open the preview.
- Open the lesson.
- Press play.
You are signed in, so the video plays - the same one your students get. If you would rather see the whole thing as a student does, enrol your own email address and open the course from the welcome email (the guide to testing your course as a student covers it).
If an assistant offers to "fix" it
Say no, and ask it to read the lesson instead.
This matters more than it sounds. An assistant once removed a perfectly correct video from a live lesson because it could not see the video in its own screenshot and concluded the lesson was wrong. Nothing was wrong. Your lessons can hold more than one video, and none of them appear in a screenshot, so "the second video does not show" is never a reason to take it out.
Ask it to check the video's own status instead of its picture of the page. That tells it whether the file is uploaded and ready, which is the actual question.
When it is real
If you press play in your own preview and nothing happens, or a signed-in student on your published course tells you the video will not start, that is genuine and this page is not the explanation. Tell us the course and lesson name and we will look.
The prompt
“Is the video on [lesson name] actually working, or does it only look stuck when you check it?”
Press Copy, then paste it into your AI and fill in the [bracketed] parts. First time? Connect your AI to bernard first - a one-time setup in bernard → your site → Use your own AI.
Questions people ask
- Is my video broken?
- Almost certainly not. If an assistant told you a lesson video hangs on 'Loading the video', it was looking at a screenshot it took of your lesson - and a screenshot cannot sign in. The player only asks for the video once someone is signed in, so in that screenshot it never asks, and the box it would fill sits empty. Nothing about this needs your approval, because nothing has changed.
- Why does the player need someone signed in?
- Because your course video is not left lying on the page where anyone could take it. It is handed out one viewer at a time, on a link that lasts minutes, once the page knows who is watching. That is what stops your material being downloaded by people who have not enrolled - so the empty box is that protection working, not a fault.
- Does it play in my own preview?
- Yes. When you open the preview yourself you are signed in, so the video plays exactly as a student sees it. The empty box only appears in the picture an assistant takes for itself.
- It said my second video on a lesson was the broken one. Does that change anything?
- No. A lesson can carry several videos, and all of them behave the same way - none of them play in a screenshot. If an assistant offers to remove a video or a [[video:2]] marker because it 'does not render', say no and ask it to read the lesson instead.
- How do I actually check the video?
- Open the lesson in your own preview and press play. Or enrol your own email address on the course and watch it as a student. Either shows you the real thing.
- When is it real?
- If you press play in your own preview, or a signed-in student on your published course does, and nothing happens - that is genuine. Tell us the course and lesson name and we will look.