Facebook videos (Reels, etc) still don't play

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1

Description of the issue:

Facebook videos such as but not limited to Reels do not play.
How can this issue be reproduced?

  1. Visit any video.
  2. Attempt to play the video.
  3. Video fails to play.

Expected result:

Video plays.

Brave Version( check About Brave):

Version 1.74.51 Chromium: 132.0.6834.160 (Official Build) (x86_64)
](https://brave.com/latest/)

Additional Information:

Videos play using Safari, Chrome, Firefox.

2

@crenelle,
Can you please tell me which version of macOS you’re using at this time? Testing on my end (macOS 15.3), Facebook videos play without issue. Additionally, when you attempt to play the video, what is the exact behavior you see? Are any error messages displayed? Does the video appear to infinitely load? Does the video show nothing but a black screen?

3

Currently macOS Sequoia 15.2. I’m careful about updating the OS since I work on this machine.

The behavior I see when I select a Reel video to play is that the image it displays when I click on it stays put (doesn’t change) while the blue circle outliner animation indicating that the system is working on the request does donuts in the middle. The scrolling text at the bottom of the video scrolls as normal.

How long would I have to wait for an error message alert to appear? I have yet to see one. I’ve been writing this reply while the busy animation continues, about four minutes now.

Interestingly, I have seen a video play. The ratio is something like 1 in 30. I don’t sit there and try dozens of videos, but I often accidentally click on them. The bottom line is that I usually don’t see them working.

-Mike

4

Can you please perform the following test?

  1. In Brave, go to Menu --> More tools --> Guest profile to launch a Guest profile window
  2. Then, close your original profile window so only the Guest profile is open
  3. Login to Facebook in the guest profile and try to view videos/reels here

Please let me know if this works or if the problem persists here as well.

5

Creating the guest profile (creating a window), closing the older window, logging into facebook, and playing videos: works.

The original configuration still doesn’t (expected).

Under the Profile menu there is only one entry, Profile 1, which is the profile I just created, so I’ve been using Brave without creating one. I assume creating a profile isn’t mandatory?

6

That is correct.

You may simply need to clear cache/data for facebook in the browser to resolve the issue. Please try the following:

  1. In Brave, visit facebook.com
  2. Click the “tune” icon on the left-side of the address bar
  3. Click Site settings then Delete data (note that this will log you out of Facebook)
  4. Refresh the page, log back into Facebook and test to see if videos now play normally

Please let me know if this works for you.

7

I followed the instructions below.

After refreshing the facebook page, it did not log me out. So I logged
out, and logged back in.

Facebook did not ask for 2fa verification like it normally does.

I visited Reels and clicked on the first video to play back. It did not.

I repeated the process three times, looking for an edge condition
causing the process to fail.

We have at least a workaround/fix, create a profile and use that. It is
a little strange to clear the fb-related cache and have that not fix the
problem.

8

@crenelle I see the guest profile or second profile works. If you open a private window and go to it, does it work?

Private Window = Creates a new temporary session with no cookies and with any extensions disabled. It also clears any cookies or history from the private session once you exit.

New Profile creates a second profile that has most settings to default, including not having any extensions installed on that profile. The only things that remain the same are any custom filters added to Shields or any change you have made to brave://flags.

What this means:

If works on Private then it’s either some cookies on your device or it’s an extension. You can try disabling extensions first. If that doesn’t work, might just need to purge all cookies. Initially can try just for the site data of that particular site, but sometimes need to clear all. (This is especially true for those like Google which uses their site data across multiple sites)

If works in new profile but not on private then it may still be extensions, but most likely is some setting you have changed or is a corruption within the profile itself. Typically it means it’s an extension/theme you have installed that is causing problems.

9

Facebook videos work using private browser.

I disabled all the extensions (and cleared site data again). FB videos
work. I re-enabled extensions by groups until I found the one disrupting
videos. Culprit was Disable HTML5 Autoplay, which is apparently no
longer supported. All the other extensions have been re-activated.

Thanks!

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