Troubleshooting Jetpack VideoPress Issues

VideoPress isn’t working on my staging site.

VideoPress won’t work if your site has Jetpack’s Staging mode enabled.

Can I use VideoPress to host videos on my own server?

No. When VideoPress is active, videos are uploaded straight to the WordPress.com cloud. They are intentionally not hosted on your own server to avoid any storage or upload limits enforced by your hosting provider.

My upload dies before it finishes.

A slow or unreliable Internet connection might limit the size of the video you can upload. Try uploading at a different time of day or from a computer with a faster internet connection. Feel free to keep trying—failed attempts do not count against your storage space limit.

If your uploads are timing out, try uploading a video from the WordPress.com dashboard instead of WP Admin:

https://wordpress.com/media/videos/

This should ensure that no hosting upload limits or site upload limits come into play.

For best results, we recommend uploading videos meeting the specifications outlined on this page.

We also recommend file sizes 1 GB and lower. VideoPress may work for files up to 5 GB in size, but the larger the file is, the greater chance for the upload process to fail. Most networks will time out before you’re able to upload a file that’s larger than 1.4 GB. We cannot support files that are larger than 5 GB.

Can I change the default thumbnail image for my video?

Yes. Follow these steps:

1. Go to https://wordpress.com/media/videos/ for the site that contains the videos.
2. Select the video of interest and click Edit.
3. In the video editor, click Edit Thumbnail.
4. Wait for the desired frame and click Select Frame.

Done! Your thumbnail image (also known as a poster frame) is updated automatically.

What happens to my videos if don’t renew my plan?

Your videos will no longer be viewable, but will not be deleted. Renewing the plan will instantly enable the videos for viewing again.

If you’ve embedded videos using a shortcode, you will need to enable shortcode embeds for the videos to continue to display on your site.

What is the format of the video being played?

Jetpack converts your uploaded video file into the HLS streaming format (with fragmented MP4). Our MP4 files are encoded with H.264 video and AAC audio lossy compression codecs.

We stream HLS playlists. HLS/MPD(MPEG DASH) are HTTP-based streaming protocols.

What kind of video content can I upload?

Any videos uploaded to VideoPress are subject to WordPress.com’s content policies. The exclusions on this mature content page apply to videos as well.

My video is only available at standard resolution after uploading? Why?

If a video is longer than three hours, we don’t encode the 480p, 720p, or 1080p files due to storage space limitations.

All of my videos are showing as private.

You may need to reconnect Jetpack, as VideoPress requires an active Jetpack connection to serve your videos.

Can I access a VideoPress video through the API?

You can’t access a VideoPress video through the API. They also should use the VideoPress player on the WordPress site for which VideoPress has been purchased, as per our service guidelines.

My other administrators on my site aren’t able to upload any videos.

When a site doesn’t have the Jetpack plugin installed and you are only using the VideoPress plugin, additional admins will need to connect via My Jetpack before they will be able to upload any videos. Each user that you need to be able to add videos should follow these steps:

1. Go to WP Admin → Jetpack → My Jetpack
2. Scroll to the bottom of the My Jetpack page and look for a section labeled Connection. This should be displaying as You’re not connected with a link that says Connect – click the link.
3. When the link is clicked the user will be prompted to connect their WordPress.com account. Follow through the on-screen steps to connect.
4. Once connected, go to WP Admin → Jetpack → VideoPress.

Your users should now be able to upload videos to VideoPress.