A video does not display
The lesson opens, and the video is blank, missing or broken.
1. Is the URL in the right field?
The video belongs in the lesson's Lesson video URL field, not pasted into the lesson content.
A video embedded in the content by pasting raw markup is the usual cause of a player that overflows the screen on a phone, or that ignores the site's video settings.
2. Is the URL a page URL, not a share URL?
Paste the address from the browser bar of the video's page. YouTube watch links, short youtu.be links, embed URLs, shorts and live URLs are all understood, as are Vimeo URLs.
What does not work is a link to something that is not a video page — a channel, a playlist, a search result, or a page on a service that refuses to be embedded.
3. Is the video actually available?
Open the URL in a private window, signed out of the video service.
| What you see | Meaning |
|---|---|
| It plays | The video is public or unlisted; the problem is elsewhere |
| Sign-in required | The video is private, and students cannot see it |
| Not available | It was deleted, or restricted by region |
| Available on the site it is hosted on only | Embedding is disabled for this video |
Private videos are the most common cause. Set the video to unlisted, not private, if it must not be listed publicly.
4. Is embedding allowed?
Both YouTube and Vimeo let an owner disable embedding, and Vimeo additionally restricts which domains may embed. A video that plays perfectly on its own site can refuse to play on yours.
Check the video's privacy and embedding settings on the hosting service, and add your domain where the service asks for one.
5. Is it a provider other than YouTube or Vimeo?
Anything else is embedded in a plain frame pointing at the URL you supplied. That works only if the destination allows being framed — many services do not, and produce an empty box.
Test any non-standard provider on the front end before publishing lessons with it.
6. Does the student have access?
A blocked lesson shows the no-access message instead of the video. If a student reports a "blank lesson", confirm they can access it before investigating the video at all.
See A student cannot access a paid course.
7. Is it a browser problem?
If the video fails for one student and works for everyone else, check with them:
- Extensions that block trackers and embeds frequently block video players.
- Corporate or school networks often block video services entirely.
- A stale cached page can show an old version of the lesson.
Ask them to try a private window, another browser, and another network.
8. The video plays but looks wrong
- Overflowing on a phone — the video was pasted into the content instead of the video field.
- Wrong thumbnail — Vimeo thumbnails are cached; give it time after changing the video.
- Too small or too large — that is theme layout, not the lesson.
A note on privacy
Unlisted is not private. Anyone with the URL can watch, whether or not they bought the course, and the video service sees your students' requests.
If a course's value depends on the video being unobtainable, a public video service is the wrong place to host it, and no setting in POM LMS changes that.
Confirm the fix
- Open the lesson in a private window as a student with access.
- Confirm the video plays, including full screen.
- Check it on a phone.