Dilum Senevirathne · February 5th, 2025 · 9 min read 
Do you have trouble with videos not playing on your iPhone or iPad? Perhaps your current video app keeps crashing, shows a blank screen, or fails to open any video. This article will help you troubleshoot the issue to identify the causes and solutions.
Key Takeaways
- Your iPhone will display an error message when you open a corrupted video or a video in an unsupported format. Redownloading or converting the video to a compatible format should fix these errors.
- Low storage space can also prevent videos from playing on iPhone. Check your device’s settings and ensure you have enough available storage space.
- Internet connectivity issues could also be why online videos won’t play on your iPhone. Ensure you have an active internet connection when playing iCloud videos or streaming apps like Netflix or YouTube.
Why Are Videos Failing to Play on iPhone?
iPhones fail to play videos for various reasons, including poor internet connection, file format incompatibility, software bugs, file corruption, server downtime, and more. If your iPhone’s software is outdated, for instance, native media apps like Photos, Files, and TV may manifest video playback issues.
Similarly, the TV app won’t play videos if the Apple TV+ service is experiencing a temporary server-side interruption.
Why Are Videos Failing to Play in My iPhone Gallery?
Only videos in 3GP, MP4, MOV, and M4V formats will show up in Photos—the iOS default gallery app. Video files in formats like FLV, AVI, MWV, and MKV will only play in third-party applications that can open them.
File corruption is another reason the iPhone Photos app fails to play videos. If a video file is corrupt or wasn’t downloaded completely, it may not open or play in Photos.
Reasons Why Videos Won’t Play in the iPhone Photos App
Videos won’t play in the iPhone Photos app for several reasons. Corrupt video downloads, incompatible file formats, and other issues can play a factor. Thankfully, a little troubleshooting is all you need to fix video playback issues on your iPhone.
How to Fix Videos Not Playing on iPhone?
We’ve compiled a list of troubleshooting fixes that get your iPhone back to playing videos without interruption.
1. Close and Relaunch Video Player App
It’s a good idea to force-quit and relaunch the app that fails to play videos on your iPhone. Doing so clears temporary glitches preventing the app from playing videos. For example, if your iPhone won’t play YouTube videos, close and reopen the YouTube app, then try streaming content again. Troubleshoot your internet connection if the issue persists.
2. Check Your Internet Connection
Poor network connectivity can prevent your iPhone from playing videos in streaming apps like Netflix, YouTube, Apple TV, etc. Slow or spotty network speed can also cause video playback issues in the Photos app when playing iCloud videos. Your Internet connection is high-speed.
Use online speed test tools like Fast.com or SpeedTest.net to check your network speed. Contact your internet service provider or try the quick troubleshooting fixes below if your network speed is slow.
- Put your iPhone in and out of airplane mode.
- You can switch from cellular/mobile data to Wi-Fi (or vice versa) or a different wireless network.
- Restart or reset your Wi-Fi router (if possible).
- Reset your phone’s network settings (more on that further below).
Additionally, check the problematic app’s settings and ensure it’s configured to use and stream over a cellular network.
Head to Settings > Apps > [App Name] and turn on Use Cellular Data, Cellular Data, or other applicable options.
3. Check the Server Status
Server-side issues can prevent streaming apps from playing or downloading videos on your iPhone. For instance, if Netflix’s servers are down, you may encounter problems streaming content in the Netflix app or website. Most streaming services often broadcast their server’s status on their website. You can also use third-party site monitoring tools like DownDetector to check the server status of any streaming service or online video app. If the affected streaming or video app is experiencing an outage, contact the developer or wait until they restore the service.
4. Restart Your iPhone
Restarting your iPhone can resolve any video playback issue affecting built-in and third-party apps. Close the app that won’t play your iPhone videos, perform a system reboot, and try replaying the video (s).
Open your iPhone’s Control Center and long-press the Power icon in the top corner for two seconds. Drag the Power icon to the right and wait 30-60 seconds for your iPhone to shut down.
Alternatively, go to Settings > General > Shut Down and drag the Power icon to shut down your iPhone.
Press and hold your iPhone’s Side button to turn it back on. Release the button when the Apple logo appears on your screen.
5. Update the Video App
Third-party video apps may occasionally crash or malfunction if you’re running an outdated or buggy version. If a media player app won’t play local or online videos, check the App Store for any available updates. Installing the latest version of the app might resolve bugs causing it to malfunction.
If you have the latest app version, double-check that it supports the video format you want to play. If the issue is due to video format incompatibility, use a different app or convert the video to a compatible format.
Note: Installing the latest iOS version updates the native Apple apps like Photos and TV.
6. Offload and Reinstall the Video App
Offloading an app clears the app cache from your iPhone. Offloading a video app may help remove corrupted cache files stopping it from playing videos. Google, for instance, recommends deleting YouTube’s cache on iPhone if the app is experiencing video/streaming issues. Offloading an app doesn’t delete its documents or data. The process only frees up storage space the app is using on your iPhone.
Note: You cannot offload native Apple applications like Photos, iCloud, etc.
- Go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage and choose the app you want to offload.
- Tap Offload App, select Offload App again on the pop-up, and wait while your iPhone offloads the app.
- Tap Reinstall App to install the offloaded app.
Open the app and check if your iPhone videos play without any issues. Delete and reinstall the app from the App Store if it still won’t play videos.
Note: Deleting an app uninstalls it from your iPhone and clears the app’s data and documents. Deleting Netflix or YouTube, for instance, will delete videos downloaded/saved on your iPhone.
- Tap Delete App on the app’s storage information page and tap Delete App again on the confirmation screen.
Alternatively, long-press the app icon in your App Library and select Delete App > Delete.
Reinstall the app from the App Store and check if it plays videos without issues.
7. Download or Use a Compatible App
The iPhone Photos and Files apps support the following video file formats: MP4, MOV, M4V, and 3GP. If your iPhone won’t play a downloaded video, it’s likely because the video file is in an unsupported format (e.g. MKV). If so, use third-party media players like VLC Player to play the video.
To play unsupported video files in third-party apps, open the video file in the Files app and tap the Share icon in the bottom corner. Afterward, select the media/video player on the share sheet.
Alternatively, send the video to your Mac and convert it to a compatible format using apps like Handbrake. See our tutorial on playing MKV files on Mac for step-by-step instructions.
8. Delete and Redownload Corrupt Video Downloads
Downloaded videos sometimes get corrupt, causing them to refuse to play on your iPhone. When that happens, deleting and redownloading the video is the only fix.
If your iPhone won’t play a downloaded Netflix movie or episode, deleting and redownloading the video can resolve the issue.
Open the Downloads page in the Netflix app, swipe left on the video, and tap the X icon. Then, download the video again and check if your iPhone plays it without any issues.
9. Clear Browser Cookies and Cache
Does your iPhone have trouble playing online videos in Safari or other browsers? A corrupt browser cache might be the source of the issue. Clearing your browser’s cookies and cache might help.
Follow the steps below to clear your iPhone’s Safari history and data (cache and cookies).
- Go to Settings > Apps and select Safari.
- Scroll down the Safari app settings page and tap Clear History and Website Data.
- Select your preferred timeframe (Last hour, Today, Today and yesterday, or All history) and tap Clear History.
If you use a different browser (Chrome, Microsoft Edge, etc.), see our tutorial on clearing cache data in any iPhone browser.
10. Update Your iPhone
An outdated version of iOS can also cause video playback and other issues on the iPhone. To update iOS to its latest version, open the Settings app and tap General > Software Update > Download & Install.
Conversely, iOS beta releases are often plagued with severe bugs and other problems. If you’re in the Apple Beta Software Program, we recommend downgrading your iPhone to the stable channel.
11. Reset Your iPhone’s Settings
If your iPhone’s video playback problems persist, it’s time to reset your network settings. Doing so can fix an incorrect network setup that prevents videos from playing.
- Open the Settings app, and head to General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Reset > Reset Network Settings.
- Afterward, enter your iPhone’s passcode and tap Reset Network Settings on the confirmation pop-up. This will reboot your iPhone and reset your network settings.
Afterward, turn on cellular/mobile data or connect your iPhone to a Wi-Fi network. When your iPhone restarts, try playing a video again.
If the network settings reset doesn’t help, select the Reset All Settings option to reset your iPhone’s settings.
That reverts your device’s settings to its factory default and sometimes resolves deeper underlying conflicts preventing video playback.
Grab the Popcorn
iPhone video-related issues are bound to crop up at some point, but the causative factors are pretty much the same each time, and the fixes above should help you get through them. Contact Apple Support if your iPhone apps still won’t play videos.
[related_posts_by_tax posts_per_page="5"]