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7 Effective Ways To Fix Videos Not Playing On Mac

The MP4 not playing issue is one of the most common but critical problems to the Mac users. Once this problem shoots up, you won’t able to watch the movies or videos online, and it also prevents from playing any videos stored in your system. However, this article will help you with the technical hacks to fix videos not playing on Mac in no time. So, read on.

Resolve MP4 not Playing on Mac with some Technical Hacks

Given below are some of the effective solutions to fix the videos not playing on Mac problem quickly. So, you might try out the steps below to overcome this annoying issue permanently.

Uninstall and Reinstall Adobe Player

Incorrect installation of the Adobe Player creates this kind of error. You can easily fix the MP4 not playing issue by performing the uninstallation and re-installation of the Adobe player.

  1. Click on the Applications from the left side of the Settings app of the Mac.
  2. Choose Adobe Acrobat X Pro named Adobe file from the list of items appearing on the screen.
  3. You will get the Acrobat X Uninstaller file from the sub-menu. Double-click on it.
  4. Next, follow the on-screen instructions to start the uninstallation operation.
  5. After that, type the correct username and passcode in the resultant dialog box. Click on the OK button to confirm the administrative credentials.
  6. It will remove the Acrobat X installer from your device and once done, reboot the system.
  7. Now, insert the Acrobat X DVD into the DVD drive and view the application files.
  8. Double-click on the DMG file and wait until the download process is finished. Now, save the new folder on the desktop.
  9. Then, launch the Acrobat X Pro installer by choosing the executable file from the newly launched folder. Double-click on the file and accept the Acrobat license and Agreement by clicking on the specific radio button.
  10. It will start to run the installation file and will take a few minutes to install and once done, click on the Finish button to complete the re-installation process.
  11. Now, try to launch a video on Mac and check whether the MP4 problem is resolved or not.

Fix Internet issue

Verify whether the WiFi signal shows a steady signal or not. If it is toggling on a frequent basis or network starts to fluctuate, then modify the Network Settings.

  1. Right-click on the WiFi network signal.
  2. Choose the option Open Network and Sharing Center from the pop-up menu.
  3. Click on the Change Adapter Settings from the left section of the resultant window.
  4. Choose the WiFi network which you are currently using and right-click on it.
  5. Go to the Properties option and open the Network settings window.
  6. Click on the Networking tab from the same window and select the check boxes IPV4 as well as IPV6 respectively.
  7. Click on the Apply to save the new changes for that specific network.
  8. Tap on the OK button and exit from the window.

You might fix the video player settings to avoid all the possible video playing issues on Mac. So, after changing the Networking Settings, you might use the following steps and resolve the YouTube problem technically.

  • Play a YouTube video and click on the Settings option (gear icon) at the bottom section of the YouTube screen.
  • Choose a Quality option from the pop-up menu.
  • Adjust the quality as per your choice and close the menu.
  • Stop the playing video and close the window.
  • Open the new browser tab and try to play a YouTube video to check whether the problem is fixed or not.

Upgrade Browser

Outdated version of the browser can cause MP4 playing problems. The upgraded browser with the latest version is capable to play any kinds of videos without any technical issues.

  1. Click on the Apple menu icon and launch the Apple App Store window.
  2. Choose Software Updates by tapping on the Apple menu tab and launch the updates window.
  3. You will get another option where you will find a list of browsers which are installed in your system. Choose Safari Update to activate it.
  4. Mac device will start to update the Safari with the latest version after tapping on the Safari Update button.
  5. It will take several minutes to complete and when done, the system will reboot.
  6. Now, launch the Safari browser window by tapping on the Safari icon and try to play an MP4 video to check whether the video playing issue is resolved or not.

If you want to upgrade the Chrome browser, then you can follow the steps below.

  1. Click on the Chrome icon and launch the Chrome browser window.
  2. Now, click on the Customize and control Google Chrome (three dotted icons) from the upper-right section of the window.
  3. Choose the menu Help from the drop-down menu and you will get another sub menu i.e., About Chrome. Tap on it to launch the Chrome Settings window.
  4. Now, you can see the latest updates if available. Click on the Update button to start the Chrome Upgrade process.
  5. Tap on the Yes button to confirm the process and wait until it is upgraded with the latest version.
  6. When done, try to re-launch the Chrome window and verify whether the MP4 issue is fixed or not.

Enable JavaScript on MacOS

You can resolve the YouTube playing issue by enabling the JavaScript on MacOS. To perform this technical method, you might follow the process as explained below.

  1. Turn on the MacBook and launch the Chrome browser by double-tapping on the browser icon.
  2. Launch the Chrome menu and choose Preferences from the drop-down list.
  3. Select the Under the Hood tab from the resultant window and go to the System Privacy section.
  4. Click on the Content Settings under the Privacy tab.
  5. Choose the JavaScript tab and click on the option Allow All sites to Run JavaScript.
  6. Now, click on the OK button to apply the new changes and close the window.
  7. Finally, refresh the browser by tapping the F5 key from the keyboard and check whether videos not playing on Mac issue is fixed or not.

Clear Browser Cache on Mac

Sometimes, a cache full of files prevents the videos to play on Mac. So, cleaning up the browser history plays an effective role to resolve the videos not playing on Mac.

In the case of Safari, you can follow the steps below to clean up the Safari browser history and cache.

  1. Open the Safari browser window from your Mac device.
  2. Click on the Safari tab from the menu bar.
  3. Choose Preferences from the drop-down menu.
  4. After that, click on the Advanced tab from the resultant window and put a check mark on the option Show Develop Menu in the Menu Bar.
  5. Next, go to the Develop tab from the menu bar and choose Empty Caches from the appeared drop-down list.
  6. It will perform the browser cache clean up operation and it will take a few times to complete. Once done, click on the File menu tab and launch the New Safari browser window by tapping on the New Window option.

If you are a Google Chrome user, then the process is quite easy to perform. However, we are going to explain the steps for users’ convenience.

  1. Click on the Chrome icon and launch the Chrome browser window.
  2. Now, click on the Customize and Control Google Chrome button (three dotted icons) from the top-right corner of the window.
  3. Choose More Tools from the drop-down menu.
  4. Click on the Clear Browsing Data from the sub-menu. You should see a list of items which you have searched on the internet recently.
  5. Now, you can choose the items one by one and tap on the Remove button. Alternately, click on the All button to clear the browsing history.
  6. Once done, close the Chrome window and relaunch it. Now, play a movie to check whether the videos not playing on Mac issue occurs or not.

Repair Disk Permission

Disk corruption issue or System file corruption can damage the disk spaces and create this MP4 issue very often. To fix this critical problem, you might follow the steps below.

  1. Click on the GO option from the Apple menu on Mac.
  2. Choose Utilities from the menu that appears and double-click on the Disk Utility option.
  3. Now, select the desired disk for which you want to modify the Disk permissions from the left pane.
  4. Click on the First Aid from the list and click on the Repair Disk Permissions. Now, your Mac device will start to perform the hard disk repair operation.
  5. Once done, restart the Mac device and you might try to play a video to check whether the MP4 video is playing or not.

Disable plug-ins

Sometimes, the unnecessary extensions on your browser is another problematic factor for videos not playing on Mac. Therefore, you need to delete the unnecessary add-ons and disable the extensions which create the video playing problem on Mac device.

In Google Chrome:

  1. Launch the Chrome browser window and click on the Customize button(3 stack lines) from the top- right corner.
  2. Select More Tools and Extensions respectively to open the add-ons.
  3. Uncheck the Enable option to make the extension functions disable and click on Trash to remove the extensions which you want to delete.
  4. Next, type “Chrome://plugins” in the address bar and see the installed plugin for the Chrome browser.
  5. Then, tap on the Disable link under the plugin and deactivate them one by one.
  6. When done, close the window and press CTRL+N to launch the new Chrome window. Now, play a YouTube video and check if its playing or not.

If you have the Safari browser, then you might try out the steps below to disable the Safari Pop-up block.

  1. Launch the Safari browser window by clicking on the Safari icon.
  2. Click on the Settings option and choose Preferences from the drop-down menu.
  3. Click on the Security menu tab and go to the Security section.
  4. Uncheck the Block pop-up windows checkbox and confirm it by clicking on the OK button.
  5. When done, launch the new Safari window and verify whether the Plug-in is disabled or not.

Wrapping Up

In the above article, we have discussed the process to resolve the videos not playing on Mac effectively. Moreover, we have mentioned the critical reasons behind this annoying issue. So, we hope this content will be beneficial to fix any mp4 playing problem without any hassles.

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