Can't play video on FP2 [solved]

jezek

Hello.

On FP2 (2019-W33/2) I have trouble of playing recorded videos (not only them, all videos). There is no thumbnail in gallery and instead of playing a video an error message is shown (error in attempt to read video). If opening through multimedia app, it says that the video format is not supported.

Has anybody encountered similar problems? Does anybody know, how to fix this?

Thank you.

Edit: I encountered this problem several months ago, but was always hoping that the next update would fix it.

Edit 2: @Luksus suggested a solution, that worked for me (thank you). I'm writing it here again.

in terminal type: rm -rf .cache/mediascanner-2.0/ .cache/unity-thumbnailer/ .cache/gstreamer*/*
reboot

kugiigi

Have you tried rebooting?
I think I remember having the same issue (can't remember which UT device) but usually rebooting fixes the issue.

jezek

@kugiigi said in Can't play video on FP2:

Have you tried rebooting?

Yes, I have tried rebooting. Like I said, I've had this problem for several months. There were some reboots (and updates on rc channel) since then. I tried one reboot right now, still can't play videos.

Has anybody with FP2 on rc channel problems with videos? Can this be phone dependent? I mean it's just software. Or is there some hw decoding involved?

jezek

I have tried to change channel to stable. Installed Version 8. Now I'm on OTA-10 and the problem persists.

Any ideas anybody?

friddy

Same problem on LGE Nexus 5 (Ubuntu 16.04 (OTA-10)).

normandc

The problem is well known on the Nexus 5 (it's one of the reasons that made me procure an OPO). I wasn't aware the same issue existed on the FP2. It's not listed on the open issues.

https://github.com/ubports/ubuntu-touch/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3A"device%3A+FP2"+label%3Abug

jezek

Hellou. Today I have tried to reinstall ubports, to see if something changed for video playback. I have installed android back using fairphone 2 android manual install technique. After android was working, I used ubports installer to install ubports touch 16.04/rc (version 63). Everything went smooth and I have latest OS from rc channel. But I still can't play videos on FP2 using gallery or media player.

Q1: Are there any Fairphone 2 owners, who are using Ubuntu touch OS and can't play videos, as I do? Or you have a FP2 and can shoot and play videos without any problem?

Q2: I didn't choose the wipe user data during install. Can the user data affect video playback and cause some problems?

Emphrath

@jezek hey there ! I own a fp2 and it definitely played videos of any kind when it ran ubports (16.04 ota11 stable. It must be a hardware problem or, indeed, an installation issue. Try using wipe option. It could also be a new bug. Presently I can't tell since because I can't use the flashlight of the new camera module (known issue), it runs android (until I find myself an old 6 MP module ^^). I'll let you know

TobsEnd

@jezek I run rc on my FP2 and never had an issue with video recording and playback. Did you always have that issue?

jezek

@TobsEnd No, this issue was not always on my FP2. After I bought the phone in summer 2018 an immediately installed Ubports touch and video recording and playing was not a problem for about a year. Then suddenly I noticed, that video playback in gallery and media player is not working, even for videos I played a week ago. I thought, that it is some update issue, so I waited some time and then I started this thread.

Q: How do I test if this is a hardware issue? The only way, that comes to my mind is to install android and test video playback, but how do I know it's usind HW decoding instead of SW, if the video plays?

Luksus

@jezek :

please try the following command in the terminal (on the phone):

rm -rf .cache/mediascanner-2.0/ .cache/unity-thumbnailer/ .cache/gstreamer*/*

Then reboot.

This always fixed it for me, whenever this issue appeared again.

jezek

@Luksus Wow, that worked. You are a savior. Thank you.