How to Fix "Video Not Playing in PowerPoint"? [6 Ways]

Although PowerPoint is a very resourceful and efficient application, sometimes its users will encounter unexpected problems. When you embed various media files like videos, audios in PowerPoint documents, you may find that these media videos or audios can't be played in PowerPoint. To help you solve this problem, I came up with this detailed guide, in which various solutions can help you solve the "PowerPoint video not playing" problem.

Part 1: How to Fix Embedded Videos Not Playing in PowerPoint? (5 Solutions)

Let's get to know different ways to fix the PowerPoint embedded video not playing issue.

Solution 1: Check the Link for YouTube Video Not Playing in PowerPoint

Apart from inserting videos from your computer, PowerPoint also lets us embed YouTube videos in a presentation. If the YouTube video is not playing in PowerPoint, then make sure the video is still there and that your system is connected to a stable network. You can also follow these suggestions to further diagnose the problem.

Step 1. Most people make the rookie mistake of copying the YouTube URL and not the embedded link. Please note that if you are adding the video URL only, then it will not load on PowerPoint.

Step 2. Once the video is loaded on YouTube, just click on the "Share" button from the bottom of the video player and choose to get its embedding code. Later, you copy this embedding link and paste it on PowerPoint.

Solution 2: Embed the YouTube Video Code

If you want to embed a YouTube video in your presentation, you need more than just copy and past the link. Instead, you have to embed the video's code in your presentation. Here's how you can do it:

Step 1. Navigate to the YouTube video that you want to insert into Powerpoint, click Share and select Embed below the video.

Step 2. Copy the embed code, open the Insert tab, and click Media > Video in PowerPoint.

Step 3. Select Online Videos and paste the embed code from YouTube, then click Insert.

Solution 3: Reset the Playback Options for the Video

You might already know that PowerPoint gives us different options to play the video in the presentation. If the PowerPoint video is not playing automatically, then chances are that you could have set some other playback option for it. In this case, you can go to its Playback settings and change the autoplay feature.

Step 1. Just open the file in PowerPoint and click on the video that is not playing automatically.

Step 2. This will enable various Video Tools in the ribbon (navigation bar) that you can browse and select the "Playback" feature.

Step 3. From the displayed options to play the video, go to the "Start" feature to select how you wish to load the video. You can choose to play it automatically, after a click, or after a click sequence.

Step 4. Make the needed changes for the video playback and check if it fixes the video cannot play in PowerPoint error or not.

Solution 4: Optimize Media Compatibility in PowerPoint

Although PowerPoint supports all the major video formats like MP4, MPEG, and AVI, chances are that some videos might encounter compatibility issues. If you are getting the PowerPoint embedded video not playing due to any compatibility issue, then this would fix the problem.

Step 1. In case the video is not playing in PowerPoint, then first launch the application, and open your presentation in it.

Step 2. Now, go to its main menu and navigate to its File > Info section and select the Optimize Compatibility feature.

Step 3. The application will automatically detect the inserted video files and will optimize them to make sure you won't encounter any compatibility issues.

Solution 5: Clear All the Unwanted Temporary Content

If your Windows system has accumulated a lot of temporary data, then it can cause unwanted issues on your computer. Though, this simple drill would be able to fix the PowerPoint video not playing automatically issue.

Step 1. Firstly, go to the Start menu on your system and launch the Run prompt from here.

Step 2. As the Run prompt will open, type the %temp% command and press enter.

Step 3. This will open the TEMP folder on your system, letting you select the temporary data on your system and delete it.

Step 4. Besides that, you can also go to the Windows drive and search for the ".tmp" string. This will let you search for temporary files on your computer and delete them.

After deleting the temporary data, restart your system, and load the presentation on PowerPoint again to check it.

Part 2: What to Do When Video Cannot Play in PowerPoint Due to the Video Itself Corrupted?

Now that you know how to fix the embedded video in PowerPoint not playing issue, let's move to the second scenario. If the PowerPoint video is not playing automatically, then chances are that the video itself could be corrupt. In this case, you need to first repair the video and then embed the functioning file on your presentation again. For this, you can use Wondershare Repairit Video Repair, which is an exceptional video repairing application. It provides a user-friendly DIY solution that you can implement if your PowerPoint video does not play.

Once you have downloaded Wondershare Repairit Video Repair on your system, you can follow these steps to fix the video not playing in PowerPoint 2010/2012/2016/2020 issue.

Step 1 Load the corrupt videos to the application

Firstly, just launch the Wondershare Repairit on your system and add the corrupt videos to it. You can just drag and drop the corrupt video or click on the add icon so that you can browse the files and load them here.

Step 2 Start the video repairing process

Once the corrupt videos are added, you can view their details like their name, size, path, etc. If you want, you can add more videos here to delete anything from the list. Once you are ready, click on the "Repair" button to start the process.

Step 3 Preview and save the repaired videos

Since it might take a while for the tool to repair your videos, you can wait for the process to be completed. In the end, you can preview your videos in the native interface of Wondershare Video Repair and save them to a trusted location.

Step 4 Perform an advanced video repair (optional)

If your video has been severely corrupted, then a standard scan might not fix it. In this case, click on the "Advanced Video Repair" option to add a sample video here. Please make sure that the sample video must be shot on the same device as the corrupt file. Also, it should be of the same format so that the application can keep it as a reference.

Although the tool will take more time to perform advanced video repair, the results would also be better. Similarly, you can preview the results of the advanced repair and go to a trusted location to save your repaired video file.

That's it! Once the video is fixed, you can try to insert it into your document again and fix the PowerPoint embedded video not playing issue.

Part 3: Video Cannot Play in PowerPoint: The Possible Scenarios

We have discussed the solutions for video not playing in PowerPoint 2019/2018/2016/2013/2010/2007, let's know more about the reasons that lead to this problem so as to avoid the problem happening again.

Case 1: Inserted Videos Not Playing in PowerPoint

This is a more common issue, in which an embedded or inserted video in the presentation doesn't play. In this, we often get a dedicated error prompt stating that the embedded video in PowerPoint is not playing.

Case 2: Original Video Is Not Playing

Apart from the embedded media file, chances are that the original video might not be playing in PowerPoint too.

Part 4: Tips to Play and Embed Videos in PowerPoint

If you cannot play video in PowerPoint, then the above-listed five solutions would be able to fix it. Besides that, you can consider implementing the following suggestions to avoid the video not playing in the PowerPoint issue.

How Do You Embed A Video?

To avoid the video cannot play in the PowerPoint scenario, make sure that you embed the file correctly. For this, launch PowerPoint and load your document on the application. Now, go to the Insert tab from its navigation menu and click on the "Video" feature. From here, you can choose to insert a video from your computer or just insert its embedded link.

What Video Formats Work with PowerPoint?

Presently, PowerPoint supports all the leading video formats like MP4, MPEG, AVI, ASF, and SWF. Although, Microsoft recommends adding MP4 files in the documents. You can also include files with AAC encoding.

How to Prevent Videos from Not Playing in PowerPoint Issues?

Lastly, I would recommend these steps to make sure you won't encounter the PowerPoint presentation video not playing problem.

This brings us to the end of this extensive guide on how to fix the video not playing in PowerPoint issue. As you can see, I have listed two major scenarios for PowerPoint video not playing automatically with 5 different solutions. You can try the listed methods if the embedded video in PowerPoint is not playing. Though, if the video is itself corrupted, then you can try Wondershare Repairit. It is an exceptional video repairing application that can fix all kinds of corrupt and damaged videos in no time.

* Some of the above codec formats may need to be supported by system.