Video Content Management - Troubleshooting My Media and Media Gallery (for Instructors)


Introduction

Kaltura is the cloud-based video management system behind My Media and Media Gallery, which are Canvas LTI tools. Note that:

  • Kaltura appears in some places in My Media and Media Gallery and in the company's documentation and user guides.
  • Course Gallery is how you access Media Gallery in Canvas. 

The Kaltura Video App for Canvas User Guide has full instructions on using My Media and Media Gallery. The instructions here are specific to Virginia Tech. To see other Kaltura topics, please click on the guide for your role:

This article covers common issues with Kaltura and troubleshooting steps.

Contents

Instructions

My Media and Media Gallery Unavailable/Not Working

Kaltura, the platform behind My Media and Media Gallery in Canvas, can experience a surge in demand causing intermittent outages. The company is rapidly increasing its processing capacity. However, My Media and Media Gallery may have brief periods of unavailability.

Until these issues are fully resolved, we suggest the following actions: 

  • If My Media or Media Gallery won’t load, check Kaltura’s Service Status. When the status is green, try again.
  • If you’re recording in Zoom or Kaltura Capture, plan to record and upload your video at least 24 hours before you want to share the recording with students.
    • If you run into issues, try to upload videos late at night or early in the morning, when there is less demand on Kaltura’s systems.
    • If a Kaltura Capture upload is still running after 12 hours, cancel it and try again.
    • If you cannot upload it again, upload the MP4 of the recording from your hard drive. See: Creating a Video with Kaltura Capture Desktop Software.
  • Give students a few days to watch videos or take video quizzes. If Media Gallery is unavailable, students can try again later.
  • If you need to share a Zoom recording immediately, share the Zoom Cloud version. Remember that recordings are only saved in the Zoom Cloud for 30 days, but are saved indefinitely in My Media.

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Locating Correct Course When Publishing a Video from My Media

If you are in My Media and want to publish a video to a Canvas site's Media Gallery it can be difficult to identify the correct course because only course names (not terms) are listed and course names repeat semester after semester.

Instead of publishing from My Media, go to the course where you want to publish the video, click Media Gallery, and publish from there. See: Publish from Media Gallery.

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Missing Lecture Capture Video

End of lecture capture support is coming:

  • Effective May 13, 2024: hardware-based lecture capture solutions will no longer be available in general assignment classrooms that are not Connected Classrooms.
  • Effective December 18, 2024: hardware-based lecture capture solutions will no longer be available in Connected Classrooms (Zoom Rooms).
For more information, see Classroom AV announcements for April 2024.
  1. Wait at least 12 hours for the video to be transferred to Media Gallery.
  2. If you're the video owner/instructor, check your My Media area.
    • If it's there, publish the video to the Media Gallery.
    • If the video isn't in My Media, go to step 3. 
  3. Go to the 4Help Portal, log in, and click Get Help. Include the below information:
    • Explain that your Lecture Capture wasn't published.
    • Provide the course number, Canvas site URL, and video date.
  4. A Kaltura administrator will look into the problem. 

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Missing Zoom Cloud Recording

  1. Make sure you're the meeting host. Only the host gets the recording in My Media. 
  2. Make sure the meeting was recorded to the Zoom Cloud, and not locally on the host computer. 
  3. Wait at least 24 hours for the video to be transferred to My Media. 

If the Zoom cloud recording still does not appear in My Media, you can manually transfer it: 

  1. Log into Virginia Tech Zoom.
  2. Click Recordings on the left-hand menu. 
  3. Click More then Download next to the recording you want to download. See also: Cloud Recording Playback. If you don't see the recording:
    • You recorded it to your computer. You can upload it from there. Follow in the instructions for Viewing recordings on your computer, then go to the next step. 
    • You recorded it more than 90 days ago and the Zoom cloud version was deleted. It cannot be recovered. 
    • The Zoom recording failed and cannot be recovered.
  4. Upload the MP4 Zoom recording to My Media. See Uploading videos from your computer

Sharing Zoom Cloud Recording

If you cannot upload the video and the need to share is urgent, you can share the Zoom recording URL while you troubleshoot. Zoom recordings are removed from the Zoom cloud after 90 days and the share URL will no longer be usable. 

  1. Log into Virginia Tech Zoom.
  2. Click Recordings on the left-hand menu. 
  3. Click Share next to the recording you want to share for sharing options and a share link.

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Re-uploading Zoom Cloud Recording to My Media due to Playback or Sharing Issues

If a Zoom cloud recording has an issue playing or being shared in My Media or Course Gallery, you can manually re-upload a new copy to My Media

  1. Log into Virginia Tech Zoom.
  2. Click Recordings on the left-hand menu. 
  3. Click More then Download next to the recording you want to download. See also: Cloud Recording Playback. If you don't see the recording:
    • You recorded it to your computer. You can upload it from there. Follow in the instructions for Viewing recordings on your computer, then go to the next step. 
    • You recorded it more than 30 days ago and the Zoom cloud version was deleted. It cannot be recovered. 
    • The Zoom recording failed and cannot be recovered.
  4. Upload the MP4 Zoom recording to My Media. See Uploading videos from your computer

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Lecture Capture Video Missing Slides/Content

  1. Switch the playback content. See Changing Layouts
  2. If the content is missing from the content switcher, go to the next step.
  3. Go to the 4Help Portal, log in, and click Get Help. Include the below information:
    • Explain that your Lecture Capture is missing the content, or that the wrong content stream is playing by default. 
    • Provide the course number, Canvas site URL, video name, and video date.
  4. A Kaltura administrator will look into the problem. 

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Cannot Upload to My Media

If you attempt to upload to My Media, but the upload fails or you get an error message or API error: 

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Video in My Media/Media Gallery Won't Play

  1. Make sure you're using an updated version of Google Chrome.
  2. Make sure you aren't running script blockers. See Script Blocker Problems
  3. Try to re-encode the video and re-upload. See: Re-encoding a video
  4. Go to the 4Help Portal, log in, and click Get Help. Include the below information:
    • Describe the problem.
    • Provide the video name and location in My Media or Media Gallery. 

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Video in Modules Won't Play

To view a Kaltura video, instructors and students must log into Kaltura through Canvas. Login occurs when you click either My Media on the global navigation menu or Media Gallery in the course navigation menu, but not when you go directly to a video in Modules. Be sure to go to My Media or Media Gallery before watching videos in Modules. 

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Downloaded Video Won't Play

  1. Check the file extension. If it's not .mp4, go to Downloaded video has wrong file extension below.
  2. Try to play the video in My Media. If it won't play, the file is likely corrupted. Try Re-encoding a video

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Wrong File Extension on Downloaded Video

Zoom recordings transferred to My Media sometimes have the wrong file extensions, even though they are valid MP4 files. Instead of .mp4 the file extension will be a strange string, like .xryp, and you won't be able to play it.

To solve the problem, change the file extension to .mp4. See wikiHow: Change a File Extension.  

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Getting 3rd Party Cookie Error

MacOS Catalina protects users from third party cookies, and will block you from watching videos in My Media and Media Gallery using Safari. To add the 3rd party cookies, go to the Kaltura website, then go back to the video in Canvas.  

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Kaltura Capture Not Working on macOS Catalina

You will have to change the system settings to be able to run Kaltura Capture on the macOS Catalina

First stage:

  1. Go to system preferences.
  2. Click Security & Privacy → General.
  3. Unlock the security padlock.
  4. Click App Store and identified developers.
  5. Lock the security padlock.

Second stage:

  1. Back in system preferences, click Security & Privacy → Privacy.
  2. Unlock the security padlock.
  3. Click Camera.
  4. Enable Kaltura Capture.
  5. Go back to Privacy, click Microphone.
  6. Enable Kaltura Capture.
  7. Go back to Privacy, click Screen Recording.
  8. Enable Kaltura Capture.
  9. Lock the security padlock.

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Kaltura Capture Video Not Uploading

  1. Wait 24 hours for the video to upload and encode.
  2. If that doesn't work, try uploading again. In the Kaltura Capture desktop software, click Re-upload next to your video.
    • Kaltura Capture version 4.2.78 has the re-upload button.
    • If you don't see it, in My Media click Add New -> Kaltura Capture to trigger the update. 
  3. Try to re-encode the video and re-upload. See: Re-encoding a video
  4. If that doesn't work, go to the 4Help Portal, log in, and click Get Help.

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Re-encoding a Video

For help re-encoding, you can Schedule an Appointment with a TLOS Consultant

  1. Download and install HandBrake. 
    1. Go to HandBrake: Open Source Video Transcoder and click Download

      Image of the above instructions

    2. Open the downloaded file.

      Image of the above instructions

    3. In the Welcome to Handbrake Setup window, click Next to begin the installation.

      Image of the above instructions
       
    4. Review the License Agreement and click Next
    5. Confirm the location of HandBrake in your computer and click Install

      Image of the above instructions

    6. In the next window, click Finish
    7. Download the video from Kaltura and open its location on your computer.
  2. Open HandBrake and drag and drop your video file into the designated box.

    Image of the above instructions
  3. Use HandBrake's default settings, which will correctly re-encode files for Kaltura. 
  4. Click Browse and type the output file name. This is either:
    • At the top of the Handbrake window, under Destination File:
    • At the bottom of the Handbrake window, labeled Save As
  5. Name the file something different from the original one. 

    Image of the above instructions

  6. Click Start Encode
  7. Once the re-encode is complete, you can upload it to My Media. 

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Captions Not Displaying

Updates to web browsers security and privacy settings have led to users discovering issues with viewing captions on videos stored in My Media and Media Gallery. Chrome and Edge have more restrictive security settings, but Firefox or Safari can be used as a workaround to view captions.

  1. Playback the video in Chrome/Edge and click the CC icon on the player to check for captions.
    1. If there are no captions, under the video's title and description, click Actions, then Edit.
    2. Click on the Captions tab. Check for any captions files- if there are none, you may need to request captions for your video.
    3. Make sure the Show on Player icon is not turned off to allow it to be selected on the player.
    4. Click Back to Media Page to set the captions on the player.
    5. If captions still will not display, go to the next step.
  2. Check to see if Firefox or Safari has a second caption listed that functions.
    1. Under the video's title and description, click Actions, then Edit.
    2. Click on the Captions tab.
    3. If there is a second caption file available, you can click the Show on Player icon to allow it to be selected on the player.
    4. Click Back to Media Page to set the captions on the player.

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Playlist Embed Error

Kaltura currently has a bug with playlist embeds with their new video player. The bug has been reported, but until they deploy a fix, follow the below steps to manually fix your playlist's embed code on your Canvas page.

  1. Embed your playlist like normal by seeing Adding Playlists to Pages. You'll see the error message.
  2. Click the HTML editor icon (</>) in the editor.
    Image of the above instructions
  3. Locate playlist_id=undefined in the iframe tag.
    Image of the above instructions
  4. In another tab, go to your Canvas course and open Course Gallery to locate your playlist.
  5. Hover over the playlist's name and take note of the URL at the bottom of your browser. The last item on the URL is the playlist ID number. It will start with "1_".
    Image of the above instructions
    • Alternatively, if you created your playlist at video.vt.edu, you can go there to obtain the playlist ID number.
      Image of the above instructions
  6. Go back to the HTML editor and replace undefined with the playlist ID number and click Save. The playlist should show up normally.
    Image of the above instructions

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Getting Help

If you need help with My MediaMedia Gallery, or Kaltura in general: 

If you still have questions: 

  • For Kaltura in Canvas or at video.vt.edu, go to the 4Help Portal, log in, and click Get Help. Specify where you are having the issue and include the video name, ID, and/or URL if applicable.
  • For questions about intellectual property, contact your department chair or the University Council

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