Read time 10 minutes
In Google Drive or Slides, a video can be embedded for playing in the native player. However, there are times when the player reports that it can’t play the selected video. One such reporting error, “Unable to Play Video Error Code – 5” occurs mainly while playing embedded videos in Google Slides. Some users face this situation while making a presentation in Google Slides. When they try to use their Google Drive videos in the presentation, they get ‘Unable to play video. Error: 5.’
The situation mentioned above indicates the same issue one way or the other. Browsers like Google Chrome often tend to throw such errors when a user tries to play videos that are extracted from Google Drive and put up in Google Slides. Sometimes, when the user switches the browser, suddenly, the error is not there anymore.
The Chrome browser is sometimes incompatible with videos imported from Google Drive, while other times the video itself causes the problem. Whatever be the reason, we need to fix the “Unable to play video error-5” in Google Chrome to get our presentation issue sorted. We will help you go through the reasons for the existence of such a video error along with quick troubleshooting solutions.
Avail a flexible and quick solution – Kernel Video Repair software that allows you to fix major errors like Unable to Play Video quickly.
Now, to fix “Unable to play video Error 5”, you need to perform a few trouble shooting techniques that are required to be executed consecutively.
Following are some reasons why video files display the ”Unable to play video Error 5” error –
- Attacks by viruses: Sometimes our files get attacked by viruses and malware which is the worst thing that may happen to a file. And these viruses make the file inaccessible for the machine to read or discover.
- System Crashes: Once in a while our system gets crashed which leads to some file errors. And hardware malfunctions or software bugs are also often responsible for this system corruption and the error message “unable to play video error 5.”
- Hard drive failure: Loss of magnetism in hard drive results in hard drive failure which leads to loss of data and results in the corruption of your video files.
As we now have a better understanding of the problem, let’s start resolving it. Below, various troubleshooting techniques are given sequentially. Follow these methods one by one to fix this error easily.
- Check for Stable Internet Connection
- Update your system OS and Browser.
- Clear cache data and cookies from your browser.
Letting your browser store cache data for a longer period can slow down your browser and can cause video playback issues irrespective of the platform they are played on. Clearing cache and cookies might help in fixing your browser for “Unable to play video Error 5”.
Since Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox are the two prominent browsers; here is how you can clear cache and cookies in both platforms:
Mozilla Firefox:
- Launch Firefox, click on the Menu button and select Options.
- On the left-hand side panel, select Privacy & Security.
- Under the Cookies and Site Data section, click Clear Data.
- Check both “Cookies and Site Data” and “Cached Web Content”. Then, click the Clear button.
Google Chrome:
- Launch Google Chrome, click on the Customize and control Google Chrome icon located at the top right corner of the interface.
- Select Settings from the list.
- Under the Privacy and Security section, click Clear browsing data.
- Check all options, Select Time range as “All time” and click on the Clear data button.
- Disable Plugins or extensions
- Launch Google Chrome and tap on the three dots at the top-right of your screen.
- Tap on Settings.
- From the left side dashboard, click on Extensions.
- Now, you can disable the extensions you want by sliding the scroller next to the plugin or extension.
- Switch to the Incognito mode
- Turn Off Hardware Acceleration
- Launch Google Chrome and tap on the three dots coming on the top-right of your screen.
- Tap on Settings.
- Next, expand the menu of Advanced coming on the left side of your screen. Tap on System.
- Now, you need to click on the scroller next to the option Use hardware acceleration when available.
- Lastly, restart your browser.
- Enable JavaScript in Chrome
- Launch Google Chrome and tap on the three dots at the top-right of your screen. Tap on Settings.
- Now, click on the Security and Privacy tab. Tap on the option Site Settings.
- Click on JavaScript and you need to checkmark the option Site can use JavaScript.
- Try a video repair tool
You may not be able to open your video file in Google slides due to poor internet connections or network issues in your area. This leads to the “Unable to play video Error 5” message on your screen. Make sure that the Internet connection is stable while you make slides or import videos from Google drive.
Updating your system OS and Browser might help in getting the issue fixed. Recent updates or patches include programs that can fix common bugs and errors. If you are using a Windows platform, you can easily update your system by following these instructions:
Go to Start and navigate all the way through Settings >> Update & Security >> Windows Update.
To update your Google Chrome, go to the browser’s Settings and select About Chrome. It automatically detects and installs updates for your Chrome browser.
Plugins or extensions are integrated to allow extended features to the user. However, some plugins may come up with viruses or malware which can affect the functioning of browsers.
Removing or uninstalling extensions that are causing the issue can also be a measure to get rid of the “Unable to play video Error 5” situation. Typically, third-party extensions which are not a product of registered organizations cause such issues. You can detect and disable all such extensions at first sight. If the error still exists, disable the other extensions one by one and check whether the issue persists or not.
Here is how to disable plugins or extensions in Chrome:
Try accessing the embedded videos in Incognito mode; browsers like Chrome and Firefox provide this feature in almost every version. Incognito mode offers a safe and secure platform for users to access data on the Internet.
In Chrome, you can enable the Incognito mode by clicking on the Customize and control Google Chrome icon and then selecting the New Incognito window.
In Firefox, click on the menu icon located at the top right corner then select the New Private Window to enable the incognito mode.
Enabling hardware acceleration uses the processor intensively if the GPU of the PC is enabled. So, you can choose to turn it off in your browser’s settings. Turning off the browser’s hardware acceleration settings can resolve the issue “Unable to Play Video Error Code – 5”
Any web browser must support JavaScript for multimedia playback. By default, it is enabled, but if it has been disabled you have to enable it again.
In case you are still getting the same error message and even switching the browsers seems to be of no help, chances are that your Google Drive videos have gone corrupt. Try using an automated third-party repair tool to resolve corruption issues from your Google Slides embedded videos.
In this regard, we have highlighted an efficient third-party repair software that will help users repair their corrupt videos irrespective of their video file format and nature of corruption.
Kernel Video Repair is one of the most popular tools to repair all types of inaccessible and corrupt video files in one go. The tool can repair videos associated with almost all major file formats. Also, this tool has no limitation on file size, and you can repair multiple files at a time. With the drag/drop feature, simple GUI, and retention of original video quality, this tool ensures accurate repair in all versions of Windows.
Final Words
In this blog, we have covered almost every measure to fix the “Unable to play video Error 5” in Google Chrome which is leading to video playback errors in Google Slides embedded videos. Typically, this issue can be easily sorted out by following some common troubleshooting techniques which we have already discussed. However, in case of corruption in the files, the most recommended way is to use third-party software. If you think that converting video to some other file format can fix this issue for you, then you can also try to do that. You can learn to convert 3GP video file to MP4 without losing quality with this sample. Hope this blog helps you fix your issue.