Cannot Play MP4 Videos in Microsoft Teams

There is new demand for good virtual meeting platforms and Microsoft Teams holds its own. However, there are a lot of complaints that users cannot play MP4 Videos in Microsoft Teams. This is concerning as the ability to share videos is one of the key selling points for apps such as Teams. In this post, we will talk about this issue and see how it can be fixed.

Fix Cannot Play MP4 Videos in Microsoft Teams

If you cannot play MP4 videos in Microsoft Teams, there is nothing to worry about. Just follow the solutions mentioned below and your issue will be resolved.

Check your Internet Connection
Upload the file to Stream
Clear Microsoft Teams cache
Try sharing the video via VLC Media Player
Download Codec
Try Microsoft Team Website

Let us talk about them in detail.

1] Check your Internet Connection

Live streaming videos require a good Internet Connection with decent bandwidth. So, one of the things you should do is check and use a free Internet Speed tester to know your bandwidth. In case the Internet is slow, restart your router and if that didn’t work, contact your Internet Service Provider and ask them to fix the problem.

2] Upload the file to Stream

You can not upload a video of more than 250 GBs on Teams, it will show some kind of error if you try to do the same or will just refuse to accept the video. In that case, your best option is to share the video to Stream and use it to open the video in Teams. Follow the given steps to do the same.

Upload your Video to Microsoft Stream.
Copy the URL of the video, to do the same, click on the three vertical dots associated with that video, click on Share, and copy the URL.
Now, go open Teams, go to the group you want that video to be uploaded, and click on the Plus (+) icon.
Click on the Stream icon and paste the URL.
Finally, click on the Save button.

This method should do the job for you.

3] Clear Microsoft Teams cache

If Teams cache got corrupted, there is a high chance that you will face various errors including this one. The good news is, you can clear the cache at any given point, remember, it’s just the cache we are not deleting the data of the Teams app, so there is nothing to worry about.

There are various ways to do the same but first, log out of Microsoft Teams.

Now, you can open PowerShell in elevated mode (as an admin) and execute the following command.

Get-ChildItem "C:\Users\*\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Teams\*" -directory | Where name -in ('application cache','blob storage','databases','GPUcache','IndexedDB','Local Storage','tmp') | ForEach{Remove-Item $_.FullName -Recurse -Force -WhatIf}

Once the data is cleared, open Teams, log into your account, and check if the issue persists.

There is another method to do the same, for that, follow the prescribed steps.

Open Run by Win + R.
Type the following command and hit Enter.
```
%appdata%\Microsoft\Teams
```
Clear all the content of the directory.
Close File Explorer.

Finally, open Teams and check if the issue persists. Hopefully, this will do the job for you.

4] Try sharing the video via VLC Media Player

If you are not able to the video via Windows Media Player, then downloading and using a third-party video player can sometimes do the trick. This is obviously not a permanent solution as you should be able to share your video using any video player, but as a temporary workaround let us try VLC. Follow the given steps to do the same.

Play the video in VLC.
Go to your call, and click on the Share icon.
Turn on the toggle for Include computer sound.
Go to Windows and select the VLC tab.

This will do the job for you.

5] Download Codec

A Codec reduces the size of a video file so the user on the receiving end can download it faster. A lot of time, a lack of codec can stop you from sharing videos on an online meeting platform such as Teams. That is why, download the Media Player codec pack, K-Lite, etc on your computer from their official website and see if that helps.

6] Try Microsoft Teams Website

If you cannot share MP4 video using the Microsoft Teams client app then try using the web version of the same. For that, you can go to teams.live.com. This website is similar to the Microsoft Teams app in a lot of ways, and all you need to do is sign in and start using it as you would have used the app. Try sharing an MP4 video and see if it works. Hopefully, this will do the job for you.

Read: Microsoft Teams crashing or freezing during meetings

How do I get my video to play on Microsoft Teams?

You can easily play a video on Microsoft Teams; all you have to do is share your screen and select the window which is playing the video. To do the same, open the meeting, and click on the Share icon, since you are playing you may fact to include computer sound, so, enable it, click on Windows, and select that tab.

Read: How to blur the background in Microsoft Teams meeting

Why is my MP4 file not playing?

Windows Media Player on Windows 10 does not natively support MP4 files. You can install Codec or try a third-party app to play those files. However, the Media Player that you can find on Windows 11 doesn’t have any problem playing an MP4 file. If you to know more about it, we would recommend you check our guide on how to play MP4 files on Windows. That post will clear all your doubts.

Also Read: How to use the new Media Player app in Windows 11.