Sometimes depending on your browser settings, you may experience some issues trying to view MacVideo videos and some of its unique interactive features. In this article we will provide some steps and suggestions on how to maintain your browser for best performance and steps to try for troubleshooting issues.
Enable Cookies and Cross-Site Tracking
MacVideo includes an Avenue to Learn integration. In order for this integration to work properly and ensure that your user account and information communicate properly, you need to ensure that you have 3rd party cookies enabled as well as cross-site tracking. To see how to enable this go here: https://macvideo.mcmaster.ca/knowledge-base/exec/why-cant-i-view-videos-in-avenue-to-learn/
Turn off browser extensions
Having certain 3rd party browser extensions such as ad-blockers turned on may cause unintended issues. If you have several extensions and plugins installed it can slow down your browser and cause other issues. Extensions and plugins take up system resources and can cause bugs and crashes.
Update your browser
Try updating your browser to the latest version if you haven’t already.
Close multiple open tabs and restart the browser
Modern browsers can use a lot of your computer resources and some websites themselves can be very demanding. Having too many tabs open at the same time can cause lag, stutters and crashes and other unknown issues.
Perform routine browser cleaning: clear your cache and cookies
Browsers collect certain files while you browse the internet to cater your internet experience to your preferences. If you re-visit a site, the cached files are stored on your computer so your browser does not need to re-download everything speeding up the process thus increasing performance. Files stored in a cache represent a snapshot of a web page or website at a given time. These saved files can become problematic if the website introduces a new feature or update that affects how the site functions. Bugs and errors could ensue, which is why users should clear the cache routinely to make sure they’re accessing the most up-to-date versions of the website. Your browser should automatically manage the cache, but the files can begin to get too large in size or become corrupt and cause more problems.
When you go to clear your cache, we also recommend clearing your cookies. Cookies are used to link you to your machine to identify who you are, where you’re from and any website preferences, and more. MacVideo uses cookies to ensure your user account works with your Mac ID within the MacVideo website as well Avenue to Learn. Cookies also store your preferences such as your caption settings on each video, remembering where you’ve left off in a video and other settings. Cookies can eventually slow down your browser or cause other issues such as conflicts on a page if it has been updated resulting in formatting errors as well as issues on page load.
We recommend clearing your cache and cookies as routine maintenance.
Click the links below for your browser to see how to clear your cache and cookies:
Chrome: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/32050?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en
Firefox: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-clear-firefox-cache
Safari: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/safari/sfri11471/13.0/mac/10.15
Edge: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/view-and-delete-browser-history-in-microsoft-edge-00cf7943-a9e1-975a-a33d-ac10ce454ca4
Try a different browser
If you’re experiencing issues with your current browser, it’s worth it to try viewing the same video in a different browser. Trying a different browser you don’t normally use could help narrow down if there are specific settings in the browser that are causing issues.
For example, Safari on iOS14 blocks all cross-site tracking so you would not be able to view videos within Avenue to Learn.