Why does a Video Clip I received have no sound?
Occasionally, users will receive a video submission with no sound or audio. It's important to note that in this case, we are talking about no audio at all and not a video that does have sound but is just really, really quiet. One of the leading causes for this (which happens mostly on videos submitted from iPhones) is described below:
Submitting from an app that lacks permission to use a microphone
Problem
Let's say you send “Jane” your Record & Upload Link using email, Facebook, or any other communication platform. Jane gets a notification on her phone from the app (which could be an e-mail app like Gmail, Facebook, Messenger, etc.) and opens the link from within that app. Jane is then taken to your Record & Upload Page within the app. For this example, let's say that the app is Facebook, but it's important to note this issue could happen with any app.
What Jane likely doesn't recall is that previously, perhaps a long time ago, the Facebook app prompted her for permission to access her device's microphone and camera. Since Jane was just taking a picture, she allowed access to the camera and denied access to the microphone. Perfectly reasonable. However, these permissions were automatically saved for the Facebook app. So now, when Jane is visiting Memento while using Facebook, it grants Memento access to the camera, but not the microphone, and does not remind Jane that it cannot access the microphone (unfortunately, currently, there is no way for Memento to detect this lack of permission on iOS). So Jane records a video as she usually would, not realizing that no sound is being recorded.
Solutions
Record the video outside of any app
Instead of recording the video directly on the Record & Upload Page, Jane could use the built-in camera app on her device to record the video. Unless her microphone is not working at all, this video will have sound. She can then visit the Record & Upload Page and upload the video.
Grant the app permission to use the microphone
To fix this issue more permanently, Jane could change her device permissions and grant Facebook access to the microphone. Now she can record the video directly onto the Record & Upload Page within Facebook and have working audio.
I could previously hear the Video Clips, but now none of them have sound
First, do not worry. The videos likely still have audio, as they did previously, but an audio issue with your browser or device is the culprit.
Check that your sound is on and your speakers are functioning. Can you hear sound on other web pages and from other applications? If you cannot, please check your device, computer, or volume settings to ensure that you have sound enabled on your device.
Muted Tab?
Some browsers offer the ability to mute specific web pages. This can be helpful in some circumstances, but sometimes it can mute things we want to listen to - such as our Video Clip submissions! To make sure that your browser hasn’t muted Memento, please take the following steps:
Safari: On the right side of the address bar, you should see a speaker icon. The sound is muted if that speaker icon is grey with a line through it. You need to click the icon and unmute the tab. Please see Mute audio in tabs in Safari on Mac for further information.
Firefox: On the right side of the address bar, you should see a speaker icon. You can click on it to mute or unmute the site. Please see Mute sound in Firefox tabs | Firefox Help for further information
Still No Sound?
Try the following troubleshooting options:
- Close and re-open the browser and try again
- Log in on a different browser
- Log in on a different device
We hope that this helps. If you're receiving videos with no audio, but their submission scenarios seem quite different from what is described above, please let us know by emailing us at help@memento.com.