Ubuntu – Firefox not playing videos on Ubuntu 20.04.4 LTS

firefoxvideo

My newly deployed Ubuntu 20.04.4 LTS has already installed Firefox 80, but most videos in the web are not playable. One codec complains "No video formats available", while the other, for example, youtube, says that my browser can't play HTML5 videos.

What I've tried?

Reinstall the browser
Install the flash plugin(deprecated technology, I know)
Install the widevine extension. Followed instruction

These solutions didn't help me a lot: the top result reached is watching videos on the sites supporting flash content.

So, what should I do? Please, instruct me!

Best Answer

Bro, a solution for your problem takes no more than one line :)

sudo apt install ffmpeg

That's all! After restarting your firefox browser the changes are applied and the browser plays any video content you wish.

P.S. I lost 2 annoying days searching the web for solution, trying different approaches, rolling back changes, reinstalling browser and so on, and try to imagine my face when this single line appeared the solution.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Cannot play any video on epiphany

You just need to remove the totem browser plugin:

sudo apt-get purge totem-mozilla

And you should try to install Flash Player from Software Center (or try installing flashplugin-installer)

Ubuntu – Flash plug-in crashes about 50% of the time

I do not know the solution, but will attempt to offer suggestions:

I would mention that I am using Ubuntu 12.04 LTS with various Firefox installs and they are not Crashing, so there is a good possibility that your problem is more specific to your own setup,rather than being a generalized problem.

You may find some of the suggestions in a Firefox Knowledge Base article are useful: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/keep-flash-up-to-date-and-troubleshoot-problems#w_the-adobe-flash-plugin-has-crashed

Is it a crash ?

Note that if it is a crash, (then unless you are on Aurora/Nightly) Firefox will offer to send crash reports, and allow you to obtain Crash IDs. Those are useful for tracking specific reasons for Crashes.

This part of the answer is even more general, but may still help.

It has already been mentioned by "Daniel" that Adobe is not supporting Flash properly on Ubuntu. One effect of this is that Ubuntu users do not have the Latest FlashPlayer release as is used by and causing problems on Firefox Windows systems

So one thing you need NOT worry about are the Firefox issues with Flash 11.3 There will be; what is to Ubuntu users; a lot of noise on the internet relating to these issues and I am aware developers from Flash, Firefox & RealPlayer are involved. (RealPlayer have made a new release which Firefox promptly blocklisted again - soft black I presume - confirmation will be here )

Sorry for posting links but your question is at present rather general, so a general troubleshooting link seems best (There should be no link rot problem, mozilla normally archives rather than deletes Firefox KB articles, or if they are renamed or puts in suitable redirects).

Post back when you have more details and have tried read the linked articles and maybe someone will be able to offer a more specific answer.