How to fix “Videos not playing in Windows 10”

Summary: Most Windows users habitually use Windows Media Player (WMP), VLC Player, or others to watch videos without any issue. But sometimes, you may experience unanticipated errors like ‘videos not playing in Windows 10’ in the media player. If you are unable to play videos on Windows 10/11, this article discusses what this video error is, why it occurs, and how to fix it, regardless of the media player you use on Windows system.

Irritated with videos not playing on Windows? Most media players on Windows 10/11 can play videos smoothly. In fact, tools like VLC Player, and Windows Media Player (WMP) are the staple tools Windows users utilize to watch videos on their PCs seamlessly. However, sometimes, videos won’t play on Windows 10/11. The unexpected issues can cause problems with video playback such as stuttering, glitches, black screen, and mismatched audio-video sync, etc. Such errors can ruin the entire video experience for any Windows user.

Nonetheless, the good news is that these video errors are pretty easy to fix using a few quick solutions. But before moving on to the fixes, let’s understand why the problem occurs.

Why won’t videos play on a Windows 10 laptop?

There can be several reasons for videos not playing on a laptop or PC. Some of the most common causes of Windows 10/11 video playback issues include:

Besides, if the videos are not playing in Chrome or another browser on a computer, it could be an Internet, outdated browser, or server issue. If you’re facing any of the above issues or any random error codes when playing videos on Windows 10/11, we’re sure you can find a working solution in the next section.

Tips to perfect video playback on Windows

Methods to fix videos not playing on Windows 10/11

Here are some of the easiest solutions to the issue. We recommend going through them one by one and restarting your computer after performing each fix to analyze if it’s working as expected or not.

1. Restart your video player

This is the most basic thing you should do. Try exiting your video player and restart it. To ensure it is properly closed, go to the Task Manager on your computer and find the process named “wmplayer.exe” or something similar. Select it by clicking on it once and then hit the ‘End Task’ button at the bottom of the Task Manager. Once the player has completely shut down, restart it from the Start Menu and try playing the video again. If this doesn’t work, exit WMP and restart the computer. Then check.

2. Uninstall and reinstall the Display Adapter

Although a Windows update is meant to fix hidden system bugs and improve your usage experience, sometimes you may experience a ‘Windows 10 videos not playing’ error after you’ve performed an update of your OS. You can fix the issue by uninstalling and reinstalling the display adapter. Here are the steps you need to follow:

Figure: Uninstall the display driver from “Device Manager” on your Windows PC
Figure: Scan from hardware changes option in the Action tab

3. Run “Video Playback” Troubleshooter

The built-in Windows troubleshooter is quite a handy tool for fixing most problems on your Windows PC. For “Windows 10 video playback issues” too, you can use the “video playback” troubleshooter. Follow these steps:

Figure: Troubleshooting option in the Control panel
Figure: View all options on the left sidebar in the Troubleshooting window
Figure: Video Playback option in the troubleshoot computer problems list

4. Change power options

Though this could sound unrelated to the issue, changing your computer’s power options from ‘High performance’ to ‘Balanced’ can help solve the video playback issue. Here’s what to do:

Even after trying the above-mentioned fixes, if you’re dealing with the “videos not playing on Windows 10” error, you should know that most probably, you’re dealing with a damaged or corrupted video. To remove the error, you need to fix the video using a reliable video repair tool.

5. Fix corrupted video with a repair software

Stellar Repair for Video is an advanced application that lets users fix corrupted and glitchy videos within a few clicks. This software supports most storage media, including SD cards, HDD, SSD, etc., and can repair any format of video, including MKV, MOV, MP4, etc. It’s compatible with Windows 10 as well as Windows 11 and is quite user-friendly and affordable.

You can use the software, in case a corrupt video file is not playing in PowerPoint, Windows Media Player, VLC Media Player, or other programs on Windows 10/11.

Here are the steps for installing and using this tool:

Figure: Use the “Add File” option to import damaged videos into software
Figure: Repair button in the software
Figure: Preview option before saving videos to the computer

Once the video is repaired, try loading it into WMP or another player. We’re sure you won’t face the ’videos not playing on Windows 10/11’ error anymore.

You can use the free version of Stellar Repair for Video to evaluate its repair capability, by clicking on the download button below.

6. Update Windows Drivers

Videos will not play on Windows 10 computers if the graphics drivers are outdated. Hence, to fix videos not playing issues, update the graphics drivers from Device Manager on your PC. Here are the steps:

Figure: Update Driver Software from Device Manager
Figure: ‘Search for drivers’ windows

7. Check and update Windows

Video playback issues can also occur if your computer is not updated. Check if there are any pending Windows updates. Follow the below steps to update Windows 10/11 computer:

Figure: Check for updates in Windows 10

8. Compress your video

Are you trying to watch 4k/ 8k quality videos on Windows 10/11? If yes, then this could be the reason for the video not playing on a Windows laptop.

Often Windows media players fail to play high-quality or resolution videos smoothly. Videos may stutter or show errors. However, you can fix the issue by compressing the video file.

To compress a high-quality video either decrease its size, resolution, bitrate, or crop some unnecessary sections.

There are free online video compressing programs like FreeConvert and Veed. You can also try open-source VLC Media Player or iMovie to compress videos without losing quality.

Wrapping Up

Users can experience errors when playing videos on Windows Media Player, VLC Player, or others on Windows 10/11. Usually, you can resolve minor videos not playing on Windows issues through manual fixes. But sometimes, the problem could be with the video files. In a case where a video file itself is corrupt, it won’t play on Windows. Repairing corrupt videos with a reliable tool like Stellar Repair for Video is the only ideal solution. However, to be assured, take the free trial of the repair software, which shows the repaired video.


Related Post

Exit mobile version