You might see that the Dropbox Community team have been busy working on some major updates to the Community itself! So, here is some info on what’s changed, what’s staying the same and what you can expect from the Dropbox Community overall.

Forum Discussion

ldbmartin's avatar
ldbmartin
New member | Level 2
5 years ago

Should videos be buffering on the Dropbox site?

Hello, I downloaded a 2 hour and 16 minute movie and was able to show it fine to my parents on an Ipad. But then when I tried to show it on a laptop to my sister in another home, it would only show about half of it before it began to buffer. Any idea why it buffers like that and what do I need to do to be able to share it to people and them be able to see the whole movie. I've watched the whole move several times on a laptop at my house.Does it have anything to do with the internet connection??

  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

    Hi ldbmartin, thanks for posting on the Community!

    I’d like to check one thing with you first, are you previewing the file directly from your own Dropbox account, or are you viewing it via a shared link?

    If you’re viewing it from a shared link, then depending on your plan, only a specific amount of the video will play according to these limits.

    If you’re viewing it from your account when signed in, then it would most likely be related to your ISP connection, as we’re not experiencing any issues with buffering.

    Keep me posted!

    • ldbmartin's avatar
      ldbmartin
      New member | Level 2
      I am logging into my own account on their devices so yes I'm watching it from my own acct. So why would the ISP cause it- Is there somethi g that will help??
      • Jay's avatar
        Jay
        Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

        If the video is buffering, then it could be something related on their end, since Dropbox doesn’t restricting viewing the files while logged into your own profile.

        We’d recommend checking with them to see if there is any restriction of traffic to these Dropbox domains.

        Since this is happening on your computer, you could also check the antivirus and security software to see if they could be causing this issue.

About View, download, and export

Need support with viewing, downloading, and exporting files and folders from your Dropbox account? Find help from the Dropbox Community.

Need more support

If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X or Facebook.

For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.

If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!