Encoding begins once you upload a media file to Wistia. During this process, Wistia creates various quality assets to stream to your audience on playback.
Your media is often already playable while it optimizes—Wistia keeps generating the higher-quality versions in the background.
If your media upload fails to encode and our status page is all clear, try some of the steps below to get your upload ready to play.
Our number one tip is to ensure that your upload meets our recommended and required export settings, but we’ve outlined some common encoding issues below.
Upload is stuck "processing," "optimizing," or "rendering longer than usual"
After you upload a file or finish a Wistia recording, your media moves through a few steps before it's ready to share: saving and rendering, then optimizing. Optimizing is when Wistia builds the different quality versions of your media so it streams smoothly across connections and devices. While this runs, your media page shows an "Optimizing playback" banner.
Your media is often already playable while it optimizes—Wistia keeps generating the higher-quality versions in the background.
A media that's still in progress (not failed) usually finishes on its own. How long it takes depends on the file:
Length and resolution: A long or 4K file takes longer than a short, standard-definition one.
Format and bitrate: Files that don't match our recommended export settings take extra work to optimize.
Media type: Uploads, recordings, screen shares, slides, and podcasts each run their own processing and optimizing steps.
If your media page shows "Optimizing playback is taking longer than usual," Wistia is still working on it and no action is needed yet.
When to wait, retry, or contact Support
Wait if the media is still in progress, under an hour old, or showing "taking longer than usual." In-progress media (not failed) usually finish on their own.
Retry or re-export if you see a failed state or an "Optimizing playback failed" message. Follow the steps in the "Rendering failed" section, below.
Contact support if the media has been stuck on "processing" or "optimizing" for more than an hour, or it looks playable (some quality versions are ready) but never leaves the optimizing state. Send our Support Team a link to the media page so we can take a look.
Rendering failed
If your media upload fails to process, Wistia likely cannot create the correct derivatives for smooth playback. This error often indicates an issue with the file itself.
First, we recommend re-exporting the file from your media editor and ensuring that it plays in full on your device before uploading it to Wistia again. Check out our Video Software Exporting Guide for a quick overview of our suggested settings for popular editing software.
If you can’t access the original file export, we suggest running the file through HandBrake. HandBrake is a free tool that makes it easy to apply the correct export settings to your upload. Check out our suggested HandBrake settings.
If the issue continues, leave the upload in its failed state and send our Support Team a link to the media to troubleshoot further.
Audio out of sync
Audio sync issues can result from a low framerate or bitrate. Webinar recordings and screencasts can suffer from this problem.
Increase the framerate and bitrate per our recommendations, then replace the video in Wistia. Otherwise, we’ve got the old standby, HandBrake.
If the out-of-sync media is a Wistia recording and not an uploaded file, the issue was most likely introduced during recording by your camera, microphone, or other hardware limitations. To prevent audio sync issues, make sure to close other apps and browser tabs that use your camera or mic (especially on Windows), since high CPU or memory usage can cause dropped frames and audio. See our recording troubleshooting guide for more tips.
Media replacement troubleshooting
If your media replacement is stuck or fails to process, reach out to our friendly Support Team for help. For the quickest resolution, send us a link to the original file so we can review the export settings and cancel or restart the replacement from our end.
Tip
Replacing a media only updates the media file. The media URL, embed code, title, and analytics remain the same.
Failed recording or editor export
If your Wistia recording or editor export fails to render, call in our Support Team. Share a link to the media in your account and give us a quick outline of your steps so we can get straight to work.