This support article covers playback issues for the web and desktop apps only. We also have separate articles for the Android and iOS apps.
At times, a browser can encounter an unforeseen event and will not play an episode, or will stop streaming during an episode, frequently resulting in an error message.
The most common reason an episode won’t play in your browser, is because an extension you have installed is blocking it. Common examples of this are any sort of ad/content blocking extensions like Adblock/Ublock (Night Eye – a dark mode extension has also caused some loading issues). The best way to test if this is the case, is to enter private browsing (incognito) mode in your browser, and attempt to play the podcast again. Alternatively, you can try temporarily disabling any extensions you have that might cause issues.
Another common reason is browsers blocking mixed content, like HTTP over HTTPS. Currently the best option is to use the desktop app which can be installed via the Pocket Casts web player.
An alternative option is to enable insecure content to be played through Pocket Casts temporarily:
- Click the certificate icon
next to the website location - Click site settings
- Change ‘Insecure content’ to allow
Some error messages you may receive and their meanings are:
A network error occurred, your internet connection may be unstable, or the episode may have been removed by the author
- The episode may have been removed by the podcast author.
- There may be a problem with the podcast server or your internet connection.
Your browser is unable to play this episode. Its stream may be corrupt or unsupported
- The stream isn’t in a file format that can be played by the browser. As particular examples, some Linux browsers can’t play .mp3 files, most browsers can’t play .mov or .ogg files, etc.
- Some browsers might require additional software (plugins, or actual system software support) to play certain audio or video files
- This is also the error shown when Edge wants to play a file but there is no audio-out hardware attached.
This episode could not be downloaded. Your internet connection may be unstable, or the episode may have been removed by the author
- A firewall or browser extension preventing the stream from downloading/streaming
- It is a Windows machine that has locked down local storage in Edge which causes the streaming mechanism to fail.
An error occurred decoding this stream
- The media player is having trouble playing the file, e.g internet issues, or the file is corrupted
Your browser has cancelled this episode stream.
- The browser (or possibly the computer) has deliberately terminated the stream, more likely to be a browser extension like an ad blocker or content blocker, proxy.
The episode could not be played.
- Anything in this list above could have gone wrong.