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Channel Preview Screen Not Working and Displaying as a Black Screen, How Can I Fix This?
Channel Preview Screen Not Working and Displaying as a Black Screen, How Can I Fix This?

This article will go through how to troubleshoot if your "Preview" channel function is not working properly and displaying as a black screen while reviewing your channels or playlists.

Updated over 2 weeks ago

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There are a few ways to troubleshoot if you notice that previewing your screen is not working correctly and displaying it as a black screen. You can follow the steps below to help resolve this:

i) Use an optimized browser for ScreenCloud: We recommend using Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox while browsing ScreenCloud. Browsers such as Safari, Microsoft Edge, and Internet Explorer are not optimized for most websites and may cause intermittent glitches while in use.

ii) Make sure you have content assigned to your screen: If your screen has any messages which state "No Content", assign a piece of content, a playlist, or channel to the screen. When you first create a new screen, the ScreenCloud software will provide options for you to select channels you've created, this can help avoid creating screens with no content assigned. For example, if you're using a Channel with no content assigned you'll receive a status indicator warning with a message that the "Channel is Empty".

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iii) Check if you're using a playlist with content: You can assign a playlist to a screen without content and this mistake can happen! You can find yourself working on a playlist and accidentally assign an empty one to your screen. Please check if you're using a playlist that has any apps or content in use.

iv) Check any schedules you've set up using the Channel feature: You can assign a channel to a screen without having content set for specific days or time. You can also have a black screen if you do not have content assigned for each hour of the day while a channel is scheduled to run. For example, if you set a channel to only play content from Monday through Friday at 9am to 5pm, your screens will be blank from 5pm to 9am the next day unless you assign content to the empty slots of time. Please note also while previewing channels that the preview screen will only show you content that is set to display at that present time, the preview feature doesn't have the ability to display content scheduled at a later time.

v) Check if you're using any websites or content that cannot be used on third-party apps: If you have any webpages or sites that are the main pieces of content you're displaying on the screen, it is possible they will not play properly in our player if they have restrictions. For example, if you're trying to display a website on the screen that belongs to a university that does not allow websites to embed it's URL anywhere, the player will not be able to load it. You will usually receive a warning message when trying to add a new "Link" into ScreenCloud which has any restrictions from the source site you're trying to display on the screen.

vi) Reach out to our support team: If you've gone through the troubleshooting options, please reach out to [email protected]. We'll be able to help further.

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