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Regional Restrictions on Apps: Content won't display or stream videos in ScreenCloud?
Regional Restrictions on Apps: Content won't display or stream videos in ScreenCloud?

In this article, we'll review why certain apps and services depending on your geographic location might display errors or restrict playback.

Updated over a month ago

1. Why is an app or service not available in my region?

There can be instances where an app or third-party service you're attempting to use in ScreenCloud might not be available in your region to display or stream. For example, this can happen while using the Live News App to display a specific news channel which streams from https://youtube.com. If you're in a geographic location attempting to live stream video or media that restricts playback to your region, this is a restriction that is imposed by the host-site service (e.g. YouTube, Vimeo, etc). This type of issue could manifest itself in a few ways, such as:

  • An error message that the content or live stream is not available to play in your region

  • Black or blank screen with no error message while trying to display the media. If this is your issue, we recommend reaching out to [email protected] to help verify as this could be related to security-policy restrictions set by the owner of the content, rather than a regional restriction.

The reason for this is due to a number of factors and legislative regulations per region. This includes, but is not limited to legal restrictions, international pricing, security policies and more.

2. What if I'm in the correct region, is there any way to resolve this?

There are several reasons why an app thinks you're outside a particular region; the most common are either:

i) The IP address, which is the address websites use to determine where you're located in the world, not being registered to your location. An example of this would be if you're in the United States but your computer IP address is issued from the United Kingdom.

ii) Using a VPN (Virtual Private Network), proxy, or similar service which masks your IP address.

We recommend if you're affected by this to review our troubleshooting recommendations below. Please note, these are our general recommendations and advisory for attempting to resolve this issue. ScreenCloud does not have the support or authority to help override set regional or geographic restrictions governed for apps and services.

Troubleshooting tips:

2.1. If you're using a VPN or proxy, we advise you to disable it: if you're using a VPN or proxy service and is in the correct region, you can try disabling it to see if that helps. If the app detects that you might be using a VPN, you will be unable to use certain apps. This is because certain apps need to be confident the user is in the correct region, and if you're using a VPN or proxy, the app can't detect reliably where you are.

2.2. Check if the IP address isn't registered correctly for your region: if your ISP (internet service provider) has supplied you with a recently created or newly sourced IP address, it may be that it hasn't been registered correctly. Additionally, it may also just take a few weeks for the various databases across the internet and the apps' own database to be updated to recognize the IP address as being located within the correct region. We recommend checking directly with your ISP whether this could be the case.
2.3. You can review and check your IP address: there are various IP checking websites, such as www.whatismyip.com or whatismyipaddress.com for example, that will list your IP address, where it believes you are, and what ISP address is registered with your device. If those details are different from what you believe is correct, we advise you to contact your ISP as it's possible the IP address has been recently obtained by the ISP, or it may not be registered correctly and is awaiting certain databases to be updated. This process can generally take a few weeks for ISP providers.

2.4. Disable any web accelerators: If you're using a web accelerator, we recommend disabling it to see if this makes any change.

2.5. Restrictions using a work or professional device/network: some companies and organizations might have an internal network that routes data outside of your region. We recommend checking with your company's IT support to confirm this. Alternatively, it'd be worth checking with your IT department as well if there are any restrictions for work or professional devices/networks to restrict playback or media from specific websites and services.

2.6. If you're using your mobile device or tablet to run ScreenCloud, troubleshoot the mobile browser: check whether any data reduction features are set in your smartphones' browser settings (e.g. Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc.). Some mobile browsers route data outside of your region when data reduction features are used. For example, the Google Chrome browser may refer to this as ‘Reduce data usage’ in Bandwidth Management, alternatively, Opera may refer to this as ‘off-road’ or ‘Turbo mode’ depending on the browser version. We also advise checking if your browser is up to date or using an alternative web browser.

2.7. Disabling or deactivating data compression apps: data compression apps may route data outside of your region while using devices, we recommend to try turning this off to see if it helps resolve the issue.

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