Why Do My Videos Take a While to Upload?

See how to check your upload speed and estimate how long it will take to upload videos based on your upload speed.

Updated over a week ago

When uploading a video to Uscreen, there are a few things to check when you're finding it's taking longer than expected to upload.


Internet Speed

First, check your upload speed. You can test the speed here:

Make sure to click Show more info to get your Upload Speed—that is the key number we're after. The download speed just tells us how fast you can watch online videos.

Your upload speed will determine how fast you can upload videos on Uscreen. You can measure your speed below and compare it to the size of files you're trying to upload:

Let's look at an example: your upload speed is 10 Mbps, and you're trying to upload a 2 GB file. It will take you nearly 30 minutes to upload the file. That seems like a long time, but unfortunately, most ISPs don't offer a very high upload speed.

Of course, even if you have a good upload speed when you run the test, you'll need to make sure your Wi-Fi is stable, so try not to move the computer around while you're uploading, or you might interrupt the upload, making it fail.

We recommend not uploading files larger than 13 GB. While 13+ GB file size uploads are possible, it's not recommended since you may encounter issues.

After uploading the file to Uscreen, it will be transcoded for you. If you've followed the guidelines on file formats, you should be in good shape. You'll see an indicator in the Content section that your video is transcoding after the upload popup disappears, which is completely in our control. If you need to check the file details, you can usually find it by right-clicking the video file in Windows and going to the Properties > Details tab or clicking Get Info on Mac. Here, you'll see dimensions, bitrate, file size, etc. If your file is not in the standard format and you're having trouble uploading it, then we will recommend using the file format guidelines and trying again.

While you're uploading videos, you can open a new tab in your browser to work on other parts of your Uscreen storefront. You don't need to stay on the upload tab as long as you keep it open in your browser.


Transcoding Videos

Transcoding is a necessary process for properly formatting and optimizing videos for streaming or playback. It basically involves the conversion of the video to a compatible format. Videos very rarely get stuck transcoding. More often they just take longer than you're anticipating. Factors like file size, bit rate, and more determine the amount of time it takes to transcode a video.

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