iPhone Videos Keep Pausing - How to fix it?
You are having an issue watching your videos on your iPhone or your favorite video application? Here is how to fix your issue.
To fix the video keeps pausing issue on iPhone, you first need to find the cause of the issue. There are 5 possible reasons. It can be because of a Bluetooth device, because your iPhone storage is almost full, because of a poor internet connection, or because of a bug somewhere. For each of the reasons above, I give you the steps to fix the issue.
The video is paused remotely
It happened to me many times, without noticing, I was pausing the video playing on my iPhone using another Apple device. In the Apple ecosystem, all the devices are connected together, and you can pause the video using them, your Apple Watch and your AirPods, but also non-Apple devices.
In my case, I paused videos using my Apple Watch without noticing it. It’s quite frequent as the Apple Watch screen is tactile, each time you put your Apple Watch anywhere on your skin, there is a chance you touch the pause button.
The video is also paused each time a Bluetooth headphone is disconnected. If you remove your AirPods from your ears, for example, the video pauses on your iPhone. If the Bluetooth headphones you are using get disconnected, the video pauses.
Try to disable Bluetooth, and do not use any audio device to see if it helps. If you do not have the issue anymore, it can be because of an issue with the headphones.
Videos keep pausing because of bad network connectivity
Another common reason why videos keep pausing on your iPhone is because of a bad internet connection. Nowadays, playing video requires a pretty good network bandwidth, as you need to download a good amount of data.
If your iPhone can’t download the video, then the video will be paused until enough time if the video is downloaded. Every video application works like this, YouTube, Netflix, Prime Video, it’s all the same. A small portion of the video is downloaded even before you start playing it, but not all the video. As soon as all of the downloaded part has been played, the video stop until your iPhone downloads more of the video.
In this case, you need to find a way to improve your internet connection so the video stops pausing. If you are using Wi-Fi, try to disconnect other unused devices that could also be using the Wi-Fi. If you are on cellular, move a bit to see if your cellular connection gets better.
The video paused because of a lack of storage
A storage full on iPhone can also be the reason why your videos keep pausing. It’s only true regarding videos you downloaded, available in the photos application.
As you are using iCloud, you might have chosen once to optimize your iPhone storage by offloading the photos and videos already stored in your iCloud device, choosing the “Optimise iPhone Storage” option in Settings > Photos.
In this case, when you want to play a video, your iPhone needs to download it first. But as you do not have more space available on your device, the video can’t be fully downloaded. As soon as you already played the downloaded part, the video will pause.
To fix the issue, you need to make space on your iPhone, check which applications are using the most space, and try to delete all the unneeded stuff.
Videos keep pausing because of the application itself
It’s rare but it happens, sometimes a bug can be introduced by an application update. It might be the reason why your videos are always pausing on your iPhone, using the same application.
The first to do in this case is to force the application to close. Swipe up from the very bottom of your iPhone screen to display all the open applications, and close the video application by swiping it up again. Then, start the application again and check if you still have the issue.
If it’s still the case, and it only happens using the same video application, you will have to wait for the application provider to provide a new update with a patch.
While waiting for this update to be released, you can still try to use the web version of the video application using Safari, videos should not keep pausing here. Be sure to use the default Webkit experimental features in Safari, to avoid other trouble.
Your iPhone iOS version is buggy
Last case, videos keep pausing on the iPhone due to a bug in the iOS version. It can also happen, it would not be the first time Apple released an iOS update that contains issues and bugs.
The first thing to try is to restart your iPhone, if the iOS version has a bug, it does not mean the bug is always there. Restarting your iPhone can help to fix the issue until Apple releases a new update.
To restart your iPhone, maintain the volume down and power buttons for a few seconds, then slide the power icon to power off the iPhone. Wait until it’s powered off, and maintain the power button until the screen turns on.
In any case, you will have to wait for Apple to release a new iOS update that will patch the bug causing videos to keep pausing issue.
Conclusion
As you see, videos can keep pausing on iPhones for many reasons. Using my own experience, but also by doing a lot of searches, I’ve been able to find all the possible reasons. Hopefully one will help you to fix it, I know of frustrating it is!
If you are having any issues playing your videos in full screen on your iPhone, I help you to do so here.
Author
Maxime Levesque is a technical engineer with more than 5 years of professional experience. He is an expert in computer and phones, mostly on Apple products. Maxime is also the founder of TechBrowser.
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