Sharing VideoPress Upload to Facebook
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I’ve been digging through the forums trying to find a way to share uploaded video content content to Facebook. There are articles suggesting VideoPress used to let users share a video to Facebook, but I’m not finding that functionality anymore.
So, my problem : Unable to share an uploaded video to Facebook.
My question : Can a media file (i.e. an uploaded .mp4) which has been uploaded with the VideoPress upgrade be shared to Facebook? I’m not talking about the “Facebook Share” buttons on blog posts. Rather, I want to share a single media file and have it play in-line with Facebook.
It seems this should be a no-brainer… but is it possible?
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hi there,
I don’t believe Facebook allows media files (like an uploaded .mp4 file) to be directly shared there, for example in a status update. However, one way to share videos to Facebook is to connect your blog to Facebook with our Publicize feature: Publicize
You can set that up under Settings > Sharing in your blog’s dashboard. That will automatically share your new posts to Facebook. If you insert the video in a new post, when you publish the post it will be sent to Facebook and you’ll be able to play the video from the Facebook post.
Please let me know if you have any questions about that. :)
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Thanks for your reply. The publicize feature works well if there is only a video in the blog post. However, my posts are 99% multimedia and the Publicize feature prioritizes any images in the post, and it also prioritizes the Featured Image. Is there a way to have Publicize prioritize a video? Or, can you tell me how to switch the thumbnail of what’s being shared? Because, when using Publicize it has never given me more than one thumbnail to use (i.e. the Featured Image).
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Ah yeah, if you have other media in the post, there isn’t a way when you use Publicize to make sure the video is the one Facebook displays. (Facebook chooses the image automatically.)
Instead, I’d recommend posting a link to the post on Facebook manually, in a Facebook status update. When you do that, before you publish the status update you should see all the different media in your post, so you can choose which one you want Facebook to show. Choosing the video will make the video appear in your status update.
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There seems to be a limit to the number of thumbnails it will choose. Your method would likely work with a limited number of media in the post. For instance preview this post:
http://ianajohnson.com/2014/07/01/sea-life-and-glaciers-seward-alaska/
It’s a typical post on the website (by typical I mean the amount of video and pictures). Facebook only accessed ~10 of of these images for a thumbnail, and the video, which is the first media item in the post, is not selected for preview.
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I see what you mean. Unfortunately, we can’t control what media Facebook picks out when you share a post there, so it might not work for posts like that with a lot of images and videos in them.
In cases like that, I’d recommend either creating a separate post/page with just the embedded video, which you can use to share to Facebook, or uploading the video file directly to Facebook instead.
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Ok, so now I have an interesting ‘bug’ issue to ask you about in regards to that.
I created a page an inserted the video. Under “share this” at the bottom of the page I used the Facebook button. The first time I tried it the resulting box gave me left-and-right arrow over the image to select a thumbnail. However, after a tweak to the page I went back in and did not get the thumbnail selector arrows the second time.
This same issue happened to me the other day too where the second time I use the Facebook Share button, I lose the ability to select a thumbnail. Thoughts?
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Hm, that’s odd. I wasn’t able to reproduce that when I tested it. Can you send me a link to the page where that happened? I’d like to take a look and test it to see if something is going on with that page itself.
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Here’s the page I created to just share a video.
http://ianajohnson.com/videos-2/ians-facebook-video-page/
I tried sharing again today with the Facebook button at the bottom – again, no ability select a thumbnail. The only time I’ve been able to select a thumbnail is the first time I share the item.
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Also, it may be pertinent that I use primarily Chrome, and haven’t accessed the webpage in any other browsers. I’m not sure if different browsers handle WordPress features (Publicize) differently.
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Thanks for sending me that link. I tried sharing it to Facebook with the Facebook sharing button, and the same thing happened. I’m not sure why Facebook isn’t recognizing the video in that case — we’re definitely telling Facebook there’s a video on that page.
However, I found that if I copy the link to that page and paste it directly into a Facebook status update, the video appears there. I’d recommend using that method instead of the sharing button to get it to work in this case. :)
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Ok, yes. That worked. However, it’s a bit clumsy overall. It seems with the OGG theater that it should be easier to share a single video item to Facebook – or, subsequently images – which is also difficult, but could be achieved in the same method you’ve suggested.
But, overall, thanks for your help. I appreciate the work-around.
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I just wanted to share a few more oddities in the hope that WordPress can address these issues with Facebook compatibility.
I just put together a post with only a video and text in it (e.g. no pictures). I did this in hopes of sharing it up to Facebook and having the video play inline (which is what worked above). However, Facebook only took a thumbnail from the video and would not play it inline. So, I tried re-creating the post on a page and putting it onto Facebook. It did the same thing. Here is a link to the post:
http://ianajohnson.com/2014/07/24/aurora-nostalgia-a-season-of-aurora-footage/
The ONLY way I’ve been able to have a video play inline with Facebook is to create a blank page with the video. Here’s the page with the video (but no text, or anything else) that played inline with Facebook:
http://ianajohnson.com/videos-2/aurora-compilation-2013-2014/The only thing that I can figure, is that Facebook can play a video inline if there is nothing else on the page, other than that it bawks at it.
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