Advice requested: Audio clips not working on mobile devices and SOME browsers | XM Community
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Advice requested: Audio clips not working on mobile devices and SOME browsers

  • February 13, 2023
  • 5 replies
  • 797 views
S
Level 2 ●●
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Hi all,
Some of our projects involve participants listening to a large array of audio clips that are set to autoplay once. I have read here (https://community.qualtrics.com/XMcommunity/discussion/664/autoplay-videos-from-files-library) that mobile devices restrict autoplay features to avoid too much data being used without owner's consent. I have experienced issues with audio clips for this particular reason, but what could a reason be for some participants also experiencing a similar issue when using different browsers on a laptop/PC?
For the project we run, we advise people to use Google Chrome as we found this to be the most reliable (compared to other browsers such as Safari, Edge etc.), but some people have experienced audio issues with this too. Is it a matter of not having an updated browser, or an old device/operating system? Or is there something else that could make audio clips not fail to generate as much?
Note - most of the time it works perfectly, but to optimise our projects, we obviously would like a more efficient way of including the audio clips without them failing to play.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you in advance.

5 replies

TomG
Level 8 ●●●●●●●●
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  • TomG
  • Level 8 ●●●●●●●●
  • February 14, 2023

It is probably an issue with the type of audio file you are using. The audio format is separate from the browser, and the one you are using may not be supported on all devices.
For best compatibility across devices your best bet for audio files is mp3. If you are using mp4 (video), your best bet is to use the H.264 codec for audio.

S
Level 2 ●●
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Thank you for your reply TomG . We do use mp3 files all the time for audio files.
Could the number of files embedded in a survey have any impact too? We have quite a few included (>80), which, as I mentioned, only seem to be problematic for some people. We have found that some people using Safari on a Mac experience issues more than Google Chrome users on Windows.

TomG
Level 8 ●●●●●●●●
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  • TomG
  • Level 8 ●●●●●●●●
  • February 14, 2023

https://community.qualtrics.com/XMcommunity/discussion/comment/55405#Comment_55405The number shouldn't matter. Maybe there is something wrong with some of your mp3 files? You could check them with mp3val.
It's not surprising that it is only a Safari issue. It is typically the most problematic of commonly used browsers.

S
Level 2 ●●
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Thanks TomG.
If the files were corrupted, none of them should work? Most of the time, the clips do work for people.
I mention the number as some time ago there was an issue happening slightly more often with the audio clips not playing after a specific number of trials. I contacted Qualtrics support who suggested that Google Chrome had changed the number of pre-load clips and to switch to FireFox. We recently switched back as this issue seemed to have stopped, with FireFox experiencing a few issues.

TomG
Level 8 ●●●●●●●●
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  • TomG
  • Level 8 ●●●●●●●●
  • February 15, 2023

https://community.qualtrics.com/XMcommunity/discussion/comment/55427#Comment_55427Sometimes a corrupted mp3 file will work on some devices and not on others.

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