Unable to Upload Videos Locally, Even Though FFmpeg is Properly Installed

I recently had a similar issue. My server said I needed to go with 777. I forget the exact file though as it has been a few months. However when I did user submitted videos are now no longer a problem. If unable to easily figure out keep te thread alive and I will try to go back and look at my support transcripts for a folllow-up. Also, issues like this make have a managed server with good support worth their weight in gold. 

Lewis, are you possibly referring to the "PF.Site/Apps/core-videos"; folder?

If so, in their online instructions, phpFox says to set it to 777. However, they don't state if that is just the top folder, or if those permissions should be recursive all the way down:

https://store.phpfox.com/apps/videos

At any rate, even when I set that folder to 777 recursively, I am STILL not seeing any videos in my timeline, in the main news feed or on the videos page.

I put this on my task sheet for tomrrow. About to head to bed. I will review my support logs with my server to see if I can run down their conversation I had. I will touch base tomorrow afternoon. I will check here first to see if you found a solution by then.

Check to make sure your ffmpeg binary location is properly set. Also there could be a php conflict.

Lewis, as I stated previously, "The path to the FFmpeg binary is set properly, because on the "FFMPEG Video Utilities" page it now shows the FFmpeg version information, as well as the supported video formats."

I tried using just a downloaded binary via a link on the ff·Works -- formerly FFmpeg -- website, but it did not work, and I got the path error. So, I used Homebrew and did a full installation via the Terminal app.

As I said, the Homebrew installation does indeed work, and phpFox recognizes it. Yet still, dragging and dropping a local video from my computer is still not working for some reason. phpFox allows me to add the file, and says that it will now process it, but then nothing shows up anywhere on my site.

Let me ask you again. When you drag and drop local video files from your computer, do you know WHERE they are actually stored on the web server? In this case, the web server is another iMac on my residential LAN.

BTW, I do NOT use a version of PHP that is stored in the usual place on macOS. I use a customized version that the web server folks told me to download. This version -- 7.4.8 -- runs both my WordPress blog, as well as phpFox, and it works just fine.

But, because this customized version of PHP is not installed in the typical place on macOS, for both my blog's "wp-cron.php" file, as well as for phpFox's "cron.php" file, I have to add a shebang line at the top of each file to point to the right PHP binary. I would think that this would be sufficient to make the Videos app work.

One other thing. Being as I did a full FFmpeg installation via Homebrew, I would think that all of the dependent libraries are present on my web server machine, including the ones that the phpFox folks specifically mention on their Videos app instructions page. In other words:

libmp3lame, libvpx, libtheora, libfdk-aac, libass, libfaac, libx264 and libvorbis.

As a last resort, I am going to use the "brew install" terminal command with each of those and see what happens. I suspect that the Terminal app will report that they are all already installed.

Anyway, if you -- or anyone else here -- have any other ideas how I might get this working, please let me know.

To reiterate, video links -- such as from YouTube -- DO work. It is just local video uploads which are NOT working.

Why am I not surprised? As I mentioned in my previous post, just now, I attempted to install, or re-install, the eight libraries which phpFox states in their manual for the Videos app installation instructions, are necessary in order for FFmpeg to process locally uploaded videos in phpFox. In other words, libmp3lame, libvpx, libtheora, libfdk-aac, libass, libfaac, libx264 and libvorbis.

But guess what? Of those eight, FIVE of them are no longer available, which means that they were probably deprecated some time ago. The other three of the eight were ALREADY installed -- as I suspected -- and were already linked. For the five which could not be found, the Terminal app reported this:

Error: No available formula or cask with the name "libmp3lame".
Error: No available formula or cask with the name "libtheora".
Error: No available formula or cask with the name "libfdk-aac".
Error: No available formula or cask with the name "libfaac".
Error: No available formula or cask with the name "libx264".

In fact, it automatically checked the github repository and couldn't find those five there either.

I really wish that phpFox would keep their online manual up-to-date. A number of times now, I have referred to it for assistance, only to discover that the graphics they use in their manual are outdated and don't match what Apple shows on their website, or else their instructions don't match what Apple says on their website, or else their instructions are simply not clear enough. Being a person who is prone to efficiency and details, it really causes me frustration. Folks, please work on updating your manual. Thanks!

Bill, I wish I could help but dealing with Mac I am lost. My observations is that it does take videos a little while to process. Not sure how powerful your server is but that could dramatically effect it I imagine, especially if dealing with large videos. YouTube linking is basically just a window into YouTube so there is no processing there, which is why that feedback happens so quickly. 

A run down of my support basically said this when I had asimilar issue: We installed FFmpeg PHP extension for PHP 5.6, We are unable to install the said PHP extension for PHP 7.x due to conflicts with Zend. Makes me wonder what is going to happen when I have a nice big vcoomunity on it and the server says time to upgrade to PHP 7.x or higher. Sounds like a lurking issue already.

As for where my videos get stored it is: PF.Base/file/pic/video

Based on your rundown your skillset is far above that of mine. At some point I would love to learn more about a home based server, so I could have more control of the environment. I have several sites and am dealing with a php upgrade now on one they say I have no choice in but when they ran their initial test it broke my site. I am having problems with the upgradee and may have to go with phpFox to help, which I am not real excited about as they are a little less forthcoming on questions I have asked and do not seem to place much priority on support servcies. This is a huge concern as the website in quesiton is my main income earner.  I like the version of the site as it is now and if I was in control of the server upgrades would be on my timeline. I have a philosophy however of if it is not broke don't fix it. I hate upgrades for the the simple purpose of upgrading. Always ful of gotchas, snags, unwanted fetaures, unnecessary changes and lots of troubleshooting on things noone seems to have a clear answer on.

There are a lot of pluses with phpfox but they could definitely use help with their communications, support and documentation. As an owner of several small businesses myself I understand the challenges that go along with administration tasks, as a client I understand the frustration many of us face when we are dependent and need the help and it comes slowly or not at all. When you find the answer to your issue please do take the time to post it. I have found out through experience that the forum here can be better in many cases than seeking direct support.  Chances are if you are having the problem so are others. Having great minds on the forum is nice. I would love to see it progress to the point where it was a top tier support network.

Hello again Lewis. Thank you for your response. I appreciate it.

For the record, the video I tried to upload from my iMac to my server machine was only 6.1 MB in size. So I would think that it would be processed very quickly.

My server is an iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017) with a 4.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 processor and 16 GB of RAM, so I don't think that is the issue. There is usually 7 or 8 GB of free RAM, and sometimes more. I am relatively certain that something else is going on with regards to my problems with the Videos app.

Your remarks regarding the FFmpeg PHP extension are troubling. In the online phpFox instructions for the Videos app, there is no specific mention of needing a FFmpeg extension installed in PHP. It does, however mention needing a FFmpeg installation on the server machine, or else using the other method with Zencoder and Amazon S3. I can't afford the latter, so in my Videos app setup, as I mentioned earlier, I point it to my FFmpeg installation instead, which phpFox seems to accept as a valid FFmpeg installation.

Out of curiosity, I did check my PHP installation, and I did NOT find a FFmpeg binary in the "bin" folder. I am going to write to the developers of the web server software that I use, and ask them to include it in their next release of PHP 7.

Thanks for pointing me to the location of uploaded videos. That is really helpful, because it will help me to determine if videos are actually being uploaded to my server, or if that is failing to occur.

This story gets even weirder.

I assumed that video links -- such as to YouTube -- were working fine. So, I set up a new page on my phpFox site where I could add links to my small collection of about 30 Christian-oriented YouTube videos, which I made about 2.5 years ago. I was really happy with the new ability to offer videos on my site ... until I hit the aforementioned snags. But now there is new weirdness.

After setting up my new videos page, aside from trying to upload videos from my computer, I also added a new post with a link to one of my YouTube videos. It worked fine, so I assumed everything was okay. Yay, me! But, my excitement was short-lived.

After adding one post to my new videos page with a YouTube video link included in it, I was going to make a number of other new posts on my video page with one video link per post. But you will never guess what happened, and I still don't understand it.

Even though I am absolutely certain that I used a different YouTube link in my second post, it displayed the very same video as in my first post. In fact, I tried several times, and the very same thing kept happening, and continues to happen. Even if I delete all video links and posts on my new video page, and make a brand new post with a YouTube video link in it, and then make another new post after the first one, the same thing just keeps on happening. In other words, despite the YouTube URLs clearly being different, all links display the very SAME video. I just don't know what to think at this point. I don't know if it is something that YouTube is doing to restrict us, or if it has something to do with the phpFox Videos app itself. I am even beginning to wonder if it might have something to do with the YouNetCo Facebook template that I am using.

At any rate, this is yet another issue I need to now write to the phpFox support staff about. It just seems that the Videos app is not working right for me at all, even though I appear to have everything set up properly, as far as I know.

Yes, having total control over your own web server and website is a HUGE plus. Nobody can mess with it, or dictate to you what you can or cannot do on it. Plus you have direct access to it when problems occur, without the need to wait for third party tech support to help you out. Of course, it can also be VERY frustrating when problems occur which you do not understand. Trust me when I say that I have learned a lot over the years through much research and trial and error.

Anyway, if I do eventually work out these Videos app problems, I will try to remember to post something here.

I have spent 2 days trouble shooting this, I set up simialr apps on my wordpress not a problem, same similar instructions, only thing is that there instructions always work. I set up Zencoder +S3, and installed FFMPEG, which only took like 3 mintues to complete the install ssh, but for phpfox to install, they want to charge $100.

Whats happens is, that you will spend days trying to figure out there neddle in a haystack until you get bored after reporting all there bugs, next version releases SOON. I been like this for over 10 years and its discusting, especially phpfox support is overpriced, will be often needed, so its an extra bill on top of Zencoder, Amazon S3, VPS servers which now needed mostly to run the script. And everything we have to do is directed towards a credit card, or creating another account on a 3rd party platform. Until this last version, I only had to pay $1.63 a month to run the script, now its $63 to run the features (apps) and will get extremely expensive as we go.

I can clearly tell you this, after working on wordpress and installing numerous S3, editing bucket list, Zencoder, Youtube API, uploading to youtube from my site, and having users upload videos to my wordpress sites is a very easy install for me ive played with it long enough, and the instructions are always updated. I just had to follow Zencoder instructions from phpfox that was authored by Reymond Bec who has been gone for years.

Zencorder instructions is off, and incomplete, this is phpfox little money sheme to use the words like you must be experienced. No, your clearly missing information, and this is why you do not submit fix reports to each of your clients to let them know if it was on your end, in the script, or a server problem. Time and time again, I have to ask for the files they edited, and never get it!

So on my end;

Videos: Set up properly, FFMPEG is set up properly

Zencoder: Set up properly, when I upload a video from the site, it goes to Zencoder

Amazon S3: I can see the videos and view them on Amazon

core-videos: 777

Once I perform these task on wordpress it no more issues, no one to ever contact, it will simply be a notice to say upgrade.

Now, when I requested phpfox to do a fresh install so that there product will work. It stated they would install all of the neccessary software. Without a work order, basically all they do is upload files, input the information you give them, and click install. It takes more that 3 mintues to upload all the files and that cost $50. To install FFMPEG takes less than 5 minutes, especially if you know what your doing, its no sweat, that has a service fee of $100, you do the math! If you can comprise all the files from GIT to install into your repository, dont you believe phpfox can do the same, and always give us the proper information to follow instructions? Its like we are clones for facebook, and other social media platforms that are clearly moving forward. I would never offer this product as an insult to be compatitive to an investor. It would be robbery!

I have not read all the posts but had an issue with local videos too. The problem for me was that FFMPEG does not install needed codecs. After installing the libavcodec everyting works fine for me:

sudo apt-get install libavcodec-extra 

Maybe that helps...

In my case, it turns out that phpFox did not like the way I had set up my cron job on my iMac-based server. Rather than use the LaunchControl app to set it up -- as I have been doing for years with my WordPress installation -- I had to set it up a completely different way using the macOS Terminal app. Once I did that, not only did video uploads begin to work properly, but a bunch of other stuff -- such as email notifications -- suddenly began to work as well.

this is disheartening as all of this is above me. Ive had this script since the beginning and it has been ran into the ground in my opinion. nothing is editable by me anymore. sure my fault for not learning I guess but back in the day I was adept enough to customize whatever I wanted. now I cant do anything. 18 files for the same thing all over the place..

cant even find a phpfox "developer" that wil answer back even after buying their teme 3 days ago..