Why cant I upload a video to my Facebook cover?

Uploading to Facebook from a mobile phone or device is an easy way to share videos instantly with your friends and connections. If the Facebook app will not let you upload video, you may have a problem with your phone's privacy settings. Other reasons for faulty uploads include uploading videos in a unsupported file type or Web browser, which can cause many problems, including extended encoding and processing wait times.

Format

1. Facebook supports nearly all consumer-friendly video file types, including 3gp, FLV and WMV; however, they recommend uploading videos encoded as MP4s (.mp4) or MOVs (.mov). Like all video-hosting sites, Facebook must compress the video's size and convert the video to a more manageable size as they store each video on their servers. Facebook has file size limitations for video uploads, so be sure to compress your video by converting it to either MP4 or MOV format.

H.264 Encodes

1. Facebook recommends uploading H.264 video encapsulated in MP4 or MOV formats. H.264 is a codec, or encoding type, which is different from a video format. A format, or container, stores the audio and video, while the codec compresses and decompresses the audio and video inside the container. H.264 offers a significant amount more file size compression than other codecs and is the best choice for uploading to Facebook.

Web Browsers

1. The best web browsers for uploading to Facebook are Chrome, Opera, Safari, Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer. Make sure to try one of the recommended browsers if having trouble uploading. Remember to update your browser and mobile device software regularly, as hardware and software can easily become corrupted or outdated and disrupt your upload.

Video Specifications

1. For best compression and less chance of your upload failing, make sure your video dimensions are in multiples of 16px. Facebook automatically rescales videos when the larger sides of the video are over 1280px, so you may want to adjust the quality of your video to avoid complications during upload. Also, Facebook requires the video's frame rate be at or below 30fps, as higher frame rates may result in problems like dark colors and fast or slow motion.

Privacy Settings for iPhones iOS 6

1. Many iPhone iOS 6 users have complained that video uploads to Facebook have failed. Check to ensure you gave Facebook permission to access photos and videos by opening "Settings" on your iPhone and selecting "Privacy." Tap "Photos" and slide the "Facebook" icon to "On." You are required to authorize Facebook access to Photos in order to upload videos from the iPhone iOS 6.

This is no April Fool’s joke…Facebook is deprecating the use of Video Covers in Business Pages.

You may have noticed at some point since the beginning of this month (April of 2021) that your Facebook Video Covers are no longer playing. Instead, your Video Cover has been replaced with the thumbnail image of your previously uploaded/selected video.

You may have also noticed that the option “Choose From Video” is also missing from the Edit menu of the Cover options:

Additionally, you may have seen that when viewing your Business Page under the Business Manager view (https://business.facebook.com/YourPageUsername) that the options to “Choose From Videos” and “Upload From Videos” is still present (at least as of this posting on 19 April 2021):

Interestingly, if you follow the steps to “Choose” or “Upload” a Video in this view it will take you through the process of adding a video, selecting the thumbnail, etc.; however, in the end all that will appear is the thumbnail after you complete the steps.

Initially we thought this to be a bug in the system…perhaps an accident that occurred in the rollout of a new update; however (to my astonishment), I have confirmed the following with Facebook Marketing Support today (19 April 2021):

“Our team was able to check on this issue and unfortunately the cover video feature is in the process of been deprecated so will not be available in the foreseeable future. I understand that this is not entirely the solution you are hoping for but I’m glad that we were able to provide clarity on the matter.”

Translation: In the software world “deprecation” means that the function is being removed and will no longer be supported in future code revisions.

So, there it is…at least for now, R.I.P. Video Covers.

The History

Facebook Video Covers were added as a new function in Summer of 2017. This was a nice enhancement, but at that time it was only supported through a browser, meaning that the Video Cover would play when viewing a Facebook Business Page through a browser; however, when viewing the Business Page in the Facebook App (installed on your device) it would only display the video’s thumbnail.

A couple years later, Facebook added support for Video Covers in its App, which brought this nice function to its full evolution in both browser and Facebook App views.

The challenge over time has been the dimension differences between Desktop and App, changing dimensions over time (most recently in the “New Facebook” format introduced in Summer/Fall of 2020), as well as other issues…ranging from people not being able to upload/use Video Covers at all to the videos pixelating (becoming blurry) after 90 days.

I suppose that Facebook has just decided to pull the plug on this feature instead of investing in making it work. I truly hope that they will change their mind and reintroduce the feature in the future. It really did make their Business Pages stand out vs. the competition and provided a professional look and feel when done properly.

The Future

Facebook Support did state that the function “…will not be available in the foreseeable future” which does leave open the opportunity of a return, but for now it appears that their plan is to move forward without any video format capability in Page Covers. This means it’s back to using single static images or utilizing the Slideshow feature which is simply a collection of static images that requires viewers to “click through” each slide manually (i.e., they do not automatically advance like you might see on a website).

Facebook does always ask for feedback on their platform from users. While this effort many times seems futile, I can attest to the fact that they always do ask me to provide feedback and assure me that the reports are read. So, perhaps with enough reports we can prompt them to reconsider the decision to deprecate? One can only hope…

Here is how to provide feedback:

1. Login to Facebook
2. Click the “down” arrow in the top-right corner and select the “Give Feedback” option:
   
   
3. Submit your Feedback. Here is what I have submitted to them (feel free to copy or write something similar):

Can I upload a video to Facebook cover 2022?

How do I put a video on my Facebook profile cover?