Keynote video not playing when you share the deck? Here is why
The clip played in rehearsal. The client saw a still frame, a blank box or a silent video. Almost every case comes down to how the deck travelled, not to the clip itself. Find yours below, then share the deck in a way that keeps the video playing.
Five reasons the video stops
- It went as a PDF. PDF export keeps only a poster frame of each clip.
- It was opened outside Keynote. A .key seen through a converter or a file preview shows a still, if anything.
- The clip is huge. A 4K, 60 fps clip can stall on a phone connection long before it plays.
- The sound was blocked. Browsers block audio until the viewer taps the page, so the video may be playing silently.
- It jumped to full screen. On iPhone, web video without the inline attribute opens the full-screen player and takes the viewer out of the deck.
Check the export before you send it
Export to HTML (File → Export To → HTML) and open index.html in Safari on your Mac. Step to the slide with the clip. If it plays there, the export is fine and any later problem is delivery. If it does not, re-encode the clip to H.264, for example with QuickTime Player's File → Export As → 1080p, place it again and export once more.
What Linkdeck does to video
On upload, Linkdeck patches each video tag so clips play inside the slide on iPhone and Android instead of jumping to full screen. Sound is queued and starts on the viewer's first tap. Clips are not re-encoded: the file you placed is the file that streams, so its size matters.
Keep clips phone-sized
- Trim each clip to the seconds you show.
- Export at 1080p; nobody sees 4K on a slide.
- Prefer H.264 for the widest browser support.
- Keep the whole export under 200 MB on Free or 500 MB on Pro.
Share it as a link
Right-click the export folder, choose Compress, upload the .zip on linkdeck.me and send the link. Open it on your own phone first and tap once, so you hear what the client will hear. Free links last 3 days; Pro (€12 a month) keeps them permanent and adds a password and per-slide viewing time.
Questions
Why does the video play without sound?
Every major browser blocks audio until the viewer interacts with the page. Linkdeck starts the sound on the first tap, so ask viewers to tap once when the deck opens.
Does Linkdeck compress my video?
No. Images and GIFs are optimised on upload; video is stored exactly as Keynote exported it. Trim and resize clips before you place them.
Will the video play on Android?
Yes. The link opens in Chrome and clips play inside the slide, the same as on iPhone. Test one pass on an Android phone if you can.
Send a deck where the video still plays
Export to HTML, compress the folder, upload. Free for one deck up to 200 MB, no account needed.