During the Corona crisis, most of us had to work from home. One of the devices I saw people making a lot of fuss about was the Elgato Stream Deck. As the name suggests, it intends to make streaming easier to give you a set of buttons you can use for quickly triggering actions.
Spotify Download Spotify. Mac OS X (Current 10.5)Windows; iOS; Android (Google Play Amazon)Spotify for other platforms.
Using spotify on iphone. These actions can be different things like switching scenes, cameras, hotkeys/shortcuts, and many more.
Before I bought it, I read and saw a couple of reviews. As I am not a gamer/streamer, I wanted to make sure it would be a useful device to put on my desk. Many of these reviews focus on the device its primary intention and are maybe a bit too positive. That is why I wanted to make a review myself from a none streaming background and using it on macOS.
The good
One of the best things is the device its customizability. You can specify what each of these buttons is doing via the Stream Deck application.
The application allows other products/applications to integrate their actions, such as OBS Studio and many others.
Another great functionality is the ability to create profiles. You can use these profiles for specific applications. For instance, for Photoshop, automatically show all your Photoshop shortcuts.
The bad
Some good things also come with the bad side. I wanted to use the Stream Deck with a couple of actions I saw that were possible. Like playing/pausing Spotify, muting my micro, enabling/disabling my camera. When I started the installation and configuration, I noticed these actions for Spotify, for instance, were not available. Most of all, the external integrations are created for Windows. That, for me, is one of the most significant downsides.
Something else that bothered me has nothing to do with the device and functionality itself. As I am always working from home (not because of the Corona crisis), I wanted to take control of my meetings so that I can easily change my volume, toggle the microphone mute and toggle the camera. Although this might sound like simple actions, none of them were there are fit my needs.
For instance, you have multimedia actions, but these toggle play/pause of the currently active window if something is playing in it. If not, it will toggle it on what is playing on the background. This functionality is a bit frustrating, for instance, when listening to music, and going to Youtube with your browser. When you click on the play/pause action, it stops Youtube instead of stopping the music.
My camera and microphone were only configurable if I used OBS studio. It seems that there is no internal action to enable/disable that from Stream Deck.
The ugly
As I wanted to make the device as useful as possible to fit my needs, I thought to start creating my plugin.
Info: You can find documentation for creating your own plugin here: https://developer.elgato.com/documentation/stream-deck/sdk/create-your-own-plugin/.
At first, I was not impressed at all with the development guidance. To create your plugin, you need to start from an existing plugin. It would be better to have a template/blueprint of an empty plugin to start.
Another issue I had was that if you choose to create a JavaScript plugin, it will only be browser-based. Which means you cannot use any Node.js scripts/functionality. This limitation is cumbersome, as this way limits the functionality to, for instance, toggle my microphone, camera, and so on.
Something else that bothered me was the integration with the Elgato Key Lights. If you own Key Lights (which are great by the way), to control them via your Stream Deck, you need both the Control Center application and the actions installed. The control center application needs to be running, as well. Otherwise, you cannot control your lights. As I own two lights, they both need to be set to the same setting, changing brightness/temperature. Luckily Elgato thought about this, and there is a synchronize setting. If you do something to one light, it will also get set to the other, but for some reason, this not always worked as expected.
As I wanted to check what was going on, I started checking the API calls the Control Center application performed.
That is when I saw the application was calling each light its API every 10ms. At that point, I decided to write a plugin myself, which does what I want it to do and not have to run additional applications.
Configuring it to my needs
I wanted to have the following actions:
I choose to create all of these actions within a self-created plugin, but this meant I had to come up with a way around the limitation of running Node.js tasks.
Running Node.js tasks from your Stream Deck plugin
I came up with an API to my Spotify Tray Player. This player is an Electron app that I use daily.
This API doesn’t necessarily need to run in an electron app. It can also just be a service.
I am not going into details how this I developed this, as it is a bit too specific, and might not work on another device/environment. Instead, I will highlight what each button does and give you some code samples.
What does each button do
In this section, I will go over each button group and tell more about what and how they work.
Key light controls
For my Key Lights, I choose to add a toggle button on the left to turn them ON/OFF. The other buttons are there for controlling the light temperature and brightness.
The highlighted button in the middle shows the current temperature and brightness state. That way, I know when I can stop pressing the buttons.
These buttons are controlled by directly calling the Key Lights API. Each Key Light API runs on
https://<ip>:9123/elgato/lights .
Once you have your IPs, you can call the API via a
GET request to know their current state, and with a PUT request, you can set their brightness, temperature, and ON/OFF state.
Here is a movie of how it works:
Spotify
To control Spotify, I choose to make use of the application I already had in place and added some extra API endpoints to control it from Stream Deck.
The application itself makes use of AppleScript to control the Spotify client. That way, you do not need to connect to any API.
Info: If you want to know how this works, please feel free to check out the following solution: Spotify Tray Player.
Volume controls
Stream Deck comes with volume controls out of the box. Instead, I still created them myself. The reason is to be able to show the current volume status.
To control these settings, I also make use of AppleScript.
Volume up script:
Volume down script:
Toggle the volume:
Here is a movie how this works:
Other light controls
The other light controls are Philips Hue lights. For this, I use the one and only Philips Hue integration from Stream Deck. These actions work perfectly fine and fit exactly my needs.
Microsoft Teams actions
Last but not least, the Microsoft Teams controls. First, I configured these two controls also via a script. The issue with that is that Microsoft Teams has logic, so you and other participants cannot see when you toggle your camera or microphone.
So I invested some time into finding a solution to make it possible to control Microsoft Teams. Sadly, the only way to control it is via shortcuts.
With the Stream Deck application, you can add hotkey actions.
Great, with this, you can configure the hotkeys applicable for your operating system.
Info: Find all keyboard shortcuts for Microsoft Teams here: Microsoft Teams Shortcuts.
But I did not use this. I yet again wrote my implementation. Why? Straightforward answer. When you want to perform a keyboard shortcut, the application needs to be active. If not, you will perform it to the currently active application.
In most cases, you are not having Microsoft Teams active, but running on your second screen instead. That is why I had to come up with yet another way to handle this issue.
The solution was yet again, an AppleScript. The way it would work is first to activate Microsoft Teams and execute the hotkey once active.
Here is the script to toggle your microphone:
Here is the script to toggle your camera:
Info: To make things easier, I created an npm dependency which you can use in your Node.js API.
Oct 20, 2020 • Filed to: Solve Mac Problems • Proven solutions
When you find out that videos aren’t playing on YouTube, it can be a handful in those situations. So
'My YouTube videos won't play'
Mac forums are filled with queries like this. YouTube is one of the most useful modes of entertainment and knowledge of humans. From games to guides, TV shows to the latest songs, YouTube provides access to a large video base all over the world. And when you are unable to play videos on YouTube on Mac, it can be really annoying.
So, if you can't play YouTube videos, the solutions we have gathered up for you will help you to resolve the issue.
Part 1. Why Are YouTube Videos Not Playing on Mac?
When you find out that videos aren't playing on YouTube, it can be a handful in those situations. Sometimes, the issues are common like cache problems, too large video to be streamed or internet problems. So, here are some reasons why YouTube videos are not playing on your Mac. Most of the issues can be narrowed down to the categories below:
If any of these problems arise on your Mac, it will cause issues like:
There are other symptoms too that would signify that there is a serious problem with YouTube on your Mac. Luckily, there are several solutions that you can try out to fix the problem.
Part 2. YouTube Videos Won't Play? Problems and Solutions:
Once you've found out why YouTube videos won't play, it is time that you work out for solutions. We have gathered up a list of common problems with YouTube and provided the possible solutions for that. Take a look at the problem and fix it as soon as possible.
Problem 1: Sorry the video is not available:
Several users see this error message when the YouTube videos are not loading. It simply suggests that the YouTube video is unavailable at present. It can be confusing but there is an easy fix for this problem.
Wait while the reset process finishes and you will be able to enjoy YouTube videos without any issue. It is the background that resets and your existing files won't get affected with the reset. This makes sure that the music and videos and guides remain safe and intact.
Problem 2: Adobe Flash Player is required:
It is another common issue with Mac users. When the YouTube videos won't load, it probably displays a message stating that Adobe Flash Player is required by the video. So, to fix this problem, you only need to reinstall Adobe Flash Player or simply enable it on the web browser. To do this, follow the steps below:
If the Adobe Flash Player is already installed and disabled, then you need to follow the steps below:
After you do this, the videos will not show the error and play on the browser.
Problem 3. Can't play YouTube videos on Safari:
Sometimes, just the Safari browser leads to this problem. But as the browser is the default browser for Mac, it can be annoying. So, if the YouTube videos are not playing after you updated Safari, then here are some solutions that you can try out.
With the above-listed solutions, you will get satisfactory results and the videos might start playing.
Problem 4. YouTube videos stop playing:
People who are fond of YouTube get really angry when the videos stop playing. And they scour through the internet searching 'why won't my YouTube videos play'. But they sometimes don't come across a plausible solution. Whether videos stopped playing from the start or somewhere in between, the common causes are cluttered icons on the desktop, too many applications running at the same time, low disc space, and hard drive failures. Thus, you need to carry out the following solutions:
Problem 5. YouTube videos black screen:
Technically, when YouTube won't play videos, you don't get a completely black screen. There is always a message on the screen asking you to perform a particular task. On the black screen, if you see a troubleshooting method along with the respective error, then you should try it immediately. If the main problem is that your browser doesn't recognize the video format then check out the two possible solutions that will come in handy to fix the issue.
1: Uninstall the current version of Flash Player from your Mac and download the latest version from the official website. Reinstall Adobe Flash Player and navigate to the 'Disk Utilities' folder.
Choose the Repair Disk Permission from the repair tab and let the system repair all disk permissions. It will also fix the browser permissions and you will be able to play videos on YouTube.
2: Another method you should try is opening the 'Get Info' section of the Safari browser. Open the 32-bit mode from the checkbox next to the 'Open' and then close the information window.
Now change the Safari browser settings or simply reset them and the black screen problem will disappear.
Now, you can play YouTube videos on your Mac.
Problem 6. YouTube videos not loading:
Another problem that you might face with YouTube is when YouTube videos are not loading at all. Buffering is a common thing that can be tolerated, but if the buffering doesn't come to an end and the video doesn't load at all, it is really frustrating. The possible cause might be the browser, JavaScript, the source video quality, or the browser cache. So, the solutions will become:
The videos will load now and you will be able to play them without interruption.
Problem 7. YouTube audio not working:
If YouTube app not playing videos or audios, you only need to try a trick to fix it. Typically, it means that the music embedded in the video due to copyright issues. In case every video has this issue, there might be a problem with the sound adapter or player's volume. To resolve this problem, try out the following tips:
Hopefully, it will remove the copyright issue or any other problem present on Mac.
Among all the solutions we have mentioned, you can try any of them according to the problem you face. Usually, the problem is right in front of you and you simply can identify it. So, go through the guide and you'll know what is causing so many issues with YouTube videos on your Mac.
YouTube Not Working on Mac?Part 3. Mac Solutions to YouTube Videos Not Playing:
Apart from all the above solutions, there are some usual methods that are very well known to fix the 'YouTube videos won't play' issue. These are the quick fixes to the problem and they happen to be the main cause of the problem too. So, try the solutions and hopefully, the problem will get fixed automatically.
1: Check Internet connection:
A slow internet connection can bug you more than you realize. The unstable network connections disrupt high-quality videos from playing smoothing. There are various videos, events, and shows which require at least 1 Mbps speed for streaming.
So, make sure that your internet connection is a string by running a Speed Test. Or you can pick an alternative and lower the quality of the videos when the speed is slow. Just click on the Settings icon in the video and pick the quality. As a result, you won't get interrupted by the slow internet connection and the videos will play in low quality.
2: Sync Date & Time:
If the date and time need reset, then the browser won't work on your Mac. It also results in YouTube videos not playing problem. So, you just need to sync the date and time and the problem will be fixed.
Normally, the date and time are set from the internet, but you can also set it manually.
This will resolve the browser issue on your Mac.
3: Reset the router:
Often the problem lies within the router or other network devices that you are using. So, you only need to power down the router for a few seconds and then turn it back on. This will resolve the network issue without any troubleshooting.
You can also reconfigure your router settings. Free slideshow maker with spotify music converter. If you don't know how to do that, contact the network administrator and you'll know what to do.
4: Restart the Mac:
Restarting Mac is the easiest solution you can try so that the YouTube videos will play on Mac. all Mac computers follow the same method for restart.
Macos Spotify Not Playing Preview 7
Click on the Apple icon from the top-left corner of the screen and a drop-down menu will open up. Spotify converter mac os. There you will see the Restart button. Select the option and confirm the action from the popup window too.
As the Mac restart, the extra applications and programs running will shut down and the reboot will resolve the issue.
5: Update Your Mac:
If you can't figure out what is the main cause of the problem, then you will get stuck with it and the videos won't play. But don't give up; maybe it is the macOS which needs an update. Keeping the system up-to-date is very important. Follow the steps below:
You can also set up an auto-update for the system so that the system will get updated without any delay.
At last, the problem of 'can't play YouTube videos' will disappear from your Mac. In the future, if the same problem arises, then you know what to do about it.
Part 4. How to Recover Downloaded YouTube Videos:
When the YouTube videos won't load, in order to fix the issue users delete the data from YouTube application. If you are also facing this dilemma and don't want to spend hours browsing through the YouTube app to download the files again then choose Recoverit Mac Data Recovery. It is a popular Mac data recovery that allows the users to retrieve all kinds of lost or deleted files from their system. With a clean and simple interface, the software makes sure that you don't have to struggle with the recovery process. The powerful recovery feature guarantees a safe and secure recovery in just no time.
Go to download the latest version of Recoverit with advanced features and finish the installation. Here is the guide that you need to follow to restore the deleted YouTube videos in Mac:
Step 1: Choose A Drive:
Launch Recoverit Mac Data Recovery and select a hard drive in which the files were saved. Hit the Start button to move to the scanning process.
Step 2: All-Around Scan:
The software will use the normal Quick scan mode to look for lost files and display the results according to the file path and file type. Choose how you want to view the files and search for them.
If the files that you want to recover doesn't appear in the normal scan, then switch to the Deep Scan mode. You can also pause or stop the scan if the files already pop-up on the screen.
Macos Spotify Not Playing Preview FreeStep 3: Recover YouTube Videos:Spotify Not Playing Audio
Luckily, Recoverit has a preview feature that allows the users to have a look at the condition of the file. Take a look at the selected files and press the Recover button to get them back.
During recovery, specify a location to download the files which are different from their previous location. The recovery will take some time depending on the amount of data you are trying to recover. So, let Recoverit does its job and wait until the process is finished. In the end, you'll have all your YouTube videos back on your device.
Macos Spotify Not Playing Preview AppClosing Words:
If the YouTube app is not playing videos, you don't need to panic. Issues like this have really easy solutions. You just need to know where to look for them. We have provided a complete list of solution that you can try to resolve the issue. And if some kind of mishap occurs during fixes and you lose the YouTube data, then try using Recoverit. It is an effective and reliable data recovery tool for Mac. So, whether it is videos or photos, audios or documents, archives or PPT Recoverit can recover them all.
Spotify Not Playing SongsWhat's Wrong with Mac
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