Problem with Iplayer - it isn't working!

Hi Dan,

Happens in both IE and Firefox - refreshing doesn't help, it just gives you the same problems.... attached is the screenshot

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/playlive...
Here is the URL - I did the same as I have done the last many weeks!

Hi Geoff,

The Screenshot didn't come through - if you're able to attach it, that would be handy.

I've tried reproducing your errors on the Radio 4 listen live page, but everything works fine both on IE and FF.

From the error messages, it looks very much like as though some of the JavaScript files you're accessing are old cached versions. Please try clearing your cache and again refreshing the page. If you're using a proxy server to access the web, this may also cause problems with cacheing - if possible, try accessing the website directly without going through a proxy server.

I will pass this on to the relevant team for them to try to reproduce your problems, but in the meantime please let me know if you get it working.

Thanks,
Dan

Didn't work! I have tried to delete all the data I can, but the problem (see below for the text listing of the various errors) is still there.

By the way though, just asking people to delete temp files, caches and cookies isn't a great approach given that it's likely to break so much other stuff!!! Thanks for your help though...

Webpage error details

User Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.1; Trident/4.0; SLCC2; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30729; Media Center PC 6.0; .NET CLR 3.0.04506; .NET CLR 3.5.21022; Media Center PC 5.0; OfficeLiveConnector.1.3; OfficeLivePatch.0.0; SLCC1)
Timestamp: Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:54:10 UTC

Message: Invalid character
Line: 1
Char: 1
Code: 0
URI: http://wwwimg.bbc.co.uk/glow/cached/g...

Message: Invalid character
Line: 1
Char: 1
Code: 0
URI: http://wwwimg.bbc.co.uk/glow/1.4.2/gl...

Message: Invalid character
Line: 1
Char: 1
Code: 0
URI: http://wwwimg.bbc.co.uk/glow/1.4.2/gl...

Message: 'glow' is undefined
Line: 1
Char: 17236
Code: 0
URI: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/r13879/s...

Message: 'iplayer.pollnode' is null or not an object
Line: 1
Char: 1167
Code: 0
URI: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/r13879/s...

Message: 'iplayer.user' is null or not an object
Line: 633
Char: 1
Code: 0
URI: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/radio/bb...

Message: Invalid character
Line: 1
Char: 1
Code: 0
URI: http://wwwimg.bbc.co.uk/glow/cached/g...

Message: Invalid character
Line: 1
Char: 1
Code: 0
URI: http://wwwimg.bbc.co.uk/glow/1.4.2/gl...

Message: Invalid character
Line: 1
Char: 1
Code: 0
URI: http://wwwimg.bbc.co.uk/glow/1.4.2/gl...

Message: 'glow' is undefined
Line: 1
Char: 17236
Code: 0
URI: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/r13879/s...

Message: 'iplayer.pollnode' is null or not an object
Line: 1
Char: 3259
Code: 0
URI: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/r13879/s...

Message: 'iplayer.semp' is null or not an object
Line: 234
Char: 1
Code: 0
URI: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/playlive...

Message: 'iplayer.user' is null or not an object
Line: 496
Char: 1
Code: 0
URI: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/playlive...

Btw - Just tried to run the iPlayer on a Mac running OS X 10.4.11 and Safari 3.2.1 which, to my knowledge, has never ran the iPlayer and guess what... That doesn't work either. No error msg unfortunately but the screen just sits there without the player controls like it does under Win 7????

Seems you do have some kind of problem???

Hi Geoff,

The problem was caused by an update to a JavaScript component used by the iPlayer site. This has been fixed now - please let me know if you're still seeing any problems with the site.

BTW clearing your cache will not break anything - the cache is an area used by your browser to download temporary copies of files on the Internet. Your browser will delete these files itself from time-to-time, deleting them yourself merely speeds up this process. If the browser doesn't find a file it needs in the cache, it will always get the latest version from the Internet.

Cheers,
Dan

Hi Dan,

I thought there had been a "a-ha" moment as I tried iPlayer a few mins ago and it's now working fine - I was going to let you know in a few!

What I meant with the original comment about clearing out Exploder options is that if you're not careful in deselecting a few things you'll lose cookies, saved passwords etc. along with any temporary files.

Anyway, thanks for your help and the follow-up, hope you have a good weekend in freezing cold ol' England!!! (from Arizona, USA).

On that note, I do really appreciate having access to BBC Radio via the iPlayer and want to put a 'plug' in that someone might allow (paid) access to BBC TV programs via the iPlayer to us expats (actually all I really wanna see is Top Gear and Have I Got News For You!!!).

Cheers

Geoff

Thanks Geoff, glad it's sorted!

And I'll put a word in for you on the expat-TV front: there is certainly some will to make this happen, but still very big hurdles in terms of both the BBC's charter and the global rights negotiations that would be needed.

My iplayer suddenly stopped working too. It works on Radio but not TV where I get a blankscreen.(Although if there was an HD option it would work, also just the special Sport Wimbledon TV worked but nothing else)

Finally I discovered if I deleted Temporary Internet files it would work just once. If I want another programme I have to delete Temp Internet files again. Very confusing.

I've found a solution on another website which has worked for me - all I did was clear my Firefox history (Tools/Clear recent history), restarted Firefox and no more ipayer problem. Hope it works for you too!