11 Ways to Troubleshoot the "Unable to Load Video" Error on iPhone

Get your iCloud videos back with these error fixes and workarounds

Co-authored by Hannah Dillon Reviewed by Stan Kats

Last Updated: May 18, 2024 Fact Checked

Are you getting the "Unable to Load Video" error on your iPhone? This error usually happens with videos stored on iCloud, and the body of the error message reads, "An error occurred while loading a higher quality version of this video". While there is no single way to fix this issue, we've gathered all the best solutions in this article.

Ways to Fix Videos That Won't Load on iPhone

Start by restarting your phone. If that doesn't help, make sure you've accepted the latest Cloud terms and have enough storage space on your iPhone. You can also try updating your iPhone, toggling the video as a favorite, and checking your network connection.

1

Restart Your iPhone

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Turn your iPhone off, then back on again. Restarting your phone can fix many problems, including random glitches affecting your videos. To turn off your iPhone, either press and hold the side/top button and volume button (for phones without a Home button) or just the side/top button (for phones with a Home button).
- Once the phone is off, press the side/top button for a few seconds until the Apple logo appears on the screen.
- If your phone doesn't shut down, you can do a force restart by pressing and releasing the volume up button, then the volume down button, then pressing and holding the side/top button. Once the Apple logo appears, stop pressing the side/top button. ^{[1]
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2

Accept iCloud Terms

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Accept new iCloud terms and conditions on your iPhone. Many users have stated that once they accepted iCloud's new terms and conditions on their iPhones, they could load their iCloud videos once again. To do this, go to Settings > Apple ID Suggestions , then tap Terms and Conditions under the "New iCloud Terms and Conditions" header.
- If you don't see this option, you've likely already accepted the new iCloud terms. Try the other suggestions in this article to fix the video loading issue.

3

Check Storage Space

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Make sure you have enough storage space on your iPhone. If you're trying to load a video from iCloud, you need enough space on your iPhone to download the file. To check your iPhone's storage, go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage .
- To check the file size of your video, navigate to the video and tap the "i" button at the bottom of the screen. Look for the number under "Main Camera", which should end with MB or GB. If the size of your video is bigger than how much storage is left on your device, you won't be able to load the video.
- 1 GB (gigabyte) is 1,000 MB (megabytes). If your video size is measured in GB and your remaining storage on your iPhone is measured in MB, your video is likely too big to be downloaded on your iPhone. However, if your video is in MB and your remaining storage is in GB, you should have plenty of room to download the video.
- If your iPhone storage is too full to download your video, check out this wikiHow on how to clear up iPhone storage space.