How to upload a video with our WordPress plugin

Here’s how to upload a video to SmartVideo using our WordPress plugin and the standard WordPress editor

If you have the SmartVideo plugin for WordPress installed and want to learn how to upload a new video to SmartVideo and add it to a page on your site, then you’re in the right place.

If you have installed SmartVideo using another method and want to learn how to add a video to a page, take a look at our How to add a video to your non-WordPress site article.

How to upload your video

While editing a page on WordPress, click on the SmartVideo logo to add a SmartVideo block. A placeholder video will be shown in the live preview.

Click the Select video button.

Click Upload Files, then drag and drop your video file from your computer.

Once your video finishes uploading to WordPress, click Select.

The video will now be processed and encoded by Swarmify. This may take up to 30 minutes during peak usage (depending on the video length and resolution), but it usually only takes a minute or two.

While SmartVideo is processing and encoding, the video will be delivered by your site host as a raw, uncompressed video file. You’ll know a video has been converted when it plays in the SmartVideo player — look for its floating rounded control bar in place of your original embed. For more ways to confirm it’s working, see How do I know SmartVideo is working?.

Here are some things you might want to do after your video is uploaded:

Change the accent color of the player 🎨

Set a custom poster image 🖼

Change the width and height of the player 📏

Turn on autoplay ▶

Mute the video by default 🔇

Make the video loop 🔁

Turn off player controls 🎮

Make the video play in-line on mobile devices 📱

Force the video to maintain fixed dimensions 🔒

How to add a video from a third-party source

While editing a page on WordPress, click on the SmartVideo logo to add a SmartVideo block. A placeholder video will be shown in the live preview. Next, choose your source (in the gif below, the WordPress Media Library is shown).

If your video is on YouTube, select *YouTube *from the source dropdown menu. You can then insert your video’s YouTube URL.

Similarly, if your video is on Vimeo, select *Vimeo *from the source dropdown menu. You can then insert your video’s Vimeo URL.

If your video is available publicly stored elsewhere on the web, select Another source from the source dropdown menu. You can then insert your video’s publicly accessible URL.

If you’re using Beaver Builder, Elementor, or Divi on WordPress, the process will be very similar.

Embed a video you already uploaded to your SmartVideo Library

Already uploaded your video to your SmartVideo Library and just want to drop it onto a WordPress page? This is different from uploading a brand-new file — your video already lives in Swarmify, so you don’t need to upload it again. You just need to point the SmartVideo block at it.

Step 1 — Grab your video’s source URL from the Library

1. Open your Swarmify Dashboard and click Video Library.
2. Click the thumbnail of the video you want to embed to open its Media Details page.
3. Copy the source URL. (This is the Swarmify-specific URL the plugin reads — it’s not a downloadable file link.)

Step 2 — Add it with the SmartVideo block

1. Edit the WordPress page or post where you want the video.
2. Click the SmartVideo logo to add a SmartVideo block.
3. Click Select video, then choose Another source from the source dropdown.
4. Paste the source URL you copied from the Library, and confirm.
5. Set the size if you’d like, then publish or update the page.

That’s it — no re-uploading. The same video already in your Library now plays through the SmartVideo player on your site.

Prefer to paste a tag instead?

On the Media Details page you can also copy a ready-to-use SmartVideo tag and drop it into a Custom HTML block:

<smartvideo src="https://your-video.example.com/file.mp4"
            width="1280" height="720"
            class="swarm-fluid" controls>
</smartvideo>

Avoid duplicates: if you’re using the plugin, don’t also paste the global SmartVideo snippet manually on the same page — the plugin already loads it.

Because the video is already in your Library, it’s already processed — it should play through the SmartVideo player right away, with its floating rounded control bar in place of any other embed. For more ways to confirm it’s working, see How do I know SmartVideo is working?.

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