SmartVideo pulls your original video from wherever you store it, encodes it, and delivers it through our CDN. To make that work, the URL you give the plugin (or paste into a <smartvideo> tag) has to return the file body to an anonymous HTTP GET — that’s the only hard requirement. Everything else is per-provider plumbing to get to that URL.
Pick the provider you already use; the matrix below summarizes how to make a file SmartVideo-fetchable on each one, and the linked article walks through the current console steps.
Provider matrix
| Provider | Public access | Direct URL format | CORS required | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon S3 | Pre-signed URL (recommended) or disable Block Public Access + bucket policy | https://<bucket>.s3.<region>.amazonaws.com/<key> or pre-signed URL | Not required for one-shot fetch | BPA is on by default since April 2023; pre-signed URL is the safest path |
| Google Cloud Storage | Uniform bucket access + Storage Object Viewer for allUsers, public access prevention off | https://storage.googleapis.com/<bucket>/<key> | Not required for one-shot fetch | Console UI was renamed in 2022 — verify against the linked article |
| Wasabi | Bucket public access enabled, file made public via globe icon | https://s3.<region>.wasabisys.com/<bucket>/<key> | Not required for one-shot fetch | Cheapest egress of the S3-compatible options |
| DigitalOcean Spaces | File set to Public in the Spaces console | https://<space>.<region>.digitaloceanspaces.com/<key> | Not required for one-shot fetch | UI was redesigned in 2024 — icon descriptions may not match |
| Dropbox | Standard Copy link on the file | New dropbox.com/scl/fi/... share link | n/a — Dropbox handles fetch | Legacy ?dl=1 links keep working only for videos already added to SmartVideo |
| Google Drive | Anyone with the link + Embed item URL | Embed/preview URL | n/a — Drive handles fetch | Google is actively throttling these downloads; prefer another source if you have one |
| pCloud | Upload to the public folder, use Direct link | Direct link URL from Get Link | n/a — pCloud handles fetch | Public folder only exists on accounts created before 2017 |
| Publitio | Default privacy is fine | URL shown after upload | n/a — Publitio handles fetch | No public-access toggle needed |
| WordPress Media Library | None — handled by the SmartVideo plugin | https://<site>/wp-content/uploads/... | Not required — same origin as WP | Works only with the SmartVideo plugin’s Select video button |
| SmartVideo Library | Hosted by Swarmify | Auto-assigned source URL from Media Details | n/a | Upload directly to Swarmify; not available on Lifetime Deal plans |
For the step-by-step screenshots and provider-specific gotchas, see the linked article for your provider. The Amazon S3 and Google Cloud articles were last verified on 2026-05-25 against the current consoles; older articles are linked as-is and may show slightly out-of-date UI labels.
If the URL works in a browser but the player shows a black box
That symptom is almost always one of two things:
- Wrong content-type. The server returned
text/htmlorapplication/octet-streaminstead ofvideo/mp4. Check withcurl -I <url>and look at theContent-Typeheader. On S3 and Wasabi, content-type comes from the upload — re-upload with the right MIME type set, or set the object metadata after the fact. - Range requests blocked. SmartVideo’s encoder may issue Range requests to scrub the file. If the server answers
200instead of206 Partial Content, or refuses the request entirely, the import fails. Most managed storage handles Range correctly out of the box; custom origins behind a WAF or aggressive cache rule sometimes don’t.
If neither of those is the problem, send the URL to support and we’ll trace the fetch.