If a Vimeo-sourced video plays fine while you’re logged into your site’s editor but shows “Sorry, we’re having a little trouble” on the live or preview page, the problem is almost always Vimeo’s privacy settings — not SmartVideo.
Here’s what’s happening. In your editor, you’re watching Vimeo’s own player while logged into your Vimeo account, so it plays for you. On the public page, SmartVideo has to fetch (import) the video from Vimeo so it can optimize and serve it through our CDN. If Vimeo’s privacy settings block that fetch, the import fails and your visitors see the “having a little trouble” message. The videos that do work simply have privacy settings that allow the import.
How to fix it (one video at a time)
For each affected video, open its privacy settings in Vimeo and make sure the video is accessible to us. These are the settings confirmed to allow SmartVideo to import a Vimeo video:
- Anyone — works
- Anyone with the link — works
- People with the password — works
The “Only me” setting blocks SmartVideo from accessing the video, so any broken video set to “Only me” needs to be changed to one of the options above. (Vimeo occasionally renames these privacy options in its own UI — check the current labels in your Vimeo settings.)
Quick way to find the culprit: open one video that does work and one that doesn’t, side by side, and compare their privacy settings. The broken one is usually set to “Only me.”
For the full migration walkthrough, see Migrating from Vimeo to SmartVideo.
Give it extra time after you fix the setting
Once you’ve corrected the Vimeo setting, give SmartVideo some extra time to re-import the video before you re-check the live page. A previously-blocked video may take a little longer to pick up than a brand-new one. If it still hasn’t loaded after a while, reach out and we’ll re-trigger the import for you.
The cleaner long-term fix
Relying on Vimeo as a source means you’re depending on Vimeo’s privacy rules staying just right on every video. If you’d rather not manage that, skip Vimeo for these videos: upload the original files straight to your SmartVideo Library in the dashboard, then paste the SmartVideo embed onto your page. SmartVideo serves them directly with no ads, no branding, and adaptive CDN streaming — and there’s no third-party privacy setting that can block playback later.
(Note: SmartVideo Library upload isn’t available on AppSumo/lifetime-deal accounts. If you’re on an LTD plan, you can still use Vimeo as a source with the settings above, or another source like Amazon S3, Wasabi, or your WordPress Media Library.)
If you’ve checked the settings above and a video still won’t load, email us at support@swarmify.com with the page URL and the Vimeo video link and we’ll take a look.
Keywords: Vimeo, having a little trouble, sorry we’re having a little trouble, video not playing, import failed, Vimeo privacy, only me, privacy settings, course editor, source import