The quality of your playback experience is largely dependent on how your ISP (Internet Service Provider) or mobile provider connects to Vimeo's playback servers. When a video plays in lower than expected quality, it’s likely because your Internet speed (bandwidth) or computer processing speed cannot support higher quality playback. Keep in mind that your overall Internet speed can vary depending on many factors, including but not limited to: time of day, WiFi performance, other devices/users utilizing your connection, and the strength of the signal provided by your ISP.
Basic troubleshooting
- Disable any browser extensions, plugins, or add ons
Third-party programs can sometimes cause issues during playback— including blocked video segments, dropped frames, buffering, etc. If you're having trouble, try disabling any active extensions one by one to find the culprit. You can also open your video within an incognito or private window of your browser for testing. - Restart your router and modem
Resetting your router or modem can help to refresh your connection and improve playback performance. Try disconnecting the power cord and then reconnecting to perform a hard reboot. - Update your browser
Browser software is constantly being improved upon. Make sure you are using the latest version of your browser for peak performance. The latest version of each browser can be found here. - Close excess browser tabs or applications
Keeping too many applications open can make everything run slower, including video playback. Especially on a mobile device, it’s easy to forget which apps are running. Make sure that you completely close or disable apps instead of just minimizing their windows. - Clear your browser’s cache
Although this may sound simple, refreshing your cache can help with many different issues, including playback. Learn more here. - Disable/Enable Hardware acceleration
Hardware acceleration makes resource-hungry operations run more efficiently but sometimes doesn’t work well with older graphics cards. Try disabling or enabling this option within your browser settings.
Switch to “Auto” in the quality menu
You can manually force a particular quality by selecting the gear icon in the lower right corner of the player. (This may result in frequent buffering if the bandwidth does not meet the required minimum.)
When it is in Auto mode, the Vimeo player will switch between all available qualities to accommodate changes in the viewer’s Internet, processing speed, and player size. Auto mode automatically adjusts to the best quality of video for your current Internet connection and processing speed. We recommend using this default setting to avoid buffering delays. (If “Auto” is not available, switch to one of the lower quality options.)
Check bandwidth with online speed tests
Speed tests can give you a general sense of the download speeds you’re receiving from your Internet provider, but it's important to note that the servers used in the speed test are different from those used by other services. The actual speeds being received by your device may differ. This is because speed tests are designed to ping the closest server to your location, while other servers may be further and more utilized.
We require network speeds of 500 kbps or higher in order to stream our lowest playback quality (240p). You can use a speed test to get a general sense of your Internet speed during the time of the issue. Keep in mind that bandwidth can fluctuate, especially on Wifi or cellular networks. As a best practice, we recommend avoiding Flash-based speed tests and using trusted HTML5 tests like https://testmy.net/download to get a general estimate of the speeds you're receiving from your Internet Provider.
If you expect higher bandwidth than what's being reported, we recommend getting in touch with your Internet Provider for more information.
You can view videos in qualities ranging from 360p to 8K. The following table shows the minimum speeds required for each playback quality:
| Quality | Required Minimum Bandwidth |
| 240p | 500 kbps |
| 360p | 1 Mbps |
| 720p | 3 Mbps |
| 1080p | 7 Mbps |
| 2K | 12 Mbps |
| 4K & up | 22 Mbps |
Supported browsers — video playback
Vimeo video playback is supported using these browsers:
- Chrome 30+ (has automatic updates)
- Firefox 27+ (has automatic updates)
- Internet Explorer 11
- Microsoft Edge
- Safari 9+
Please note the following caveats about specific browsers:
- In Firefox for Windows, H.264 video decoding is only supported in Windows 7 and later. Firefox for Windows XP is no longer supported.
- Live event playback with Internet Explorer 11 is not supported on Windows 7 or older.
- Safari 14+ is the only browser that supports playback in Dolby Vision on MacOS/iOS devices.