Offer help for not working mic/video

[tobiasKaminsky]

On my laptop mic/video does not work: "Error while accessing microphone & camera The object can not be found here."

And I (as a slightly experienced user ;) ) have no idea what to do.
So it would really be helpful to provide some help.
(on my mobile phone it is working with firefox, so it should not be a server problem).

[jancborchardt]

Can we output a more helpful error here? cc @fancycode @LukasReschke

@tobiasKaminsky any other logs in the JS browser console? Does it work on https://talky.io?

[tobiasKaminsky]

No, talky.io is also not working.
They also do not give me a hint what to do ;)

[tobiasKaminsky]

I made a really dump mistake: my webcam did not work at all.
But now it is working with a local program.
But neither talky.io not nextcloud11 are working (tested with firefox and chromium)

[sushidave]

Tested on Nextcloud 11 with these scenarios:

1. Firefox on a MacBook:
   => working fine

2. Firefox on a Windows 7 PC with a microphone but no camera:
   => error: "Error while accessing microphone and camera. The object cannot be found here."

Would it be useful to provide some instructions for troubleshooting, for example in the help section/manual?

3. Firefox on iOS (iPhone):
   => error: "WebRTC is not supported in your browser. Please use a different browser like Firefox or Chrome."

The error message is confusing here because in this scenario a Firefox browser is being used. WebRTC seems to work with Firefox on @tobiasKaminsky's mobile device, but obviously it does not work with Firefox on iOS. Is there any overview of browser <-> OS combinations that are WebRTC-capable and if so, could it be added to the app's page (https://apps.nextcloud.com/apps/spreed)?

[jancborchardt]

@sushidave thank you for the thorough testing! :) Does it work with Chrome on iOS or Safari on iOS? Like, any iOS browser at all? Because they basically all use the Safari/Webkit engine, don’t they?

On the systems with microphone but no camera it should also work. @nickvergessen @fancycode @Ivansss didn’t we have checks for that in place? If not can that be improved?

[nickvergessen]

Mic and no video works for robin IIRC. I can't test that....

[sushidave]

@jancborchardt You're welcome.

Tested with Safari on iOS (iPhone):
=> error: "WebRTC is not supported in your browser. Please use a different browser like Firefox or Chrome."

It looks as if WebRTC for Webkit still is in development:
https://webkit.org/status/#specification-webrtc

What's your view on these two short term solutions:

1. Add a list of supported browsers/OS in the README file and manual.
2. Review the browser checks and adapt the error message accordingly.

[jancborchardt]

@sushidave I would say for iOS we should ideally have a dedicated message. Like

This app does not work on iOS yet
WebRTC support is in development by the vendor

Because people tend to not read the README or manual. :) We should have everything like that directly in the software.

@sushidave would you like to contribute that as a pull request?

[sushidave]

@jancborchardt Excellent idea to show a message inside the app! I'd like to contribute a pull request but I'd need more programming skills... Is there someone who can do it?

What if in the README/manual/app summary we mention at least that the app works with selected browsers and platforms only? This would manage users' expectations, it's for the sake of better transparency and we would also cover those who read the app's summary before activating the app.

[sushidave]

FYI - Have changed the spreed wiki and opened issue #209 for the app summary enhancement.

[nickvergessen]

@tobiasKaminsky are you using Firefox?
If so #221 should fix it. Would be nice if you can test that.

[tobiasKaminsky]

@nickvergessen yes Firefox.
Do I have to build the app somehow? Or can I just copy it to my app directory? (sorry...I am just a simple android dev 😄 )

[nickvergessen]

Use the nextcloud appstore or download the tar.gz from the releases page

[tobiasKaminsky]

So I now have spreed video chat app 1.2.0 installed, but it the same.
"Fehler beim Zugriff auf Mikrofon & Kamera
The object can not be found here."
But I have enabled both in site settings (and it is working with local "cheese" webcam app.

Maybe I am not the best tester.. ;)
On chromium I get:
Failed to execute 'createMediaStreamSource' on 'BaseAudioContext': MediaStream has no audio track

[nickvergessen]

You have no audio card? 😱

[tobiasKaminsky]

Of course I have ;-)
Gentoo Linux, pulseaudio as sound server
But I was playing a stream with VLC while testing with chromium.
(did not help if I stop vlc before trying with chromium)

[Schroeffu]

I have the same problem with Linux Mint Firefox+Chromium.

• Firefox is not asking for access and says: "The object can not be found here."
• Chromium is asking for access for the webcam, there i can say yes, the light goes on, but the error message appears and light goes off: "Failed to execute 'createMediaStreamSource' on 'BaseAudioContext': MediaStream has no audio track".

[blizzz]

I experience the same problem, since yesterday. Also on Firefox, Camera works on other applications. On Antergos (Arch based).