`&push&record` on iphone (Chrome and Brave): control bar hidden behind "Downloading" browser bar

[onnozweers]

Hi,

Thanks a lot for this amazing software! I've been doing many live streams with vdo.ninja. Now I'm checking how I can record the livestream also on my own phone, with a higher resolution than the mobile data network allows. So I'm playing with &record and &autorecordlocal.

I have a problem though. When you locally record your own video, the browser will display a "Downloading" bar, that overlaps the control bar of vdo.ninja. Especially the record button is hidden and can't be reached. Scrolling doesn't help. When I try to get to the button to stop recording, I often lose the download or interrupt the live stream. So I desperately need a way to get to the control bar.

I'll include a screen shot so you can see what I mean.

When I click on the browser's button to cancel download, the browser's "Downloading" bar disappears and I can see the "Stop recording" button, but then video is lost.

So I hope there's a fix for this!

After cancelling the download, I can finally see the "Record" button:

[steveseguin]

This is on an iPhone?

I do recall the iPhone having issues recording locally. Recording in chunks with &splitrecording might be a temporary solution, but what I can do is take another stab at trying to get it working reliably. I didn't have AI previously, so, maybe it can help reveal a solution.

[onnozweers]

iPhone indeed. Recording seems to work, though I haven't tested it for long streams yet. I have copied some of the test recordings over and viewed them on my laptop.
It's only when I try to reach the buttons that awkward things happen. I'd like to be able to use the record button, because sometimes very, hm, interesting things happen in my livestreams and I'd like to save such special moments in high quality.
I had seen &splitrecording in the manual and will check it out.

[steveseguin]

Thank you for that clarification.

I spend a bit of time on the button bar, specifically for mobile. It needs some improvement anyways

As per iPhones and reliability, I think there's a memory limit set by Safari, and if it goes beyond that, or if the disk space drops below a certain point, it will silently kill the recording -- no error. That was a long while since I last looked at the issue though - it might have resolved itself.

[onnozweers]

I can use any browser, that's not a problem. If one browser is preferred I will gladly use that one. But switching phones is way more difficult and costly. I've understood from some people that Chrome is the best browser for vdo.ninja, is that correct?

As for reliability of the recording, well, at the moment the first hurdle is that I can't reach the "record" button in the control bar. I need that button to properly close and save the recording. That is my blocker at the moment.

[onnozweers]

Would it be an idea to have an option to put the control bar at the top instead of at the bottom? That shouldn't be too difficult, and it might be sufficient to expose all the buttons.

[steveseguin]

I'll work on something now

[steveseguin]

For some reason I dont see the download bar in my online test device. I have some iphones local I can use also though.

What version of iOS are you using specifically? what model of iphone? is this Safari?

Something to note about iOS devices is all the browsers are mostly the same -- Apple forbid third party browser engines (at least outside of the EU), so pretty much all browsers are Safari (webkit) with a skin. No "chromium" browser exists on iOS that I know of.

[onnozweers]

Ah, I see, I didn't know these browsers are forced to use the same engine.

I guess you used Safari for that screenshot? I just tried with Safari and indeed, there is no "Downloading" bar that overlaps the control bar! I can reach the "Record" button. Looks good!

Trying to access the recordings now. My iCloud Drive is full, I guess I have to do some cleaning up before I can see them there.

[steveseguin]

While Chrome or Edge is normally recommended, Safari is recommend on iOS. I'm not able replicate that issue with Chrome on iOS however either, so a bit odd.

Ah, I see, I didn't know these browsers are forced to use the same engine.

I guess you used Safari for that screenshot? I just tried with Safari and indeed, there is no "Downloading" bar that overlaps the control bar! I can reach the "Record" button. Looks good!

Trying to access the recordings now. My iCloud Drive is full, I guess I have to do some cleaning up before I can see them there.

[onnozweers]

I use an iphone 13 pro with iOS 18.5.

Still struggling to reach the downloaded recordings outside of the Safari browser... And if I click on them in Safari, it opens them as HTML pages! 🙀 With gibberish of course. Could this be a mime type issue?

[onnozweers]

Two screenshots to show that Safari treats the downloads as HTML.

[steveseguin]

Thank you for that. This might be due to how I trick the browser into letting me stream a local file to disk ,as if its downloading endlessly from a remote site.

eg: https://github.com/steveseguin/StreamSaver.js/blob/master/mitm.html

I might be able to solve this with a different download/streaming method, but it also likely means I can't enable automatic recordings.

[onnozweers]

I removed all photos and videos from my iCloud drive to have plenty of space available. I also removed them locally on the iPhone. I configured the download folder for Safari to a local "Safari" folder (not on iCloud Drive). I restarted the phone. I made fresh recordings, and then saved them locally. But even then, I still can't access the recorded videos outside of Safari. The folder I created for the downloads looks empty when I open it in the file browser. I'm completely puzzled.

With Chrome and Brave I don't have any problems to access the downloaded recordings, and to open them as videos.

[steveseguin]

https://vdo.ninja/alpha/?menuoffset&push=GFajvy6

I added &menuoffset to alpha, which will let you set an offset from the bottom.

&menuoffset=100px is the default, but you can do &menuoffset=250px if you wanted more room, for example. This is only on vdo.ninja/alpha/ , for testing. It should give you lots of space between the bottom.

If I can think of a better way of solving this, I'll use that instead.

Thank you kindly for the bug report.

I removed all photos and videos from my iCloud drive to have plenty of space available. I also removed them locally on the iPhone. I configured the download folder for Safari to a local "Safari" folder (not on iCloud Drive). I restarted the phone. I made fresh recordings, and then saved them locally. But even then, I still can't access the recorded videos outside of Safari. The folder I created for the downloads looks empty when I open it in the file browser. I'm completely puzzled.

With Chrome and Brave I don't have any problems to access the downloaded recordings, and to open them as videos.