We’re in a world of visualizations. Videos have become close-to-heart elements in day-to-day routines. They are not just visuals, they symbolize memories in frames. Let us check out how to fix the error, Google Drive unable to process this video and What is the size limit of a video you are uploading to google drive.
Google drive is the most sought-after medium for storage for any file type, say MP4, Docx, ppt, etc. But what about large media files.
Videos can be large, say your office sales demo video, hour-long webinar, or can be a marriage reception video. They are all part of the walks of life. They can’t be thrown away once used.
But, can you upload videos of any length? What is the size limit of a video you can upload to google drive is a big common question in minds of any user.
Let’s dive in and discuss what is the size limit of your video and the true potential of google drive when it comes to processing heavy media files and the best solutions to Google Drive not playing video issues.
Table Of Contents
- Google drive unable to process this video
- Google drive unable to process this video – why is this happening?
- What is the size limit of a video you are uploading to google drive?
- What is the size limit of a video you are uploading to google drive per day?
- Can I upload a movie to Google Drive?
- Some ways to fix – Google drive unable to process this video error
- Videos formats supported in google drive
- Classic workaround to fix the error – Google drive unable to process this video
- Google Drive Not Playing mp4
Google drive unable to process this video
Once you try to upload your video to Google Drive, the Google Drive servers take a bit of time to make your video available for streaming. It’s a usual behavior on any cloud streaming service or storage. While that process is happening, it’s obvious to see the screen below:

As soon as your video is processed by Google Drive, it will be available for streaming. This will happen automatically – there is nothing you need to do to make your video available for streaming.
In rare cases, Google Drive would prompt you unable to process the video. If that’s the case, you’ll see the screen below:

You might have encountered such problems especially when the file size is too large. Now, you might have a question “What is the size limit to upload a video to google drive?”
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Google drive unable to process this video – why is this happening?
When you upload your video, the file gets converted into a number of format/codec/resolution combinations behind the scenes to ensure it can be played back correctly on whatever device you’re accessing your Google Drive content later.
This conversion process takes time and details depend on the type of format/codec your original video was in, how big the file was, what it’s resolution is, etc.
What is the size limit of a video you are uploading to google drive?
You can able to store videos a maximum of up to 5 TB if you purchased the same amount of storage.
You can able to upload videos of any resolution, where the maximum playback resolution that you can upload is “1920 x 1080“.
What is the size limit of a video you are uploading to google drive per day?
Individual users can only upload 750 GB each day between My Drive and all the other shared drives. Users who reach the 750-GB limit or upload a file larger than 750 GB cannot upload additional files that day.
Uploads that are in progress will complete. The maximum individual file size that you can upload or synchronize is 5 TB.
Can I upload a movie to Google Drive?
Yes, you can upload movies like large files to Google drive. Because Google Drive facilitates a normal 25GB storage and fairly a movie size would be 2GB max.
So it’s possible to upload your favorite movie on Google Drive. But the upload time may vary depending upon the video size.
Some ways to fix – Google drive unable to process this video error
- Check your video resolution
Check what is the resolution of the video stored in Google Drive? That’s important because Google Drive supports video resolution up to 1920×1080 only. Videos with higher resolution than this limit won’t be able to play inside Google drive.
- Check your individual video size
Google drive capped video file size not more than 5TB. This is generous in the case of 99% of the users, there can few exceptions as well.
- Joining multiple files
Also, check if you’re joining multiple videos and uploading them to Drive? It happens.
- Check the video format
Google Drive supports the most popular video formats, but not all.
Videos formats supported in google drive
Below are the video formats supported in Google drive.
- WebM files (Vp8 video codec; Vorbis Audio codec)
- AVI (MJPEG video codec; PCM audio)
- MPEG4
- MPEG-PS (MPEG2 video codec; MP2 audio)
- 3GPP, and MOV files (h264 and MPEG4 video codecs; AAC audio codec)
- FLV (Adobe – FLV1 video codec, MP3 audio)
- MTS
- WMV
- OGG
- Add-ons and plugins
Check if any of your add-ons or plugins is creating any problems. You can switch to the incognito mode and try to see if the same error persists.
If not, uninstall the problematic add-on or plugin and check back.
- Unblock cookies
Check if your cookies are blocked. It’s reported that blocking cookies creates such problems in common. Since Google will use cookies to store and stream videos efficiently, this could also be a reason.
Steps to unblock cookies
- On your computer, open Chrome.
- At the top right, click More
Settings.
- Under “Privacy and security,” click Cookies and other site data.
- Verify if this option is enabled :
- “Allow all cookies”

- Multiple Google accounts
Google allows you to maintain multiple google accounts. It’s a flexible feature, yet this might also be a hurdle in playing video content inside the drive. If you’re having a problem of such kind, try logging out from additional accounts and try to stream again.
- Update your browser to the latest version
Update your browser to the latest version to eliminate all the possible bugs and conflicts.
If any of these didn’t work. Don’t worry, there’s still a life. You can easily download the video content and it would stream like a pro in your device.
Classic workaround to fix the error – Google drive unable to process this video
It’s obvious, Google sporadically fails to process uploaded videos sometimes. (sounds like a BUG)
The workaround is to use the Drive Web interface to Copy the video, which will start the processing of the copy.
You may have to do that more than once, but it should succeed eventually.
Google Drive Not Playing mp4
In some cases, while you are trying to play the mp4 file in Google Drive, the mp4 video will not play for you. If you are getting any issues while playing the mp4 file in Google drive, You can follow the below information which will fix the issue for you.
Approach-1:
If you are getting the error “There was a problem playing this video”, You can click on the three dots which are present at the top right corner of the screen and select the “Open in New Window” option.
Approach-2:
If you are still getting the same error, you can try out the below steps.
- Clear the browser cache and try playing the video again.
- If you are using the Google Chrome browser, you can try using the Incognito Mode and play the video again.
- Try creating a copy of the original video and then try playing the copy one. To Copy a video, you can right-click on the selected video –> Select the Make a copy option to create a copy of the video.

- You can try updating your browser or the Google Drive app to the latest version and then try playing the video.
- You need to check if the mp4 file or the Video is corrupted. Make sure the video is not corrupted.
- Make sure the video you are trying to play is not a pirated content. Google might have blocked it if it is pirated content.
- Another important point is, don’t block the cookies. Check out the Browser settings to make sure you are not blocking the cookies.
- Finally, make sure to check the file type or the format. As we know that not all video file types are supported in Google Drive. Check out the video file type supported in Google Drive.
You may like the following Google drive tutorials:
- How to see folder size in google drive?
- How to Find duplicate files in google drive
- How do I resize an image in Google Drive
- How to delete recent activity on google drive
- How to turn off quick access in google drive
- How to password protect google drive
- Google drive folder: How to Share, unshare and turn off link sharing
- How to pin Google Drive to Taskbar
And that’s the magic. You’ve learned the tricks to prevent errors while uploading large video files on Google Drive. Cool right! Try these simple tricks and hack productivity. This way, we can fix error, Google drive unable to process this video.

I am Rajkishore, and I have over 14 years of experience in the Software Industry. For a long time, I have been using Google Docs, Google Drive, and Google Sheets for my document usage, and I am sharing all the tips and tricks, the challenges I have come across, and their solutions to use Google Docs for your day-to-day use. I hope you will learn from these practical Google Docs tutorials. Read more.