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This page shows you how to resolve issues with the Video Stitcher API. The errors
shown on this page are specific to the Video Stitcher API. For information on
generic errors across Google APIs, see the Cloud APIs
Errors page.
Only the first error is returned. If a request encounters multiple errors, you
need to fix the returned error and retry the request to see the next error.
Unable to fetch playlist when creating a session
The following issue occurs when the Video Stitcher API is unable to fetch the
video manifest from the specified sourceUri.
{
"error": {
"code": 404,
"message": "got status code 403 when fetching playlist from URI \"https://example.com/manifest.m3u8\"",
"status": "NOT_FOUND",
}
}
To resolve this issue, follow the steps below:
Verify that the provided sourceUri links to a valid video manifest.
Use curl with the sourceUri. If the manifest is intended to be
publicly accessible, ensure that the URL can be reached publicly.
If the sourceUri is correct and the video manifest requires URL
signing, proceed to the next step.
Ensure that the CDN key has been registered with the Video Stitcher API in the
same region as the request.
Verify that the CDN key configuration
matching the sourceUri hostname exists. If the configuration doesn't
exist,
register the CDN key
with the Video Stitcher API. Wait at least 5 minutes for the configuration
to propagate to the service.
If the configuration exists, proceed to the next step.
If you suspect the private key used for signing the URL is incorrect, you
may want to
update the registered CDN key
with the correct private key.
CDN key is outdated
If you recently registered or updated a CDN key and the Video Stitcher API has not
started signing URLs using the new configuration, then follow the steps below to
diagnose the issue:
If the CDN key was recently registered with the Video Stitcher API, then wait
at least 5 minutes to allow the update to propagate. If the issue persist,
proceed to the next step.
Verify that only one CDN key is registered for one hostname for the region.
If multiple CDN keys have been registered with the same hostname, the
Video Stitcher API will select one of the CDN keys to sign the URL with.
Ensure that only one CDN key has been registered with a specified
hostname for a given region.
Delete the obsolete CDN key.
No ads inserted in a live session
If no ads were inserted in a live session, use the following steps to diagnose
the issue:
Verify that the source livestreams inserted ad breaks in the manifest. The
following ad markers need to
exist in the livestream video manifest to indicate to the Video Stitcher API
to replace source video segments with ad segments.
If the source video manifest does not have any ad markers, either your
encoder hasn't triggered an ad break or needs to be changed to insert
the supported ad markers.
If ad markers are clearly visible in the source manifest, then proceed
to the next step.
Verify that the provided ad tag returns a non-empty VAST response.
Copy the ad tag into a web browser (for example, Chrome) address bar and
verifies that it returns a non-empty VAST response. The following is an
empty VAST response:
<VASTversion="3.0"/>
If an empty VAST response is returned, then the issue is the ad tag.
Verify that the ad tag is set up correctly with the ad servers.
If the VAST response is populated, use curl to request the ad tag.
Some ad servers require the User-Agentheader
to be provided. Try the following curl command:
curlAD_TAG_URI
If the curl command returns an empty VAST response, add the
User-Agent header to the curl command:
curl-H"User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/51.0.2704.103 Safari/537.36"\AD_TAG_URI
If a populated VAST response is returned, then the issue is that the
User-Agent header needs to be passed to the Video Stitcher API when
creating the live session. The Video Stitcher API uses that header when
executing the ad tag to retrieve ads.
If an empty response is still returned, then the issue is with the given
ad tag. Confirm with the customer that the ad tag is correct and that
any
ad tag macro
values are correct as well.
If the customer's ad tag issues have been resolved, but ads have not
been inserted, proceed to the next step.
Inspect the live session.
If the affected session is showing that ads are returned from the ad
servers, then proceed to the next step.
The next potential cause for missing ads is due to
ad re-encoding. The
API will re-encode ads during its first encounter to encode the ad to match
the source video. Usually, ads take a few minutes to encode. Retry creating
a new session after a few minutes to see if ads are inserted.
If no ads were inserted, the issue may be due to an ad failing to encode.
The ad media URLs may not be reachable. In this case, the customer needs to
work with the ad provider to determine what's wrong with their ad media.
No ads inserted in a VOD session
Verify that the provided ad tag returns a non-empty VAST or VMAP response.
Use the provided ad tag with the following directions:
Copy the ad tag into a web browser (for example, Chrome) address bar and
verifies that it returns a non-empty VAST, VMAP, or SmartXML response.
The following is an empty VAST response:
Put the ad tag into a web browser (ie. Chrome, Firefox, etc) address bar
and verifies that it returns a non empty VAST, VMAP, or SmartXML
response. An empty VAST response looks like:
If an empty VAST response is returned, then the issue is the ad tag.
Verify that the ad tag is set up correctly with the ad servers.
If the VAST response is populated, use curl to request the ad tag.
Some ad servers require the User-Agentheader
to be provided. Try the following curl command:
curlAD_TAG_URI
If the curl command returns an empty VAST response, add the
User-Agent header to the curl command:
curl-H"User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/51.0.2704.103 Safari/537.36"\AD_TAG_URI
If a populated VAST or VMAP response is returned, then the issue is that
the User-Agent header needs to be passed to the Video Stitcher API
when creating the VOD session. The Video Stitcher API uses that header
when executing the ad tag to retrieve ads.
If an empty response is still returned, then the issue is with the given
ad tag. Confirm with the customer that the ad tag is correct and that
any
ad tag macro
values are correct as well.
If the customer's ad tag issues have been resolved, but ads have not
been inserted, proceed to the next step.
Inspect the VOD session.
If the affected session is showing that ads are returned from the ad
servers, then proceed to the next step.
The next potential cause for missing ads is due to
ad re-encoding. The
API will re-encode ads during its first encounter to encode the ad to match
the source video. Usually, ads take a few minutes to encode. Retry creating
a new session after a few minutes to see if ads are inserted.
If no ads were inserted, the issue may be due to an ad failing to encode.
The ad media URLs may not be reachable. In this case, the customer needs to
work with the ad provider to determine what's wrong with their ad media.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-29 UTC."],[],[],null,["# Troubleshoot\n\nThis page shows you how to resolve issues with the Video Stitcher API. The errors\nshown on this page are specific to the Video Stitcher API. For information on\ngeneric errors across Google APIs, see the Cloud APIs\n[Errors](/apis/design/errors) page.\n\nOnly the first error is returned. If a request encounters multiple errors, you\nneed to fix the returned error and retry the request to see the next error.\n\nUnable to fetch playlist when creating a session\n------------------------------------------------\n\nThe following issue occurs when the Video Stitcher API is unable to fetch the\nvideo manifest from the specified `sourceUri`. \n\n```\n{\n \"error\": {\n \"code\": 404,\n \"message\": \"got status code 403 when fetching playlist from URI \\\"https://example.com/manifest.m3u8\\\"\",\n \"status\": \"NOT_FOUND\",\n }\n}\n```\n\nTo resolve this issue, follow the steps below:\n\n1. Verify that the provided `sourceUri` links to a valid video manifest.\n\n - Use `curl` with the `sourceUri`. If the manifest is intended to be publicly accessible, ensure that the URL can be reached publicly.\n - If the `sourceUri` is correct and the video manifest requires URL signing, proceed to the next step.\n2. Ensure that the CDN key has been registered with the Video Stitcher API in the\n same region as the request.\n\n - [Verify that the CDN key configuration](/video-stitcher/docs/how-to/managing-cdn-keys#list_cdn_keys) matching the `sourceUri` hostname exists. If the configuration doesn't exist, [register the CDN key](/video-stitcher/docs/how-to/managing-cdn-keys#register_cdn_key) with the Video Stitcher API. Wait at least 5 minutes for the configuration to propagate to the service.\n - If the configuration exists, proceed to the next step.\n3. If you suspect the private key used for signing the URL is incorrect, you\n may want to\n [update the registered CDN key](/video-stitcher/docs/how-to/managing-cdn-keys#update_cdn_key)\n with the correct private key.\n\nCDN key is outdated\n-------------------\n\nIf you recently registered or updated a CDN key and the Video Stitcher API has not\nstarted signing URLs using the new configuration, then follow the steps below to\ndiagnose the issue:\n\n1. If the CDN key was recently registered with the Video Stitcher API, then wait\n at least 5 minutes to allow the update to propagate. If the issue persist,\n proceed to the next step.\n\n2. Verify that only one CDN key is registered for one hostname for the region.\n If multiple CDN keys have been registered with the same hostname, the\n Video Stitcher API will select one of the CDN keys to sign the URL with.\n\n - Ensure that only one CDN key has been registered with a specified hostname for a given region. [Delete the obsolete CDN key](/video-stitcher/docs/how-to/managing-cdn-keys#delete_cdn_key).\n\nNo ads inserted in a live session\n---------------------------------\n\nIf no ads were inserted in a live session, use the following steps to diagnose\nthe issue:\n\n1. Verify that the source livestreams inserted ad breaks in the manifest. The\n following [ad markers](/video-stitcher/docs/concepts/ad-markers) need to\n exist in the livestream video manifest to indicate to the Video Stitcher API\n to replace source video segments with ad segments.\n\n - If the source video manifest does not have any ad markers, either your\n encoder hasn't triggered an ad break or needs to be changed to insert\n the supported [ad markers](/video-stitcher/docs/concepts/ad-markers).\n\n - If ad markers are clearly visible in the source manifest, then proceed\n to the next step.\n\n2. Verify that the provided ad tag returns a non-empty VAST response.\n\n - Copy the ad tag into a web browser (for example, Chrome) address bar and\n verifies that it returns a non-empty VAST response. The following is an\n empty VAST response:\n\n \u003cVAST version=\"3.0\"/\u003e\n\n - If an empty VAST response is returned, then the issue is the ad tag.\n Verify that the ad tag is set up correctly with the ad servers.\n\n - If the VAST response is populated, use `curl` to request the ad tag.\n Some ad servers require the `User-Agent`\n [header](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/User-Agent)\n to be provided. Try the following `curl` command:\n\n curl \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eAD_TAG_URI\u003c/var\u003e\n\n - If the `curl` command returns an empty VAST response, add the\n `User-Agent` header to the `curl` command:\n\n curl -H \"User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/51.0.2704.103 Safari/537.36\" \\\n \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eAD_TAG_URI\u003c/var\u003e\n\n - If a populated VAST response is returned, then the issue is that the\n `User-Agent` header needs to be passed to the Video Stitcher API when\n creating the live session. The Video Stitcher API uses that header when\n executing the ad tag to retrieve ads.\n\n - If an empty response is still returned, then the issue is with the given\n ad tag. Confirm with the customer that the ad tag is correct and that\n any\n [ad tag macro](/video-stitcher/docs/how-to/managing-live-sessions#ad-tag-macros)\n values are correct as well.\n\n - If the customer's ad tag issues have been resolved, but ads have not\n been inserted, proceed to the next step.\n\n3. [Inspect the live session](/video-stitcher/docs/how-to/managing-live-sessions#inspect-live-sessions).\n If the affected session is showing that ads are returned from the ad\n servers, then proceed to the next step.\n\n4. The next potential cause for missing ads is due to\n [ad re-encoding](/video-stitcher/docs/concepts/overview#ad_re-encoding). The\n API will re-encode ads during its first encounter to encode the ad to match\n the source video. Usually, ads take a few minutes to encode. Retry creating\n a new session after a few minutes to see if ads are inserted.\n\n If no ads were inserted, the issue may be due to an ad failing to encode.\n The ad media URLs may not be reachable. In this case, the customer needs to\n work with the ad provider to determine what's wrong with their ad media.\n\nNo ads inserted in a VOD session\n--------------------------------\n\n1. Verify that the provided ad tag returns a non-empty VAST or VMAP response.\n Use the provided ad tag with the following directions:\n\n - Copy the ad tag into a web browser (for example, Chrome) address bar and verifies that it returns a non-empty VAST, VMAP, or SmartXML response. The following is an empty VAST response:\n - Put the ad tag into a web browser (ie. Chrome, Firefox, etc) address bar\n and verifies that it returns a non empty VAST, VMAP, or SmartXML\n response. An empty VAST response looks like:\n\n \u003cVAST version=\"3.0\"/\u003e\n\n The following is an empty VMAP response: \n\n \u003cVMAP xmlns:vmap=\"http://www.iab.net/vmap-1.0\" version=\"1.0\"/\u003e\n\n - If an empty VAST response is returned, then the issue is the ad tag.\n Verify that the ad tag is set up correctly with the ad servers.\n\n - If the VAST response is populated, use `curl` to request the ad tag.\n Some ad servers require the `User-Agent`\n [header](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/User-Agent)\n to be provided. Try the following `curl` command:\n\n curl \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eAD_TAG_URI\u003c/var\u003e\n\n - If the `curl` command returns an empty VAST response, add the\n `User-Agent` header to the `curl` command:\n\n curl -H \"User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/51.0.2704.103 Safari/537.36\" \\\n \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eAD_TAG_URI\u003c/var\u003e\n\n - If a populated VAST or VMAP response is returned, then the issue is that\n the `User-Agent` header needs to be passed to the Video Stitcher API\n when creating the VOD session. The Video Stitcher API uses that header\n when executing the ad tag to retrieve ads.\n\n - If an empty response is still returned, then the issue is with the given\n ad tag. Confirm with the customer that the ad tag is correct and that\n any\n [ad tag macro](/video-stitcher/docs/how-to/managing-vod-sessions#ad-tag-macros)\n values are correct as well.\n\n - If the customer's ad tag issues have been resolved, but ads have not\n been inserted, proceed to the next step.\n\n2. [Inspect the VOD session](/video-stitcher/docs/how-to/managing-vod-sessions#inspect-vod-sessions).\n If the affected session is showing that ads are returned from the ad\n servers, then proceed to the next step.\n\n3. The next potential cause for missing ads is due to\n [ad re-encoding](/video-stitcher/docs/concepts/overview#ad_re-encoding). The\n API will re-encode ads during its first encounter to encode the ad to match\n the source video. Usually, ads take a few minutes to encode. Retry creating\n a new session after a few minutes to see if ads are inserted.\n\n If no ads were inserted, the issue may be due to an ad failing to encode.\n The ad media URLs may not be reachable. In this case, the customer needs to\n work with the ad provider to determine what's wrong with their ad media."]]
