Understanding “Video Unavailable”: Why Advocate Content Fails to Load and How Duel Is Improving Content Fetch Reliability
At Duel, we use a variety of third-party APIs to help automatically pull in performance data and content that advocates post as part of your program. This includes posts from platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
❌ What Does “Video Unavailable” Mean?
Occasionally, you may notice that a piece of advocate content shows up with a “Video Unavailable” label. This means that although we were able to detect that a post was created (e.g., via a link or platform metadata), we weren’t able to successfully fetch the actual content or preview due to an API error or content restriction.
This happens only a fraction of the time, and when it does, it’s most often with TikTok content. The underlying reasons can vary, including:
- The post has been removed or made private by the user.
- Platform permissions or visibility restrictions.
- Temporary failures or rate limits in the platform’s API.
🔁 What We’re Doing About It
We know how important it is to have a complete picture of the content your advocates are posting. That’s why we’re investing in several improvements to reduce these edge cases, including:
- Smarter Retry Logic: If one API call fails, we’ll attempt to retrieve the content again automatically before giving up.
- Backup Fetching Methods: We’re building fallback systems that try alternative ways to capture the content if our primary method doesn’t work.
- Monitoring & Alerting: We track failures closely to ensure they stay below acceptable thresholds and investigate spikes quickly.
🙏 Thanks for Your Patience
We’re continually working to make the Duel platform as reliable and robust as possible when it comes to tracking and displaying advocate content. If you spot a “Video Unavailable” message and it’s impacting your reporting or experience, feel free to contact our support team.