Slideshow Troubleshooting Guide

This guide covers the most common issues you may encounter with the slideshow system and how to resolve them.

No Slides Appear (Black Screen)

Symptoms: The player launches but shows a black screen with no slide content.

Causes and Solutions:

Empty playlist. Check the Playlists tab to make sure the active playlist has slides in it. An empty playlist shows the fallback (black) screen.
All slides disabled. If every slide in the playlist is disabled, the player has no content to show. Go to the Slides tab and enable at least one slide.
No active schedule. If no schedule is active at the current time and location, and you launched using the schedule-based method, the player has no playlist to play. Create a schedule or launch manually by selecting a playlist.
Wrong location. The player uses the current user's location to find schedules. Verify you are logged in to the correct location.

Symptoms: The player is showing content from a different playlist than expected.

Causes and Solutions:

Priority conflict. A higher-priority schedule is overriding your expected playlist. Check the Schedules tab for schedules with higher priority numbers that are currently active.
Schedule time mismatch. The expected schedule may not be active at the current time. Verify the schedule's mode, date range, time window, and day-of-week settings.
Emergency override active. An active override replaces all normal content. Check the Dashboard for an override indicator and deactivate it if no longer needed.

Symptoms: Slides change faster or slower than expected.

Causes and Solutions:

Duration override. Check if the playlist has a duration override for the affected slide. The playlist duration override takes precedence over the slide's default duration.
Slide default duration. Edit the slide and check the duration on the General tab. Adjust it to the desired number of seconds.
Video slides. If "Play Until Video Ends" is enabled, the slide duration is controlled by the video length, not the duration setting.

Symptoms: An emergency override was activated but the player is not showing it.

Causes and Solutions:

Polling delay. The player checks for overrides every 30 seconds. Wait up to 30 seconds for the override to appear.
Scope mismatch. The override may have been scoped to a different location. Verify the override's scope matches the player's location.
Override expired. If an expiration time was set and has passed, the override is no longer active. Activate a new override if needed.

Symptoms: The slide shows a black or plain background instead of the configured image.

Causes and Solutions:

File not uploaded. The image may not have been successfully uploaded to FileDrive. Re-open the Slide Editor, go to the Background tab, and re-upload the image.
File deleted. The image file may have been removed from FileDrive. Upload a new image.
Network issues. If FileDrive is on a remote server, network connectivity issues may prevent the image from loading. The player will show the fallback background.

Symptoms: The QR code on the slide does not scan when a customer points their phone at it.

Causes and Solutions:

QR code too small. Increase the QR size. For screens viewed from more than 2 meters, use at least 200 pixels. For further distances, use 300 pixels or more.
Low contrast. The QR code should have strong contrast with the slide background. If the background is dark, the QR code (which is black and white) should be visible. Increase the overlay opacity if the QR code blends into the background.
Invalid URL. Verify the URL in the Slide Editor is correctly formatted and accessible.

Symptoms: Pressing keyboard shortcuts in the Slideshow Manager has no effect.

Causes and Solutions:

Permission issue. Keyboard shortcuts are permission-aware. Ctrl+N requires MKT_MANAGE_SLIDES, Ctrl+L requires MKT_LAUNCH_PLAYER. Verify you have the required permission.
Focus issue. Make sure the Slideshow Manager window has keyboard focus. Click on the window and try again.
Player shortcuts. If the player is running, keyboard shortcuts are handled by the player, not the Manager. The player uses its own set of shortcuts (Escape, Space, Right Arrow, F5, Ctrl+C).

Symptoms: You edited a slide in the Slideshow Manager but the player is still showing the old content.

Causes and Solutions:

Polling interval. The player polls every 30 seconds. Wait up to 30 seconds for changes to appear.
Force refresh. Press F5 in the player to force an immediate reload from the database.
Current slide. If the changed slide is currently displaying, it will update the next time it comes around in the playlist rotation.