How to fix app preview stuck on "Processing" in App Store Connect

Sometimes an app preview upload to App Store Connect fails without a useful error at all. The video uploads, shows "Processing"... and stays there forever. Or it looks fine, but disappears the moment you press Save. Or you get the wonderfully vague:

Some error has occurred with your app video preview.

This is the most frustrating category of app preview failures because App Store Connect gives you nothing to act on.

In this article, we will go through the hidden causes and how to fix them, from most to least likely.

1. The video silently violates a spec requirement

When App Store Connect can detect a problem up front (like wrong dimensions), it tells you. But some violations only surface during server-side processing — and instead of an error, you get an infinite "Processing" state or a preview that vanishes on save.

Before anything else, verify your video against every requirement:

• Resolution is exactly the size for the device slot — for example 886×1920 for modern iPhones. See the full resolution list.
• Frame rate is 30 fps or lower, and constant — screen recordings are usually 60 fps or variable.
• An audio track exists — Simulator recordings have none, and Apple rejects videos without one.
• Duration is between 15 and 30 seconds.
• Format is H.264 or ProRes 422 HQ in a .mov, .m4v, or .mp4 container — HEVC recordings from iPhones can fail. One developer even fixed an upload by renaming .MP4 to lowercase .mp4.
• File size is under 500 MB.

You can inspect all of these at once with ffprobe:

ffprobe -v error -show_entries "stream=codec_name,codec_type,width,height,r_frame_rate,sample_rate:format=duration,size" -of default=noprint_wrappers=1 input.mp4

If anything is off, the fastest fix is to run the video through App Preview Converter — a Mac app I built that re-exports any recording with the exact resolution for your device slot, constant 30 fps, a valid (or silent) audio track, an in-range duration, and an accepted codec, all in one export. If the file it produces still gets stuck, you know the problem is on Apple's side, which brings us to the next causes.

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2. Browser issues

App Store Connect's media uploader is notoriously browser-sensitive. Over the years, developers have fixed stuck uploads by:

• Switching browsers — Safari to Chrome fixes it for some people, Chrome to Safari for others.
• Disabling browser extensions, especially ad and tracker blockers, which can break the uploader's requests.
• Using a private/incognito window, then signing in again.
• Uploading one file at a time and pressing Save after each upload instead of batching.

3. Network issues

The uploader sends your video to Apple's object storage servers, and some networks (VPNs, corporate proxies, some DNS providers) fail to reach them. One developer traced their stuck uploads to DNS and fixed it by switching to a public DNS server (like 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8). Trying a different network — even a phone hotspot — is a quick way to rule this out.

4. Apple's side

Sometimes it really is them. Processing backlogs happen, and previews that were stuck for hours complete on their own. If the same file has failed repeatedly:

• Delete the stuck preview, wait a bit, and re-upload.
• Check Apple's System Status page for App Store Connect incidents.
• Wait a few hours — overnight often does it.
• If nothing helps, contact App Store Connect support through the Contact Us link; stuck media is a known issue they can clear.

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Related errors

• How to fix "The frame rate of your app video preview is too high" error
• How to fix app preview wrong resolution error
• How to fix "Your app preview contains unsupported or corrupted audio" error
• How to fix app preview video that is too long or too short