Embedded video files can't property be played in live preview or reading view (controls not reachable)

Bug graveyard
1

Steps to reproduce

  1. Open the Sandbox vault
  2. Drag .mov file(s) into a note

Did you follow the troubleshooting guide? [Y]

Expected result

Be able to play/pause the video in Live preview and Reading view.

Actual result

Can’t play the video in Live preview at all; clicking anywhere exposes the link.

In Reading view, play/pause seems to work when clicking on the left portion of the image, but not on the play/pause icon.

Environment

SYSTEM INFO:
	Obsidian version: 1.13.4
	Installer version: 1.13.4
	Operating system: Darwin Kernel Version 24.6.0: Tue Jul 21 20:51:05 PDT 2026; root:xnu-11417.140.69.711.44~1/RELEASE_ARM64_T6000 24.6.0
	Login status: logged in
	Language: en
	Catalyst license: supporter
	Insider build toggle: on
	Live preview: on
	Base theme: adapt to system
	Community theme: none
	Snippets enabled: 0
	Restricted mode: on

RECOMMENDATIONS:
	none

Additional information

2

Seeing the same unexpected behavior for internal embeds of other multimedia: .webm and .mp4.

Also for external-to-vault, local embeds:

<video controls><source src="file:///C:%5Canything.mp4"></video>

These seem to be working as expected:

  • media that have no video controls, like animated .gif
  • audio-only media even with controls displayed, like .mp3

Environment

SYSTEM INFO:
	Obsidian version: 1.13.4
	Installer version: 1.13.4
	Operating system: Windows 11 Pro for Workstations 10.0.26200
	Login status: logged in
	Language: en
	Catalyst license: insider
	Insider build toggle: on
	Live preview: on
	Base theme: adapt to system
	Community theme: none
	Snippets enabled: 0
	Restricted mode: on

RECOMMENDATIONS:
	none
3

thanks

4

bro I am not understanding what to do. My mp4 isn’t showing any helpur UI elements

5

like on the YT video that shared

6

will be fixed 1.13.5. ETA unknown. You will need to download and reinstall Obsidian.

7

I can reproduce this on Obsidian 1.13.4 for macOS with embedded MP4 files as well, in both Reading View and Live Preview. The files decode and play normally when triggered through keyboard/accessibility controls, but mouse hit-testing targets the embed wrapper instead of the <video> element. As a temporary diagnostic workaround, applying .markdown-preview-view .video-embed > video { position: relative; } makes the video element receive pointer hits again. This appears to be an embed stacking/hit-testing regression rather than a media-file issue.