[BUG] "An error occurred playing this saved recording"

[Martuss]

Steam Version: 1730853027
Windows 11
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060
Game ready driver version 566.03
Games this happened in: Black Mesa, Counter-Strike 2, Left 4 Dead
Other recording software used: none at the time of this bug happening

Looking at the background recording of my games, thumbnails and capture looks correct, so do timeline markers for achievements.
However, when playing the background recording, the "An error occurred playing this saved recording" message will appear on screen and video will not play.
This bug appears seemingly at random, some parts of a recording can be playable without issue while other parts of the same recording may be unplayable.
Hovering the unplayable parts of the recording in the timeline will still show image previews, so I'm guessing the actual recording could be in tact and the issue might be with the Steam media player.

Some additional information:
This bug was probably introduced on the Steam Recording official release on the 5th of November, or in the 6 weeks leading up to it - I can't narrow the exact update because I went some time without using this feature, and when I turned it back on on November 6th. this bug was new.

[Martuss]

I've recorded how this bug looks:

https://youtu.be/y0X7k7tCQvw

[ToeJam and Hurl]

I am also experiencing this problem, I'm assuming its just early on bugs or something

[Yer]

Been getting the same issue for the past couple weeks. Something must have broke recently. Having to edit clips blind is a bit annoying but at least the actual video seems to still be there. Just the playback is broken. I've read a suggested fix was to enable hardware rendering in the steam client, but I already have mine enabled and it's still broken.

[Martuss]

Originally posted by Yer:

Been getting the same issue for the past couple weeks. Something must have broke recently. Having to edit clips blind is a bit annoying but at least the actual video seems to still be there. Just the playback is broken. I've read a suggested fix was to enable hardware rendering in the steam client, but I already have mine enabled and it's still broken.

Can confirm that hardware rendering makes no difference, I've tested both and neither works

[Lulu]

I have this error too. A workaround I've discovered is to let the recording play from the beginning without skipping around by clicking on the timeline, but that's not very practical.

My duplicate report on this:
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/SteamClientBeta/discussions/5/4630357311925347212/

[C0CK COUNCIL LEADER]

yup cant watch any of my saved recordings and i cant save/share them anyway so its just pointless for me atm hope they fix this soon.

[Croque-Monsieur]

I encounter the same issue as well all the time. Clipping the recording will even work during those blacked out segments so the recording is still 100% intact but will not be shown in player. Sometimes rebooting Steam makes it playable again sometimes not.

[j]

been having this issue since the beta release. It seems like the video is unaffected, just doesn't allow me to watch in the steam client.

[Magos Flibble]

Same. Since release I've been having this issue. It's a bit frustrating :(

[Non-Employee]

I've been using the game recording since beta, and playback worked fine until this recent update yesterday. (maybe the one before it?) Happens on stable branch too. Sadly since it's the weekend as of writing this, I think we won't get a fix for two days? I've noticed updates rarely happen on weekends, beta or not.

[KingRoan]

Just bumping this thread because i have the same problem.

[ZombiekE]

I have the same issue with recorded Quake Live gameplay.

[Non-Employee]

I'm not sure if this'll work for everyone, but I read somewhere that they just changed the folder their recordings went to. (So I had it on my HDD using the name "Steam Recordings" and just made a new folder in the exact same place, but named it something else) SO FAR it's fixed the problem for me.

Knowing my luck, it'll stop working now that I posted this

[SCBionicle]

Does anyone know if they fixed this in the beta?

[Hatch]

Originally posted by Non-Employee:

I'm not sure if this'll work for everyone, but I read somewhere that they just changed the folder their recordings went to. (So I had it on my HDD using the name "Steam Recordings" and just made a new folder in the exact same place, but named it something else) SO FAR it's fixed the problem for me.

Knowing my luck, it'll stop working now that I posted this :mmx_sigma:

I changed my folder and sometimes my game will record and sometimes it won't. So I can "confirm" that this doesnt fix anything unfortunately.