Description of Error
If you notice that your digital sign does not seem to be playing its most up-to-date content, please follow along these steps in order to determine what the cause may be, and how you can resolve it.
Try to determine the status of the sign player computer. A good first step would be to look at the date and time on the sign, to see if that matches the current date and time. Also check to see if content is advancing through your Playlist(s). If the sign's date and time are frozen in the past and no content is advancing (in other words, the display is completely "frozen"), the sign player computer is likely locked up and will need to be manually rebooted by holding in the power button until it powers off, waiting 15 seconds, and then pressing the power button again to boot it back up. Note that this action needs to be performed on the sign player computer itself; turning the display off and on will not fix the computer. If you need assistance with rebooting the sign player computer, please exit these troubleshooting steps and contact your local IT support team.
Checking the sign player computer's status in the Poppulo Harmony portal is another helpful step. Log into the portal at https://fwicloud.com and select the Devices module. Browse to the folder containing the sign player computer device and look for the Status column. A device that is healthy and able to communicate will have a check mark circled in green, meaning it is Online. If you see an exclamation mark circled in red followed by the date and time the device was last online, your sign player computer is Offline and not able to receive content updates. This could be for a number of reasons, such as the computer locking up, losing power, or losing network access. If you need assistance with getting your sign player computer back Online, please exit these troubleshooting steps and contact your local IT support team.
If your sign player computer appears to be working correctly, has an active network connection, and appears as Online in the Devices module, proceed to the Content Type section.
Try to determine which item of content does not appear to be updating. If the content that appears to be out of date is coming from a data feed, check that feed source to ensure it is accessible. Examples of data feed sources include events calendars, personnel directories, and RSS news. If the feed is accessible, make sure the content in the feed is updated and accurate. This might include making sure an employee's address has been updated in SAP if they've moved if the content is a directory feed. Or perhaps an event needs to be published to a calendar in order to appear on the sign. There are likely various filters applied to the data feed as well, depending on the type of feed. For example, many events calendar feeds have a limit on how far into the future the sign will display events (like not showing events that are more than two weeks in the future). If you believe your data feed is accessible, the content there is accurate, and the content should make it through all applicable filters, please see the Clear Device Cache section.
If the out-of-date content appears to be coming from a Playlist that you manage through the Library module within Poppulo Harmony, the next step will be checking on the Playlist. Please proceed to the Playlists section.
In the Library module of Poppulo Harmony, browse to your Playlist. Ensure you are updating content in the Playlist that was provided for you when your digital sign was deployed. Content Contributor users have the ability to create new Playlists within the Library, but should not use this function because any new Playlist created by a user will have no connection to any digital sign.
Users also have the ability to delete Playlists, but should not use this function on the Playlist that was provided. If you deleted the Playlist that was provided for you, the connection between your Playlist and your sign player computer was broken. If this occurred within the past 14 days, look for the Recently Deleted folder towards the bottom of the left folder tree. This contains all content deleted by anyone. Once you've located your Playlist, select it and then choose Restore. This would repair the connection between the Playlist and the sign player computer, and content should resume updating.
If you've deleted the Playlist that was provided for you longer than 14 days ago, a new one will need to be provided for you and connected to your sign player computer by the digital signage system administrators. Please submit the Digital Signage Service Request form for assistance.
If you are using the Playlist that was provided for you, please check the following:
- Have you Published your Playlist changes? Most of the Playlists provided by the digital signage system administrators for your use are set to Auto-Publishing, which means that all changes are immediately available for the sign player computer. However, some users prefer to Publish changes manually, and users have the ability to toggle off Auto-Publishing. Within the Playlist editing view, make sure the upper right corner says either Auto-Publishing or Published. If the button says Publish and is available to select, that means changes have been made to the Playlist but not Published, meaning the sign player computer does not have access to those changes.
- Have you allowed enough time between Publishing your changes for the sign player computer to retrieve those updates? Published changes to your Playlist take 15-20 minutes to appear on your digital sign.
- Did you delete the content from your Library folder, but not remove it from the Playlist? Deleting files you no longer need to display is a good practice, since we do not have unlimited storage on Poppulo Harmony. However, you should remove it from your Playlist first and then delete the file itself from its folder location. Leaving a deleted file on the Playlist tells the sign player computer that you still want that content to appear on your digital sign, and the sign player computer will continue to play that content if it has a locally-cached version downloaded. Remove the entry from the Playlist and be sure you've Published that change.
- Verify you have set any Availability settings on your content correctly, if you are using that function within your Playlist. Check to make sure the start and end dates and times for your content are what you intended.
If you're using the Playlist that was provided for you, have verified that all content within that Playlist is scheduled as intended and all changes to that Playlist are Published, please proceed to the Clear Device Cache section.
Log into the Poppulo Harmony portal and select Devices from the Dashboard. Browse to the folder containing your sign player device. Select the device and then choose the Clear Cache command button. The Clear Cache message box will appear. Select Restart Player, then Clear. This will tell the sign player computer to delete all locally-cached copies of its content and schedules, and force it to check all Playlists for content and schedule updates. All data feeds will be refreshed as well. The player application will close and re-launch itself.
If the sign player device Status is Offline, sending the Clear Cache command will have no effect as the sign player computer isn't communicating with Poppulo Harmony. Please request assistance from your local IT team if your device is Offline.
For Additional Help
If you have followed all of the steps in this article and your sign is still not playing its most up-to-date content, please submit the Digital Signage Service Request form for additional assistance.