Black screen on your laptop when you go live on your phone

Most sellers film on their phone and run Backstage on a laptop or iPad. If the video on your laptop is black, with just the chat, it's almost always the order you opened things in. Start the show on your phone first, then join it on your laptop from your seller dashboard, and you should see your video there.

The order that works

1. On your phone: open Whatnot, go to Seller Hub › Shows, open your show and tap Start Show. Your phone is your camera for the whole show.
2. On your laptop: in Chrome, in the same window as the Backstage panel, open your live show on whatnot.com. Open it from your seller dashboard, or go to your profile › Shows and open it there. You're joining the show you just started, not starting a new one.
3. In Backstage, press Start and check the card. See Start capturing a show.

On iPad it's the same: start on your phone first, then tap Open Whatnot in Backstage and go to your show.

Watching on a second phone or iPad? In the Whatnot app, a second device often shows only the chat and a black video. Sellers say two things bring the video back: open whatnot.com in Safari or Chrome on that device instead of the app, or in the app, join from Seller Hub › Shows and open your live show there rather than from your profile.

Still black on the laptop? Your viewers still see you, and Backstage still captures every sale. The video on a second screen can stay black for some sellers even in the right order, and Whatnot says that's normal. Watch your phone to see what your viewers see.

Started on your laptop by mistake, and your phone is black?

Whatever you pressed Start Show on is your camera for the whole show. Opening the show on your phone afterwards won't move the camera there, so the phone stays black. To switch:

1. End the show on your laptop.
2. On whatnot.com, open Seller Hub › Shows, find it under Past and click Restart Show. You have 2 hours, and your unsold listings come back with it.
3. On your phone, open the show and tap Start Show. Then join it on your laptop as above.
4. In Backstage, keep your bins: if you pressed End Show, tap Resume show. Don't clear the show, or bins start again at 1 while your first buyers already have theirs.

Your viewers will need to find you again, so tell them in chat before you end, or post that you're back.

Black on the phone you're filming with?

If the phone itself shows no picture, your viewers see black too. First check that Whatnot is allowed to use the camera and microphone:

• iPhone: open Settings › Whatnot and turn on Camera and Microphone.
• Android: press and hold the Whatnot icon, tap App info › Permissions, and set Camera and Microphone to Allow only while using the app.

Then end the show, restart your phone, restart the show as above, and start again on the phone.

Still black? More things sellers say fixed it for them:

• Unplug the phone from any cable to a computer before you tap Start Show.
• Try different internet. Some Wi-Fi, like school, work or public Wi-Fi, blocks live video. Switch to your home Wi-Fi or your phone's data.
• Reset the connection. Turn on Airplane Mode for about 15 seconds, turn it off, then close the Whatnot app all the way and open it again.

Good to know

• Keep the laptop's sound down. If it plays your show's sound, your phone's microphone picks it up and you get an echo or a squeal.
• Want to see how you look? Watch your phone. That's what your viewers see.
• Not sure viewers can see you? Ask a friend to open your show on their own Whatnot account. Your own account on a second screen can show black even when the show is fine.
• Black video is fine, frozen controls are not. If chat, pins and auctions work on the second device, all is well. If they spin or won't load, update the Whatnot app and restart that device. On Android you can also clear its cache: Settings › Apps › Whatnot › Storage › Clear cache.
• Try it first. Schedule a private show to test your phone-and-laptop setup without an audience.
• From the laptop you can still run auctions, pin items and start giveaways while the phone keeps filming.