slymnoyann/hey-1 · warning · Error

Add a valid video thumbnail before posting.

Error message

Add a valid video thumbnail before posting.

What it means

Thrown by getVideoDuration in usePostMetadata.tsx when building metadata for a video post: either no thumbnail URL is set, or videoDurationInSeconds can't be parsed into a finite positive number. Videos on Lens require a cover thumbnail and a duration, so metadata generation refuses to continue without both.

Source

Thrown at src/hooks/usePostMetadata.tsx:43

    attachment: (typeof attachments)[number] | undefined
  ) => {
    if (!attachment?.uri || !attachment.mimeType) {
      throw new Error("Please wait for attachments to finish uploading.");
    }

    return { ...attachment, uri: attachment.uri };
  };

  const formatAttachments = () =>
    attachments.slice(1).map((attachment) => ({
      item: assertUploadedAttachment(attachment).uri,
      type: attachment.mimeType
    }));

  const getVideoDuration = () => {
    const duration = Number.parseFloat(videoDurationInSeconds);
    if (!videoThumbnail.url || !Number.isFinite(duration) || duration <= 0) {
      throw new Error("Add a valid video thumbnail before posting.");
    }

    return duration;
  };

  const getMetadata = useCallback(
    ({ baseMetadata }: UsePostMetadataProps) => {
      const primaryAttachment = attachments[0];
      const hasAttachments = Boolean(primaryAttachment);
      const isImage = primaryAttachment?.type === "Image";
      const isAudio = primaryAttachment?.type === "Audio";
      const isVideo = primaryAttachment?.type === "Video";

      if (!hasAttachments) {
        return baseMetadata.content?.length > 2000
          ? article(baseMetadata)
          : textOnly(baseMetadata);
      }

View on GitHub (pinned to 88c8f9d553)

Solutions

1. Require thumbnail selection before enabling publish for video posts
2. Read duration only from the loadedmetadata event and guard Number.isFinite(duration) && duration > 0 at capture time, storing 0 as invalid
3. If thumbnail upload failed, retry it and keep the composer in 'not ready' state until videoThumbnail.url is truthy
4. Catch this error and surface a specific message pointing to the missing thumbnail vs invalid duration

Example fix

// before
const duration = Number.parseFloat(videoDurationInSeconds);
if (!videoThumbnail.url || !Number.isFinite(duration) || duration <= 0) {
  throw new Error("Add a valid video thumbnail before posting.");
}

// after: split the two failure modes for clearer UX
if (!videoThumbnail.url) {
  throw new Error("Add a video thumbnail before posting.");
}
const duration = Number.parseFloat(videoDurationInSeconds);
if (!Number.isFinite(duration) || duration <= 0) {
  throw new Error("Could not read video duration; re-select the video file.");
}

const hasVideoRequirements = Boolean(
  videoThumbnail.url &&
    Number.isFinite(Number.parseFloat(videoDurationInSeconds)) &&
    Number.parseFloat(videoDurationInSeconds) > 0
);
if (isVideoPost && !hasVideoRequirements) {
  // keep publish disabled; highlight the thumbnail picker
}

const hasValidVideoMeta = (thumb: { url?: string }, duration: string): boolean =>
  Boolean(thumb.url) && Number.isFinite(Number.parseFloat(duration)) && Number.parseFloat(duration) > 0;

try {
  const duration = getVideoDuration();
} catch (e) {
  if (e instanceof Error && e.message.includes("video thumbnail")) {
    // route the user to the thumbnail selection step
  }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Publishing a video without choosing a thumbnail (videoThumbnail.url empty), a duration string like ''/'NaN'/'0s' fed into Number.parseFloat, or the video element's duration being NaN/Infinity because metadata never loaded or the file is a live/unsupported stream.

Common situations: User skips the thumbnail step; thumbnail upload to IPFS failed so decentralizedUrl never populated; duration read before onloadedmetadata fired; seekbar-based duration measurement returning 0 for very short clips.

Related errors

• Video file is empty
• Could not generate thumbnails

AI-assisted analysis of slymnoyann/hey-1@88c8f9d553 (2026-08-28). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4b05c6b97cc2d746. Report an issue: GitHub.