MacOS 26.2 Powerpoint Video Looping Artifacts Continue

I also had this problem on a new MacBookPro M3-max. (Tahou 26.3.1, powerpoint 16.107). Several short mpeg, mov or mp4 video's when inserted in powerpoint do not play correctly: especially during looping. Some sort of block pattern appears and a temporal freeze and some time later the video plays again. This repeats. It is very annoying since the isolated movies play very well on the mac. I followed many tips and tricks on the internet (upgrading MSoffice etc, other video codecs etc) but nothing worked. I was very surprised that under Parallels (26.2.2) /Windows10 the video worked well. While I like Parallels, it was not the reason for buying a mac. I also noticed that sometimes when making a new powerpoint, the movie displayed ok in the first presentation, but when quitting powerpoint (and/or restarting the mac) the looping/jitter problem emerged.

Then I found an interesting tip: remove the powerpoint containers in the library folder. When going to ~/Library/Containers there is a folder Microsoft Powerpoint. You can move that to the trash. First quit powerpoint, delete the folder and restart mac. When restarting powerpoint it looks like it starts for the first time. The folder is remade.

I also deleted the powerpoint folder under ~/Library/Daemon Containers.

This COMPLETELY SOLVED my problem. Videos loop perfectly, smoothly, no jitter better than in Parallels !!

Maybe some old 'Cache' or information is being reused/ stored that corrupts the playback and apparently Paralllels does not access these folders.

I hope other people can confirm this fix. And maybe give a better idea on what actually caused this issue that seems very consistent over many OS and powerpoint upgrades because I have been trying to fix this for more than a year now.

Hi Steven,

I've been bothered by this issue and tried to work around this for months. This seems to be a problem with Mac OS, apparently starting after installation and upgrading of OS Sequoia. This is how I solved it. I installed OS Ventura on my old Macbook pro 2019 (I also own Macbook air 2025 but it does not support Ventura any more), and the video playback worked fine. OS Sonoma may work as well but I haven't tried. Of note, I needed to use Office 2019 with Ventura since Office 2024 does not support Ventura. If Sonoma works, you should be able to use Office 2024.

I'm expecting this issue to be solved with the upcoming update of OS Tahoe or later. All we can do seems to keep an old Macbook and just wait. Thanks for restarting the discussion on this issue.

Had this on Sequoia and Tahoe now. Interim solution is > openwith > Keynote. Not perfect but passable and easier than other workarounds. I still make and edit in PowerPoint as more familiar and easier for me.

In order to solve the issue, I tried downgrading to the most recent version of MacOS Sequoia 15.7.3 (24G419) and the same issue still persist with powerpoint in that version of MacOS. Once I downgraded all the way to MacOS 15.3.2 (24D81) with PowerPoint Version 16.104 (25121423). So I suppose the answer for now is don't update past MacOS 15.3.2. Hopefully Apple and Microsoft do something to address this issue since it is ridiculous that a key feature of this app has been broken for at least 9 Months.

If someone find this issue is fixed, it would be helpful to reply to this post in the future so others know it is safe to update.

Hi, Murawski, Steven

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum.

Sorry for this frustrating experience that you're facing. Here are some possible workarounds you can try to resolve this issue:

Avoid looping, extend the media duration

• Replace short looped clips with a longer, pre‑stitched video that repeats internally. You can do this quickly in QuickTime Player: open the clip, Command + A, copy, then paste the clip to the end several times, export a single long MP4, and insert that in PowerPoint. Multiple users reported this eliminated artifacts at the cost of larger slide files.

Re‑encode the video for stable looping

• Re‑encode your source videos to H.264 MP4 with Constant Frame Rate (CFR), a modest bitrate, and no variable frame‑rate behavior. If you currently use HEVC, convert to H.264. This has historically reduced macOS AVFoundation edge‑frame issues near loop boundaries, which can present as “pixelation” or dropped frames on repeat.
• Suggested export settings in HandBrake or similar:
  • Container: MP4
  • Video codec: H.264 (x264)
  • Frame rate: Same as source, Constant
  • Keyframe interval: 2 × frame rate, no “open GOP”
  • Audio: AAC, 48 kHz

Standardize clip dimensions and frame rate

• Ensure every looping clip on a slide shares identical resolution and frame rate. Mixing 30 fps and 60 fps, or 1080p and 4K in the same slide, increases chances of timeline resync at loop boundaries in AVFoundation.

Disable “Optimize media compatibility” for already‑stable clips

• In PowerPoint for Mac, after inserting the re‑encoded videos, avoid triggering additional optimization unless a clip fails to start. In some builds, re‑optimizing can change GOP structure and reintroduce loop edge artifacts.

Run the show from Keynote or QuickTime when stakes are high

• If the deck is mission‑critical, consider exporting the looping slide segment as a single video and play that video inside PowerPoint, or temporarily move the affected slide to Keynote. Several organizations recommended Keynote as a stopgap specifically for loop stability while waiting on macOS updates.

Test on macOS point releases

• Historically, Apple has addressed media playback regressions in Sequoia point releases. Some users reported a fix in 15.1 for earlier loop issues, then regressions in 15.5–15.6, and fresh reports in 26.x. It is worth testing your deck on any newer Tahoe maintenance update when available, because these changes land in AVFoundation rather than in PowerPoint alone.

Hope this helps. Feel free to get back if you need further assistance.

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