Detecting HTML5 audio element file not found error

Question

I am trying to make a the browser display an alert if an audio element src attribute points to a non existent file, however I do not get any response if I attach the the "error" event.

Here's a fiddle with my problem and with what I have tried http://jsfiddle.net/Xx2PW/7/

The HTML:

<p>Non existent audio files - should return an error
    <audio preload="auto">
        <source src="http://example.com/non-existant.wav" />
        <source src="http://example.com/non-existant.mp3" />
        <source src="http://example.com/non-existant.ogg" />
    </audio>
</p>
<p>Existing audio file - should just play
    <audio preload="auto">
        <source src="http://jplayer.org/audio/m4a/Miaow-07-Bubble.m4a" />
    </audio>
</p>

And the JS:

playerMarkup = "<a class=\"player\">Play</a>";
audioTags = $("audio");

audioTags.before(playerMarkup); //insert markup before each audio tag

$(".player").on("click", function () {
    currentAudio = $(this).next()[0];
    //I've tried catching the error like this - no effect
    alert("Trying to play file.");
    try {
        currentAudio.play();
    } catch (e) {
        alert("Error playing file!");
    }
});

//I've also tried just handling the event error - no effect
audioTags.on("error", function (e) {
    alert("Error playing file!");
    console.log("Error playing file!");
});

How can I detect an error of the file not being played (because of not being found) with JS?

Answer 1

You actually need to bind to the source tag for listening to error event when willing to detect "file not found error". Have a look at this fiddle.

HTML:

<p id="player1">Non existent audio files - click to play</p>

<audio preload="none" controls>
    <source id="wav" src="http://example.com/non-existant.wav" />
    <source id="mp3" src="http://example.com/non-existant.mp3" />
    <source id="ogg" src="http://example.com/non-existant.ogg" />
</audio>

Script:

$("#player1").on("click", function () {
    //I've tried catching the error like this - no effect
    alert("Trying to play file.");
    try {
        $('audio')[0].play();
    } catch (e) {
        alert("Error playing file!");
    }
});

$("audio").on("error", function (e) {
        alert("Error at audio tag level!");
    });

// try this then
$("#wav").on("error", function (e) {
        alert("Error with wav file!");
    });
$("#mp3").on("error", function (e) {
        alert("Error with mp3 file!");
    });
$("#ogg").on("error", function (e) {
        alert("Error with ogg file!");
    });

It is described in this MDN article - section error handling. Let me know if it works for you.

Answer 2

This should handle both cases (e.g. using <audio> with <source> tags or using <audio src="">).
See example fiddle.

function handleSourceError(e) { alert('Error loading: '+e.target.src) }
function handleMediaError(e) {
    switch (e.target.error.code) {
        case e.target.error.MEDIA_ERR_ABORTED:
            alert('You aborted the media playback.'); break;
        case e.target.error.MEDIA_ERR_NETWORK:
            alert('A network error caused the media download to fail.'); break;
        case e.target.error.MEDIA_ERR_DECODE:
            alert('The media playback was aborted due to a corruption problem or because the media used features your browser did not support.'); break;
        case e.target.error.MEDIA_ERR_SRC_NOT_SUPPORTED:
            alert('The media could not be loaded, either because the server or network failed or because the format is not supported.'); break;
        default:
            alert('An unknown media error occurred.');
    }
}

var toArray = Array.prototype.slice;
toArray.apply(document.getElementsByTagName('audio')).forEach(function(audio){
    audio.addEventListener('error', handleMediaError);
    toArray.apply(audio.getElementsByTagName('source')).forEach(function(source){
        source.addEventListener('error', handleSourceError);
    });
});