The session player lets you watch a recording back as the visitor saw it. The controls are deliberately simple: play, pause, scrub, and adjust speed.
Opening a recording
Open your website's dashboard, select the Sessions tab, and click any session in the list. The player opens as a full-screen page, so use your browser's back button (or the Back link in the top-left) to return to the list.
Player layout
| Area | Content |
|---|---|
| Header | Back link, session ID, start time, active duration, and event count |
| Viewport | The reconstructed page, played back exactly as the visitor saw it |
| Controls | Play/pause, time, timeline, and speed, along the bottom |
Viewport
The main viewing area shows the page rebuilt from the recording, including the mouse cursor following the visitor's movements. A short mouse trail follows the cursor as it moves.
If a recording captured page loads but no interaction (no clicks, scrolls, or input), the player shows a banner letting you know there isn't much to watch.
Playback controls
The control bar runs along the bottom of the player.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Play / Pause | The round button on the left starts and stops playback |
| Time | Shows the current position and the total length (MM:SS) |
| Timeline | A slider showing your position in the recording |
| Speed | A dropdown to change playback speed |
Timeline
Drag the slider to scrub to any point in the recording, or click along the track to jump there. Playback pauses while you scrub and resumes from the new position when you let go.
Speed
Use the speed dropdown to play back faster:
| Speed | Use case |
|---|---|
| 1x | Normal speed |
| 2x | Quick overview |
| 4x | Fast skim |
| 8x | Very fast scan |
Skipping idle time
Recordings often contain stretches where nothing happens. The player automatically skips idle gaps longer than a few seconds so you spend your time on the parts where the visitor was actually doing something. This happens automatically; there's no setting to configure.
Opening at a specific moment
You can link to a specific point in a recording by adding a ?t= value to the session URL (the position in milliseconds from the start of the recording). When the player loads, it seeks to that point automatically. This is handy for pointing a teammate at the exact moment something went wrong.
Privacy
What you see in the player depends on your recording's privacy settings. Inputs and elements marked for masking appear blocked out, and some third-party or cross-origin content (such as iframes) may not be captured. See Redacting PII in recordings for how masking works.
Troubleshooting playback
Session won't load
If a recording won't play:
- Check your internet connection
- Refresh the page
- Try a different browser
- Use the Try again button on the error screen
Visual glitches
If the replay looks slightly off:
- Some dynamic content may differ from what the visitor saw
- Third-party widgets may not render
- Custom fonts may be substituted
Missing or blank content
If parts of the page are blank, they may be masked for privacy, or come from iframes and cross-origin sources that the recorder can't capture.
For more, see Troubleshooting recordings.