Here are a few of BrainPOP's Frequently Asked Tech Support Questions. Please take some time to review the responses. We also keep separate lists of questions specific to both HOME and SCHOOL. If you have any further questions, please contact us here.
Our website was developed with the most recent Adobe Flash technology, which has had some known compatibility issues with various browsers. If you're experiencing difficulty accessing the movies, 99% of the time the solution is to empty your browser's cache and download the most recent Flash plug-in, or update your current Flash plug-in. Emptying your browser's cache can usually be done from your browser's settings or preferences. You can download the latest Flash plug-in from Adobe.com here:

Click here to download a handy Setup Guide!

Also: Here is a list of Tips for Using BrainPOP!
To access your subscription and receive unlimited access to the BrainPOP site you must LOGIN. The button is on the upper-left of the homepage. You will need to log into each computer with your school's username and password.

If you do not know or remember the username and password you chose, please try our Password Reminder.
Enter your username and password here:

Copy this URL into your BrainPOP bookmark to login automatically every time you visit!
If you are getting a message that too many people are already logged on to your account, here are a few explanations as to why this might be:
1. There are more people trying to log on to your account than are allowed. Check your account guidelines to determine the correct amount of simultaneous logins for your account type.

2. Someone using your account never logged out before closing the browser window. If this is the case, you can automatically log these inactive accounts off by ignoring the prompt and logging on anyway. You might also want to encourage users to log off of BrainPOP when they are through with their session.

3. All BrainPOP accounts are reset at 11:59pm local time. Therefore, if you are trying to re-use your account logins within the same calendar day, you will be limited to the stated amount until your account is reset.
Unregistered BrainPOP visitors may watch three of our free movies per day. If you go to three topic pages on the site - and that includes going to the same topic more than once - it counts as watching three movies, even if you didn't actually see them all the way through. If you would like unlimited access to BrainPOP, please visit our Online Store. A free trial is also available.
Mac Users
We recommend you use the most updated version of Safari, which comes standard with Mac OS X. Access "Software Update" from your Apple menu to insure you are using the most recent version.

Mac users may also use the Firefox browser, available HERE. Users of Mac OS 9 should use the most updated version of Internet Explorer they have on their computer (updates are no longer available for download from Microsoft).

PC Users
We recommend you use the most updated version of Internet Explorer, which comes standard with Windows. Access "Windows Update" from the Tools menu to insure you are using the most recent version.

While much of BrainPOP will work fine with Firefox for Windows, users may experience unpredictable behavior with some of our Flash content. We are working on fixing these known issues, but in the meantime, we cannot recommend Firefox for Windows users.

* * *
No matter what your browser, you will need to download the latest version of the Adobe Flash Player.

We are working hard to make BrainPOP compatible with all browsers, but this is a pretty tricky thing to do, as you might imagine. There is a growing number of new browsers out there (Opera, Camino, etc.), and if you have a favorite, you should go ahead and try it. If you experience errors, you'd be doing us a favor by reporting them, and we'll do our best to address any problems we can. To insure that your BrainPOP experience is as error-free as possible, however, it would be best to use one of our recommended browsers.
Adobe, the developer of Flash, has stopped development on the Flash plug-in for these older operating systems. We know that many of these older operating systems can be found in many of the schools that use BrainPOP. For this reason, we do our best to make sure our movies are compatible with these systems. In order to insure compatibility with our site, please make sure that you have upgraded your Flash plug-in to the most recent possible version. More information on these older systems and links for upgrading can be found here.
BrainPOP uses cookies to determine what level of access your account has. If you have cookies turned off, turn them on in your browser settings. It's also possible that your browser does not support cookies. We recommend using the most updated version of your web browser.
PC with Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or later
1. Go to Tools on top of browser
2. Choose Internet Options
3. Go to Privacy tab and click on "Default"
4. Press OK
5. Return to www.brainpop.com
PC with Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.X. – 5
1. Go to View on top of browser
2. Choose Internet Options on bottom of list
3. Go to Advanced tab on far right and scroll down to cookie box in list to choose either:
* Always accept cookies or
* Prompt before accepting cookies
4. Press OK
5. Return to www.brainpop.com
PC with Netscape 4.X
1. Go to Edit on top of browser
2.Choose Preferences on bottom of list
3. Click on Advanced on left hand side of box. On right hand side of box choose either:
* Accept all cookies or
* Warn me before accepting a cookie
4. Press OK
5. Return to www.brainpop.com
Mac OS X with Explorer 5.X or later
1. Go to Explorer in Menu Bar
2. Choose Preferences
3. Double Click on Receiving Files to open its options
4. Click on Cookies
5. On right hand side of box where it says When Receiving Cookies choose either:
* Never Ask
* Ask for each site
* Ask for each cookie
6. Press OK
7. Return to www.brainpop.com
Mac OS X with Safari
1. Go to Safari in Menu Bar
2. Choose Preferences
3. Click on Security on top of window and choose either:
* Accept Cookies Always or
* Accept Cookies only from sites you navigate to
4. Close the Window
5. Return to www.brainpop.com
Mac OS 9 with Explorer 4 and above
1. Go to Edit in Menu Bar
2. Choose Preferences
3. Double Click on Receiving Files to open its options
4. Click on Cookies On right hand side of box where it says When Receiving Cookies choose either:
* Never Ask
* Ask for each site
* Ask for each cookie
5. Press OK
6. Return to www.brainpop.com
Mac OS 9 with Netscape
1. Go to Edit in Menu Bar
2. Choose Preferences
3. Click on Advanced and in area on right choose:
* to accept all cookies
4. Click OK
5. Close the Window
6. Return to www.brainpop.com
PCs with Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.X or later
  1. Open Internet Explorer 4.X
  2. Go to View on top of browser
  3. Choose Internet Options on bottom of list
  4. Go to General tab (the default tab)
  5. Click the "Settings" button /li>
  6. Click the "View Files" button
  7. Delete the brainpop.com cookie file(s), which are specified under the server www.brainpop.com.
 PCs with Netscape 3.X and 4.X
Netscape bundles all web site cookies into one file: cookies.txt You can not delete just the brainpop.com related cookies from this file. You will need to delete the entire file which will, in turn, delete all of your Netscape cookies.

Mac OS X with Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.X or later

  1. Go to Explorer in Menu Bar
  2. Choose Preferences
  3. Double Click on Receiving Files to open its options
  4. Click on Cookies
  5. On right hand side of box you'll see a list of all your cookies: Find and select the 'www.brainpop.com' cookie
  6. Press the Delete Button
  7. Press OK
  8. Return to www.brainpop.com

Mac OS X with Safari

  1. Go to Safari in Menu Bar
  2. Choose Preferences
  3. Click on Security on top of window
  4. Click on Show Cookies
  5. Select the www.brainpop.com cookie
  6. Click on Remove
  7. Click on Done
  8. Close the Preferences Window
  9. Return to www.brainpop.com

Mac OS 9 with Explorer 4 and above

  1. Go to Edit in Menu Bar
  2. Choose Preferences
  3. Double Click on Receiving Files to open its options
  4. Click on Cookies
  5. On right hand side of box you'll see a list of all your cookies: Find and select the 'www.brainpop.com' cookie
  6. Press the Delete Button
  7. Press OK
  8. Return to www.brainpop.com

Mac OS 9 with Netscape

  1. Do a search for the "cookies.txt" file
  2. Move the one in your users folder for Netscape into the trash
  3. Empty the trash
Try clearing your web browser's cache first. This can usually be done from your browser's settings or preferences. Then re-launch your browser. If you continue to experience problems after updating the plug-in and emptying your cache, we recommend that you re-install Flash, but make sure you follow these simple steps before reinstalling. (The installer allows you to select either Netscape or Internet Explorer. You can apply these steps to either browser.)
1. Quit the browser

2. Locate the Plug-ins folder. Netscape and IE both retain separate plug-in folders, which are located inside their respective application folders. You can perform a Find for "Plug-ins" to quickly locate the folder.

3. Remove and trash the following plug-in files from your Plug-ins folder:
Macintosh Users
ShockwavePlugin.class
Shockwave Flash NP-PPC

PC Users
ShockwavePlugin
ShockwaveFlash.class
4. Run the Shockwave installer again, selecting which browser to install to.

If you are using a Macintosh (OS 9 or below), and you are still having problems, we suggest allocating more RAM to your Macintosh web browser. To do this:

a. Quit the browser

b. Select the application's icon in the Finder.

c. Select GET INFO from the File Menu

5. In the Memory section of the window that appears, increase the Preferred Size to at least 25,000 KB. Go even higher if your computers have enough RAM. (You can see how much free RAM is available by selecting ABOUT THIS COMPUTER from the Apple Menu while the Finder is the frontmost application.)

6. Re-launch the web browser application.
If you are seeing broken blue Quicktime icons where there should be Flash movies and buttons, there is a fix for this issue that can work in many circumstances.
  1. Close your web browser completely (File > Exit)
  2. Open the QuickTime application
  3. From the menus, select: Edit > Preferences > QuickTime Preferences
  4. Select "Browser Plug-in" from the drop-down list
  5. Click on the button marked "MIME Settings"
  6. Expand the "Miscellaneous" file format section by clicking on the "+" on the left
  7. Uncheck the "Flash file" checkbox
  8. Click "Apply" and then "OK"
  9. Close QuickTime
  10. Open your web browser and see if the fix worked. BrainPOP's homepage is a good place to check, because it contains quite a lot of Flash files.

We hope this fixes the problem for you. If this did not solve the problem, please contact us here.
This can happen sometimes, especially if your connection is slow. Clicking the refresh button on your browser will usually solve the problem.
The BrainPOP Quiz lets you print, view, or email results to a teacher or parent. Before emailing quiz results, make sure that any and all pop-up blockers on your computer are temporarily disabled. If you have disabled your pop-up blockers and the quiz results are still not getting through, check the email address and try again.
The quiz results print fine on most computers. A small number of computers, however, seem to have difficulty printing from the quiz. We're working on the problem, but in the meantime, a simple workaround is to email the results to a computer with a working printer, and print them from there. Also, make sure your printer is turned on and connected to your computer.
On the category topic list page (the one with all the icon links to the movies), the names of the movies can sometimes disappear. This can happen if your connection to the internet is slow. Usually, clearing your browser cache and refreshing the page will fix the problem. Sometimes restarting your web browser will be necessary. Firefox for Windows has some known issues with Flash (the technology we use to display these icons), so if you experience this problem often, we suggest using Internet Explorer.
You're right. Tim talks just a little too fast in some of the movies. In the old days, when dial-up connections were the norm, one of the best ways to keep the movies easy for folks to download was to make sure that they were short. In order to keep the movies packed with info, we needed Tim speak to really fast. Now that more computers have faster connections, (and more importantly, because of the leaps and bounds made in file compression technology), Tim doesn't need to talk so fast. He's slowed down quite a bit in our newer movies!
This is a known issue with Firefox for Windows. This problem can happen on our "See All" pages; where you select from all the movies of a given category. If you scroll down the page using your mouse's scroll wheel, the cursor can lose its focus, which can send you to the wrong movie. This is not so good, we know. We're sorry. We're working on the problem. In the meantime, we suggest using Internet Explorer. Make sure your Flash Plugin is updated.
Ask your network administrator to enable access to:
Our streaming URL:
http://brainpop.speedera.net
As well as our standard URL:
http://www.brainpop.com
  1. Is the volume turned up on your computer? This can usually be set via the control panels.
  2. If there are speakers connected to your computer, are they powered on? Is the volume turned up?
  3. Has someone left a pair of headphones plugged into the computer? Unplug them.
  4. Can you hear sound in other applications on your computer? If you can't, and you've tried the above steps, then the problem may be with your sound card or operating system.
We also keep separate lists of questions specific to both HOME and SCHOOL.
Okay. Here is a list of things you can try that might help. Many of the problems our users experience can be solved by one of these steps. Many of these are repeated above, but here they are, all in one place, just in case it helps. We're not saying that you should do all of these things, but we hope that maybe one of them will solve your problem.
  • Clear your browser cache.
  • Update your Flash Plugin here.
  • Restart your web browser.
  • Restart your computer.
  • Try a different web browser.
  • Try a different computer.
  • Turn your cookies on.
  • Enable access to both http://brainpop.speedera.net and http://www.brainpop.com if you use internet filtering software.
  • If you're not hearing any sound, maybe somebody left headphones in the headphone jack. Take them out.
  • Are there a lot of computers sharing your internet connection? Try again in a minute or so.
Directions for most of these suggestions can be found in the questions above. If all else fails, feel free to contact us..
Click Here if you still have questions about BrainPOP. If your question is technical in nature, please be sure to include your username, along with information about the computer you are using to access BrainPOP. This should include your operating system (Mac OS 9, Mac OS X, Windows 98, Windows XP, etc.), and the type and version of web browser you are using (Internet Explorer 6, Netscape 5, etc.). Including this information will help us solve your problem faster!
Unfortunately, some of our older movies contain unintended screechy noises - we're actually not sure why! We are aware of the problem, however, and are in the process of finding all such instances and re-recording them so that the screeches will be gone. In the meantime, please accept our apologies for any inconvenience the noises may be causing! If it helps, you can turn the audio on your computer down and watch the movies with our brand new closed captioning function instead!
To restrict access to certain movies, you will need the URL of the movie for the section you wish to block.For entire sections, the URL to block will be located in the address bar when viewing the category's main page. For specific movies, use the URL in the address bar when on that movie's page.

Once you have the URL, you must add it to the list of blocked content in your firewall. If you are in a school, your network administrator should be able to assist you.
There are a variety of reasons why the email may not have gone through when you signed up for your free trial. In order to properly activate your trial, make sure you add info@brainpop.com to your address book, then have the email resent.

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