Purchased movie files corrupt?

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Purchased movie files corrupt?

I have a few hundred movies purchased from either iTunes or the new TV app. Today, on my Mac, I tried to watch one of my recent purchases. I got a blank window with a spinning beachball cursor for several minutes. I tried another recent movie, same result. So I right-clicked on one of them and chose Show in Finder. The movies in question, instead of having a normal icon for a movie file (with the artwork), have a File Viewer icon with a magnifying glass.

The movies are titled properly, such as "Toy Story 4 (1080p HD).m4v" If I double-click one of these files, File Viewer opens with an information window. None of the information there is useful. On a hunch, I arranged the movies by Date Added, and it appears that my most recent 61 purchases (out of 539 since 2008) have this situation with the File Viewer icon, and won't play.

This is very strange because at least 12 or so of those movies I had previously watched with no problem.

I know I can easily delete and re-download all these movies, but I'd like to know what caused this! Also, re-downloading 61 movies is annoying and will take a big chunk of my monthly data plan.

iMac 27", macOS 10.15

Posted on Jan 3, 2020 5:35 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Steven Winget Author

Level 1

30 points

Jan 3, 2020 7:41 PM in response to Urquhart1244

Thank you, Urquhart1244, for your assistance. After I posted a second time I poked around a little and discovered that the default application had been changed to File Viewer. I don't even know how that app got on my Mac! I changed the default app to QuickTime Player, and now all is well except that the files have QuickTime icons instead of the movie artwork. But like you said, that's just cosmetic. I may go back and see what happens if I change the default app to TV.app.

What is the procedure for manually deleting the systems cached information? If I can't figure it out, I'll try Onyx. While I have you, why do some of my movie files have numbers in front of their titles? Like 01, 02, 03...? Thanks again.

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Answer 2

Urquhart1244

Level 10

146,274 points

Jan 3, 2020 7:22 PM in response to Steven Winget

The file icon is cosmetic and also relating to default apps: associations based on the extension – not the content of the file itself. It doesn’t influence the playability of a file.

Do a Get Info (⌘I) on one of those files. In the Open with section, change the default application to a different application, e.g. to QuickTime Player, or Apple TV app. Next click the Change All button to apply that to all files with that same extension.

Would this File Viewer be from the Mac App Store? I wouldn’t recommend having any application on a current Mac, that hasn’t had any maintenance in 6 years.

You may want to delete the system’s cached information, as some of it may have been corrupted. You can do it manually, or let Onyx do it for you.

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Answer 3

Jan 3, 2020 6:25 PM in response to Steven Winget

I'm back. I just deleted and re-downloaded three of the movies. WTF? They downloaded the same way as before! File Viewer icons. However, now at least the movies play.

Also, not just some but ALL of the TV show episodes and full seasons that I've purchased have File Viewer icons.

What exactly is going on here?

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Answer 4

Urquhart1244

Level 10

146,274 points

Jan 3, 2020 8:22 PM in response to Steven Winget

and now all is well except that the files have QuickTime icons instead of the movie artwork.

Finder files have a setting for using a custom icon (yes/no) and the icon data. If that ‘flag’ is off, then there may be artwork, but it isn’t shown. Some system maintenance could repair all that again.

What is the procedure for manually deleting the systems cached information? If I can't figure it out, I'll try Onyx.

Leave your Mac on for the night. If your Mac is awake between 3:15 am and 5:00 am, the (daily/weekly/monthly) maintenance scripts will run automatically. If your Mac is powered-on but sleeping during those hours, the scripts will run shortly after it wakes. Onyx provides buttons to execute the scripts now, as well as some other tasks.

Why do some of my movie files have numbers in front of their titles? Like 01, 02, 03...? Thanks again.

On my system, I see numbers on a few music video names from my library. There may also be a numbering scheme for re-downloads. IDK. It is not important, as the regular interaction is through a library inside an app.

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Answer 5

Jan 3, 2020 8:23 PM in response to Urquhart1244

Thank you.

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Purchased movie files corrupt?

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