.MOV files won't play anymore

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Level 1

1 points

.MOV files won't play anymore

since we had to get a new hard drive, I backed up everything using time machine and I brought all my photos and movies back but now some of my videos/movies (taken on my digital camera) won't play. They are still .MOV files but the time has been changed to 0.00 and consequently they look like still photographs. It has only happened to some of them as well despite being taken on the same camera. I have all the videos but they don't play anymore. Anyone have any idea what could have happened? and what I could do about it, if anything?

Intel dual core 17" iMac 5,1, Mac OS X (10.6.4), iPhone 2, working better than the day I got it! iPad

Posted on Jan 18, 2011 1:05 PM

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Answer 1

Jan 18, 2011 1:10 PM in response to GG31568

Try googling ".mov extension for quicktime player mac download"
I had the same issue and it worked for me

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Answer 2

GG31568 Author

Level 1

1 points

Jan 22, 2011 5:46 AM in response to Harry Mellsop

I did this but am a bit stuck as what I have to download? It brings us quite a few things if you type that into google but I have no idea what it is you are suggesting? Can you not tell me directly? Or is it forbidden? I understand that we are not supposed to download certain things but this is a problem that time machine has caused me with my own movies recorded on my digital camera...

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Answer 3

Jan 22, 2011 10:21 AM in response to GG31568

Go to the following website:

http://www.fileinfo.com/extension/mov

Click on the "Quicktime" link at the top of the Macintosh section

Download and install

Bingo, worked for me on OS X 10.6.5 before I upgraded to 10.6.6

Hope this works

Harry

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Answer 4

GG31568 Author

Level 1

1 points

Jan 27, 2011 2:47 AM in response to Harry Mellsop

thanks for that Harry but sadly I already have Quicktime 7 installed so it didn't hep!

I think the problem is that the movie length has been changed from say, 41 seconds to 0 seconds so there is technically nothing to play if you see what I mean. I don't actually know if I can actually do anything at all because the back up has changed them to 0 seconds. I should have copied my iPhoto differently but if you do a time machine back up you expect that you are just doing a back up and not that it will start changing things. In the Apple store they had no idea what to do or how it had happened either. It's very annoying.

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Answer 5

heller47

Level 1

0 points

Feb 6, 2011 3:06 PM in response to GG31568

Hi there I had the same problem with all my taken mov files which I transferred to my mac from my iphone via iphoto. all were had 0:00 and would not play. Then I read in another post - open image capture app. Choose all or the files you want to download from your iphone to you mac - movies will be downloaded to your movies folder and pictures to your pictures folder - and voila all the movies had the right MB attached and would play in quicktime ok. Hope this helps

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Answer 6

GG31568 Author

Level 1

1 points

Feb 10, 2011 1:02 PM in response to heller47

that might have worked if the videos had been taken on my iPhone but I have the original one and so it's not possible!
I took them on my digital camera and I've had a look at the file sizes, 47kb which I think may be quite small even compared to a 'still' photograph which essentially all my videos are now. What i need is a way to convert them back to the original footage? thanks for trying to help anyway. I'll keep searching for an answer, it just seems bizarre that time machine could have changed the videos and it's not even all of them, some of them are unchanged, it's very odd.

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Answer 7

Mar 24, 2011 9:48 PM in response to GG31568

I'm so glad I found someone else this has happened to. I just found out I have about 700 .mov files that open up but are a still picture with a movie length of 0:00. I'm freaking out, I don't feel that people are getting the issue. It seems like a data corruption problem. For example I had a .mov file that was of a 2:38 clip I took. Today I decided to watch some of the movies I've taken and when I went to that clip it was only 47kb in size and opened in quicktime like normal but only showed a still picture of the video. Please someone help, I try to document life and it would be such a tragedy to loose all those memories.

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Answer 8

lascpa

Level 1

0 points

May 22, 2011 12:58 PM in response to GG31568

Hey, did anyone ever find a solution for the now "still" *.mov files on your Mac? This never used to be a problem for me. I can watch the video in iPhoto OK but when I access the file in Finder it acts as you've described above...a still pix with a 0.00 duration. It's freaking me out - lots of good family movies at risk. I already have QuickTime 10 on my Air so no problem there. Any help would be most, most appreciated!

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Answer 9

GG31568 Author

Level 1

1 points

Jul 1, 2011 11:49 AM in response to lascpa

sorry, still no joy with a solution to this problem. I've given up trying to work out how to get them back to their original state but what I can say is that if you use TM as a back up make sure you copy iPhoto onto your hard drive as a whole thing and not just include it in the back up because this is where the problem seems to have occurred. I just followed the advice of a genius in using my external hard drive for time machine but in actual fact using it as a storage facility back up would have been better and thats what I do now. I found this link to show how to copy the whole iPhoto Library. At least you can still view your videos, I can't do that at all 😟

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Answer 10

Jul 1, 2011 1:18 PM in response to GG31568

Sounds like what you are looking at are "thumbnails", so you may just be looking in the wrong folder. But I don't use iPhoto, so this is not an expert opinion.

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Answer 11

GG31568 Author

Level 1

1 points

Jul 2, 2011 3:31 AM in response to John Kitchen

I really don't think this is the case at all. The files are opening but have changed from a short video clip, taken on a digital camera, to a 'still' photograph. I don't understand how you think we may be looking in the wrong folder? I can search for any .MOV files and they all come up and some of them are ok and some of them have been altered. All this happened after using TM but the genius bar had no idea what had happened and I don't think anyone else does either. I agree with eulogyblues, people are not actually understanding that video files that worked perfectly well before, are now essentially just still photos, not even good quality photos either. The whole file has been changed from a 2/3 minute clip to a 0.00 clip.

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Answer 12

Jul 2, 2011 7:55 AM in response to GG31568

Oh well. My wild guess did not pay off. It sounds like a bizarre thing. Have you tried calling Apple support? I don't mean the Genius Bar at a store, but the real support people. Here in the U.S., they are generally really good on complex problems.

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Answer 13

GG31568 Author

Level 1

1 points

Jul 2, 2011 8:30 AM in response to John Kitchen

I live in the UK so I'm not sure if the support would still be the same? I never thought about ringing Apple up as I had already spoken to 2 geniuses (is that even a word?) and they had no idea what had happened. Thanks for the suggestion though.

I have tried to open the files using different applications but it seems only quicktime will do it anyway and I also tried 'revert to original' which is a useful feature in iPhoto but that doesn't work either because it's greyed out and I'm guessing it's because the files have been saved and then removed from the computer when the hard drive was replaced. It is very bizarre as when I put iPhoto back on the new hard drive, the albums were all there as they had been before the TM back up. It's such a weird thing to have happened, especially as it's only to certain ones, some of them play fine.

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Answer 14

Jul 2, 2011 8:45 AM in response to GG31568

The Apple Store Geniuses have a principal role of sales support and handholding people new to computers or new to Apple products. With all due respect, I think this issue is more complex than we could expect them to handle.

The people you call via the Apple UK website for support fall into two broad categories. The first level who handle the simple issues and know enough to know when the issue should be escalated and a hierarchy of experts behind that who catch the tricky ones.

My support call was quickly escalated. Data collected from my computer has been passed to Apple engineering people.

Check out the Apple UK website under "Support" and see if they have an option to call you. That way you can describe the issue concisely and get quickly to the appropriate skill set.

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Answer 15

GG31568 Author

Level 1

1 points

Jul 2, 2011 10:44 AM in response to John Kitchen

thanks John, I'll give that a go. I never really thought about the geniuses not knowing everything! Anyway have made a discovery, one of the videos that doesn't work has had its extension changed from .MOV to JPG but it also has and .MOV that does work and they both have the same file number from the camera, very strange, of course I've looked for similar duplicates but no luck with any of the others. Also, if you open the video and get the info on them, if they are a proper video ie, not 0.00 they have a little pic of the video at the top of the info window but if they are a 0.00 video then they just have a little Quicktime logo next to the title. Weird or what?

I'll contact support and keep you posted. Thanks again for your help and advice.

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