Quicktime not opening AVI files in Lion.

Hi Phil,

it is not working. I have made some observations.

- Pacifist crashes when I want to install or extract something from the application folder.

- Then I tried the link with files you gave me. The libraries work fine but when trying to copy quicktime player I get an error message that says I am not allowed to modify or delete anything from quicktime player because it is required by os x. Then how did you do that???

- When I log into my root user(or guest, probably any other user) and start an .avi file it works like a charm without doing anything of your steps. Also it works in preview mode. So everything must be fine except for Quicktime for my specific user ... how awkward is that.

- The mac of my girlfriend has the exact same behaviour.

- VLC works fine

I'm puzzled. If you ask me apple did not properly test everything and perhaps released os x lion too soon. I never encountered this amount of problems with the previous upgrades.

Grtz

Michael

Hi Michael,

Sorry to hear that.

For Quicktime, I just drag and drop the extracted file in the /Application folder. Then it should ask to "replace or make a copy", and then choose Replace. Be sure that Quicktime isn't running... even reboot to be sure there's no Quicktime background process if you aren't sure.

I have been doing it with my main (and only) user account... which can have Admin rights, so I don't know if it could work from a guest or any other account... So if it works fine on your main account too, that probably mean your guest or other account files are messed up.

So, since Quicktime is in /Application folder, I'm guessing it's all about the components file... but I can't guarantee it 😟

Try to replace Quicktime with your main account, including the codec libraries and let's see if it will solve the issue for your other accounts. At this point, that's all I know... sorry I can't help more 😟

Good luck!!

Phil

PS: If you ask me, I think like you and do believe Lion has been rush out to be release as soon as possible.... but I never saw an Apple OS with so much trouble, misconceptions, incoherences, etc... The quality old Apple users are used to is long gone with Lion, which is almost the Apple version of Windows Vista. I definitely can't recommend Lion to anyone! (and I'm saying it as a hardcore Apple fanboy...)

Phil,

I do not get prompted to replace the app. It only says that I cannot do that operation.

I think there is nothing wrong with the QuickTime application though. Merely with the settings of my main user. All other users have no problem with avi files. I'm now looking into the hidden Library folder in the user directory.

Michael

Yep found it! There was an old xvid codec still hiding in the application support folder in the hidden user library 🙂.

So you have to delete all codecs from Library, System/Library and <user>/Library(this one is hidden).

Cheers

Michaël

Hmm.... that's kind of weird. Because when I used Pacifist to extract Quicktime from the Install disc, I know it did fix it for me...

I tried several time since I move file back and had the same issue several times. My solution was to replace quicktime with the original files from the install disc and then it was good again. It looks like there's not only Quicktime.app in the package, but also some codecs...

To help you I did extract "Quicktime" on my desktop and compress it to send it over the net, so I don't know if I did forget an additional file/folder? I don't think so... but if you drag and drop Quicktime.app, it should ask you to replace it... or worst case scenario, make a copy.... that's kind of weird 😟

Are you sure you have Quicktime.app in your /Application folder, and you're copying the Quicktime.app from my folder? (just checking, sorry if it sounds stupid)

Phil

Oh yeah, of course... Please follow the step and remove all your other codecs. I also had a bunch of codecs and I finally remove all of them, and so far, it seems to work... 🙂

Hey all,

I was having a hard time trying to get my Avi files to play, because I upgraded to that new OS X Lion... so I downloaded all the stupid codecs thinking if i had them all i'd be safe, lol. but I deleted Divx thanks to the posts on here. I already had Flip4Mac & Perian (which was the most helpful at the time) and even re-installed it, but my Avi files would only play a few seconds of sound and then stop (the same thing would happen if I fast forwarded).

My sister told me about VLC, which is what we use at my school I guess, and had heard about before but people all over websites were saying all you needed was Perian. I've been reading people's blogs etc trying to figure this out, and it finally worked after installing VLC. I haven't checked to see if Perian, & Flip4Mac have anything that VLC can't play so I still have them.

So my solution, after much research and headache was Perian & VLC.

^^^

here's where I found VLC

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-macosx.html

I wasn't sure if It was the 32 or 64 bit, but luckily there was a 32/64 🙂

I replaced perian 1.2.3 with 1.2.2 and it WORKS now, I couldn't beleive it, sounds trivial but did I ever monkeyed around to find this... reinstalled Lion couple of time, destroyed Quicktime with sudo in terminal... was even considering going back to Snow Tiger..... releived am I now....

i've been reading here about the same problem over and over again, as i also have two seconds of audio and then nothing

what do you do when you only have flip4mac and Perian and it still doesn't work?

i tried jeanrocco's trick, downgrading from 1.2.3 to 1.2.2 and unchecked "load external subtitles", to no avail.

This i getting pretty frustrating as only unchecking that box worked for a lot of people in 1.2.3 except me offcourse 🙂

thanks alot for the help

Sorry to hear that, my Quicktime wouldn't play at all, whenever I clicked on any .avi file. Yours seems to behave differently, it plays audio for few seconds and dies... By the way, I'm not using flip4mac, only Perian 1.2.2, and didn't uncheck "load external subtitles". As I told you I reinstalled Lion couple of time, maybe it did something... Can I understand your frustration !!! But mine consistantly works now. I was using VLC in the mean time, but this apparent Quicktime misbehave was bugging me... It shouldn't happen on a priceless and formidable MAC...

well i've given up on getting it to run in quicktime, but VLC does play without any problems and with sound

i was keen on having it in qt because some said here it looses out in quality dept compared to qt, but honestly i don't notice it at all...

thx again

The fact of the matter is this should have been fixed by now. When an application that is core to the identity of, and the user friendliness of, Mac is not working properly it needs to be fixed immediately. My whole workflow is screwed up. Something is wrong and I am not sure what it is, but Apple is not being Apple.

i still hope they, either Apple or Perian, get it sorted sooner rather than later, but in the meantime i'm using VLC player

Anyone succeeded without Perian?

I'm trying both Quicktime with Flip4MAC - can't load at all!

And also DIVx player - loading, but can't load .srt file with the avi - saying unsupported format... :-(