Getting "cannot open" error on iPhone 3 when trying to play iTunes videos

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Getting "cannot open" error on iPhone 3 when trying to play iTunes videos

We have an old iPhone 3 that we've given to our daughter and is being used as a wifi-enabled iTouch for apps and videos. Unfortunately, I'm getting an error message simply saying "Cannot open" when I try to open certain videos. These videos were all purchased in the iTunes store and all work on our other iPads and iPhones. Also the iPhone does play certain videos just fine but gets the error on other videos. I tried several things today including syncing both from the phone and from iTunes, as well as restarting the device. I see a few legacy posts like this but I don't see any consistent explanation for this error. Does anyone have an idea of what is causing this or how to fix it?

Thanks, Juli

Posted on Jul 12, 2014 2:00 PM

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Answer 1

julikuo Author

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Jul 12, 2014 2:52 PM in response to julikuo

So I just learned more about this and am getting a further error that the video format is not supported by the iPhone. Do you know if there are some video formats that are not playable on the iPhone 3?

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Answer 2

sterling r

Community Specialist

Jul 14, 2014 12:10 PM in response to julikuo

Hey there Julikuo,

It sounds like you have some videos synced to your iPhone from your computer that cannot play on your phone. The videos in question may be too high of a resolution to play on your phone. Check out these video requirements for your device here:

Video

Video formats supported: H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Low-Complexity version of the H.264 Baseline Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; H.264 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Baseline Profile up to Level 3.0 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file format

iPhone 3G - Technical Specifications

http://support.apple.com/kb/sp495

You can use iTunes to create an iPhone version of the affected video with this article:

iTunes: Videos may be unable to sync to iPhone, iPad, or iPod

https://support.apple.com/kb/TS1497

Select a video and choose File > Create New Version > Create iPod or iPhone Version.

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.

All the very best,

Sterling

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