I was looking through old home videos of my daughter and most of them cannot play. First photos says it can't open it so do I want to try quicktime and then it can't either!! these are mp4's they should be playable. I'm including two screenshots, I am so afraid of loosing precious footage, please help.
MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.4)
Where is your Photos Library stored? Is it in your Pictures folder? Or on an external drive?
Check the videos by trying to export one of the videos. select the video in Photos, then use the command "File > Export > Export unmodified original ...".
Can you export the video? Can you open it in Quicktime?
Thank you for replying and trying to help.
I tried what you suggested and it won't allow me to export the file at all.
And my Photos app is located on my hard drive and holds everything. Every photo/video I've ever taken. I do use an external hard drive for backup with Time Machine but I haven't backed these up separately if you know what I mean...
The error message says "Could not convert image".
I Suggested to export from Photos with "File > Export > Export unmodified original". Then no conversion should have been necessary. Did you try to export like this from Photos? Does it give the same error?
Okay, I'll give that a try
Hi Leonie,
I tried what you suggested, to export original unmodified version but the exact same thing happened when I tried to open it!
I'm at a loss!
I tried what you suggested, to export original unmodified version but the exact same thing happened when I tried to open it!
Then you have currently no software installed that can open the videos or the videos have become corrupted.
Can you tell us more about what happened, before you could no longer open the videos? Did you just install any update? Run any cleaning applications to free storage? How did you record the videos? Which camera are you using?
Did you previously have additional video codecs installed? Flip4Mac? Perian?
Anything to give us a clue what could be wrong.
Do you get an error message, when you try to open the exported video? What is the file size of the exported originals? Are they large enough to be the full versions?
As a test, download the VLC player and check, if it can play your exported video: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
VLC is usually very good at playing anything that the Mac can't play.
Leonie, Thank you so much. I have installed CleanMyMac and I was worried that it had corrupted my videos but I tried playing the exported video with VLC as you suggested and it is working!! Hallelujah !! thank you thank you!
Be sure to uninstall Clean My Mac as soon as possible. It's a disaster waiting to happen if not already. Do a Google search for "uninstall cleanmymac" to get directions on how.
Okay, I didn't realize it was so dangerous - I think I even paid for the next level or something.
My videos will still not play in Photos or when photos tries to open them with quicktime.
The only way the videos will play is if they are first exported and then opened with VLC. Does this mean the files are uncorrupted? the problem must lie with the photos/quicktime programs, right?
I so appreciate all of the help I am receiving on this discussion board, heartfelt thanks to Leonie and Old Toad!!
Any more thoughts or advice is most welcome,
Thanks again,
S
Great that you can play your precious videos of your daughter again. 🙂
I have installed CleanMyMac and I was worried that it had corrupted my videos
CleanMyMac will not have corrupted the videos, but may have emptied caches that are necessary for QuickTime to play your videos in QuickTime and Photos. And it may have caused other damage. It is infamous for causing system trouble. I'd get rid of it.
If the problem first happened after running CleanMyMac I'd make a backup of your Mac and reinstall the system to repair any damage it may have done.Better be safe than sorry.
Just reinstall on top of your current system. There is no need to wipe the drive and start over.
To reinstall the system boot into the Recovery Partition. This is described here: OS X: About OS X Recovery - Apple Support
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314
This might bring back the ability to play your videos in QuickTime.
In some cases it helped to launch the Terminal.app from Applications > Utilities and then to copy and paste this command into the Terminal window:
sudo /usr/libexec/xpchelper --rebuild-cache
It will recreate the cache of xpchelper, that otherwise will only be recreated by reinstalling the system.
But note that CleanMyMac is very dangerous software and has destroyed many libraries causing major loss of photos/videos - I recommend that you remove it according the the vendor's instructions and do not use it or any other cleaning software - none is needed and it is dangerous
LN
Help!! Suddenly Photos AND QuickTime Cannot Open/Play my .mp4 home videos of my baby!
