I recorded a 20-minute video using Photobooth, but now I'm dealing with a corrupted file. All I see is a grey screen that says 00:00, but the file itself is about 229.2 MB, so I think the video data is there. I've tried playing it in VLC and QuickTime, but nothing happens—no errors, just a blank screen. I've heard this is a common issue with Photobooth on Mac. I know my way around the command line pretty well, and I have an M1 MacBook Pro running the latest version of macOS. Can anyone help me figure out how to recover this file or at least get the audio? Any tips would be greatly appreciated!
2 Answers
Before jumping into recovery tools, let’s clarify a few things. Have you tried checking the file size and codec? Since it’s a .mov file, those details matter. Also, what players have you used? Sometimes, just switching the player can reveal something. But if it's as you say, there are some recovery options you could explore like using ffmpeg or untrunc. They work for a lot of corrupted files if you're comfortable using the command line.
If you're seeing the grey screen with 00:00, it usually means the file header might be damaged. You could try using untrunc, which specifically fixes truncated .mov files. It's a bit tricky to get going—it involves downloading some files and running commands in the terminal. But it can often recover files that seem lost! I can help guide you through the installation if you need.
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