I received .mov via email and iMessage and quicktime tells me it can't open and to click tell me more for help

Question

I tried to open .mov from an email and imessage and quicktime says it cant open and to click tell me more but then it doesnt give any information. Ive never had a problem opening videos made from an iphone and emailed before. These arent long clips.

Answer 1

i downloaded Quicktime 7 on my imac but it still wont open?
MOV refers to the file container. (MOV is the generic Quicktime file container.) Unfortunately, there cam be many different problems here.
1) People with different system configurations can place audio and/or video data not compatible with your system into MOV files, send them to you, and they will not play if you do not have the proper codecs installed for the QT 7 player to play them. Therefore, it is normally recommended that you determine what audio and video compression formats were used to create the original file. If the files do not open in either the QT X or QT 7 players, then you can check the file's "Get Info" window to see the the Mac OS X Finder recognizes the compressed data format(s). If it doesen't, them you can try opening the file in an alternate media player like VLC (free download) to see if that play can open, play, and/or tell you the compression formats. Lastly, if an app like VLC can't help you, you can download a generic media information app like MediaInfo (also a free download) to examine the file.
2) Once you know the compression formats use in the file and the Mac OS X version, and QT player being used, it is usuall a simple matter to determine if the compression format is supposed to be compatible with the QT player used for your Mac OS X or IOS device. This will tetermine whether or not the file can be played natively or must be converted to a different compression format for playback
3) In a very small percentage of cases, it may turn out that the file sent to you is either correpted or violates a security update installed on your system that prevents plaback. In the case of a corrupted file, about the only thing you can do as request the file be resent to you and hope for better results. In the case of a security problem, the file may be playable and/or convertable by a third-party application that gets around Apple's security trapping that prevents playback.
4) In the future, if you have problems opening or playing a file, please be more specific as to the nature of the problem. Specify the specific modal message you are getting or describe whether the player quits without a message, crashes, or will not open under one user account but does open under another.
and how would you resolve this issue on your iphone but updating quicktime player?
Your original message did not indicate that you were trying to play the file on your iPhone. Since the QT 7 player better handles the playback of "legacy" compression formats—especially under Mavericks—many users are advised to install the QT 7 player to handle compression formats no longer playable by the new AVFoundation software embedded in Mavericks. In addition, the QT 7 player is supported by an older 32-bit structure embedded in the Mac OS X v10.6, 10.7, 10.8, and 10.9 operating systems which can still access third-party codecs if your system is configured for their use—another reason for keeping QT 7 installed on a computer system. Unfortunately, such options will not fix blayback problems on an IOS device where it is normally easier to convert unsupported compression formats to natively supported compression formats—primarily H.264 video with AAC audio in MOV, MP4, or M4V file containers.