Quicktime movies corrupting randomly. "The movie could not be opened."

Hello,
Has anyone else encountered the Quicktime error where you have a perfectly functional file stored to a disk and then randomly, the file's icon will change from a still image from the movie to just the generic Quicktime file movie clip icon and then if you try and open the file you get the following error message:
The movie could not be opened.
The file is not a movie file.
Nothing was done to the file. Nothing was done to the disk. This can happen when no one is even using the computer. Once it happens, the file will not open or play at all. It just returns this error message. I've only seen this so far happen on ProRes HQ files. Doesn't matter if they are HD or SD. It is infuriating and is costing my facility a ton of money and time and making us seriously reconsider using Quicktime.
The only resource I've been able to find online that seems to be able to deal with this is:
http://aeroquartet.com/movierepair/repair.html
However, because of the nature of the content that I work with I cannot send a clip out of house for repair and cannot pay $89 per file (starting price). I would really like to see a response from someone at Apple as to why this is happening and what fixes are in the works to prevent it.
Thanks.

To Apple Discussions!
What type of files are they - .avi, .mp4, .mov, etc.?
Make sure you have the following installed:
Flip4Mac
VLC Media Player
Perian

Similar Messages

I'm running snow leopard. The try to open any .mov file in Quicktime, and I get an error message that says, "The document xyz.mov could not be opened. The movie is not in a format that Quicktime player understands. I'm a recent upgrade to Snow Leopard.

I'm running snow leopard. The try to open any .mov file in Quicktime, and I get an error message that says, "The document xyz.mov could not be opened. The movie is not in a format that Quicktime player understands. I'm a recent upgrade to Snow Leopard.
Help!
Thanks, Mark

Unfortunately, the error message gives no details about what codec might be missing or what it needs.
If the file can't be opened in QT, it only means you cannot use the QT "Inspector" window to check what compression formats were used to create the file. It does not mean you can't use the Finder "Information" window to check on the compression formats or use a third party media information window (e.g., like VLC which will open many compression formats not supported natively by QT) to determine what kind of data is included in the MOV wrapper. If the file cannot be opened in any app, it is usually a good sign that the file itself is corrupted.
It's a stupid error message. Apple should do better than that.
Error trapping is quite extensive but there are still many areas which require human oversight. The message is telling you that either the container has a problem (e.g., not properly terminated, non-standard, or corrupted) or that one or more of the compression formats used is not supported by your current codec component configuration or that the data was encoded using non-standard settings or preferences not supported by QT or that the fourCC code does not match the data contained in the file or that there are timecode inconsistencies, etc., etc., etc. In short there are a near infinite number of possible problems for which it would be very difficult/nearly impossible to program error trapping depending on your sourcing of content and how you process it before it reaches the player app. Think of it like trying to play a BD disc in an DVD player.
I'll call Apple support when I get a chance.
Chances are good that they will end up sending you back here. In any case, it is often a good idea to post a sample file for examination by other QT users. At the very least, they should be able to tell you if the sample file will play on other systems which would indicate whether or not the file itself is bad and under the best of circumstances whould allow them to examing the file in detail for various common problems.

The document "BOULET PEANUT - OFF LINE 3-QuickTime H.264.mov" could not be opened. An unknown error occurred (-101)

I turned on my mac this morning after using Qt all day yesterday with no problems
I get this message
The document “BOULET PEANUT - OFF LINE 3-QuickTime H.264.mov” could not be opened. An unknown error occurred (-101)
Also QT will not play the audio of the files
I'm on a mac pro, 10.7.4
Everything updated
Any know whats up and can help solve this, it seems to be a software related problem to QT 7 or X

Exactly the same by my iMac.
"The document ... could not be opened. An error occurred (-101)"
I can play the same video with VLC player but not with QuickTime.
QuickTime and iTune can not play anything at all.
VLC Player however can play all medias without any problem.
All my apps are uptodate.
What could be the problem?

Quicktime: The movie could not be opened. The file is not a movie file.

Hi, im sorry to say im a bit challenged when it comes to this so i hope you can help!...
Im trying to import the movies from my Sony video recorder (handycam DCR-SR32) and when i open the folder for it on the desktop and try to open one of the files it says: quicktime: The movie could not be opened. The file is not a movie file. All the files have quicktime icons next to them and i definitely have quicktime installed. I managed to import movie filed before into imovie and im trying again to do so... any clues as to what im doing wrong or how i can get the files into imovie to play and edit?? many thanks in advance

To Apple Discussions!
What type of files are they - .avi, .mp4, .mov, etc.?
Make sure you have the following installed:
Flip4Mac
VLC Media Player
Perian

HT3775 The document "IMG_7525-1.MOV" could not be opened. The movie is not in a format that QuickTime Player understands. what can I do to see my videos?

The document “IMG_7525-1.MOV” could not be opened. The movie is not in a format that QuickTime Player understands. What can I do to see this videos if they are on a MOV format?

You should be able to play it using the free VLC:
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-macosx.html

The movie could not be opened

I have a file from a video security system and the file is 251.7 Mb in size (24 hours of video). As luck would have it, I cannot open the file from the one day that I need! On the Mac (using QuickTimePro ), I get the error message of "The movie could not be opened." I tranfered the file to a PC and there, I get the error message of "Error -2048: Couldn't open the file camera1.mov because it is not a file that QuickTime understands."
Is there any hope? Do I need to hexedit the file? Does anyone know of a program that I can use to salvage the file?
Thanks for the help.

I get the feeling that we are barking up the wrong tree here. I sent the file to a friend that has the Apple QuickTimeMPEG2.component installed on his machine and he is getting the same error message when he tries to open it.
On my harddrive, the file has the generic QuickTime icon but it just won't open. iMovie won't even try to import the file.
I'm wondering if the file got damaged somehow? Is there a way to see if that is the case?

Error Opening Movie - The Movie Could Not Be Opened

Quicktime is giving me trouble and it's not giving me a reason why. It doesn't want to play movies dl'd from the internet. It tells me 'Error opening movie... The movie could not be opened.' The clip in question is a wmv. I tried opening the file in DIVx and iTunes but no dice; they didn't even recognize that I was trying to open a movie. I got the same problem with some films transferred from my old PC via a flash drive (not all, but some).
I am on a MacBook Pro that I just got this week; my first Mac. I am running OSX Tiger 10.4.8. 2.33 Ghz proc.
Please be gentle with the explanations; I know very little about computers.
Oh, also, in the DL'd files menu - you know, the one that pops up when you DL something - the file DLs with the icon looking like a blank piece of paper. Probably not important, but it sure doesn't look like something playable or executable.

"the file DLs with the icon looking like a blank piece of paper."
When the download window pops up type .wmv in the window before you click the download button or OK button.
If the above does not work then download the following FREE player:
Flip4Mac
If the above player does not play the .wmv file then please post the URL and/or link of this file for us to test it out for you.

HT3775 The document "20130326_MNTvsMexico.mov" could not be opened. A required codec isn't available.

I go the error message...The document “20130326_MNTvsMexico.mov” could not be opened. A required codec isn't available.
Can anyone help?

There are a lot of third party codecs for QT http://www.apple.com/quicktime/resources/components.html
Most of them are "payware" with no guarantee they'll actually do what they claim. I spent hundreds back in the days before QT10 and eventuallty found that EVERYTHING those purchased codecs do... can be done for FREE with VLC media player.

Photoshop not importing MOV doc- "The file could not be opened." error

Hello!
I have photoshop CC and I am trying to complete a video project. So far I have searched high and wide to figure out why my .mov doc is not opening on my timeline and gives me an error: "The file could not be opened". I took the video on my iPhone 5 and exported it to a mov file.
On the timeline I click on the movie icon next to the layer name, I click add media, click on my file, then I get the error.
I didn't see that anyone else on the forums have had this same error code so I was wondering if anyone knows what is going on with my system.
I have a brand new iMac... I don't see why I would have these issues.

Nope I havent touched the Documents folder.
Forgot to mention that I'm on Windows 7

Quick Time Pro - The movie could not be open. This is not a movie file.

I upgraded to 7.4.5 and now I can't view any of my AVI files. I am getting the following error message.
The movie could not be open. This is not a movie file. Please help!

It is most likley a problem in the new Quick Time (QT). My Updater downloaded the new QT 7.4.5 two Saturdays ago. I have been making movies in iMovie then posting them to YouTube. In the beginning I uploaded the movies as MOVs but soon discovered AVI files (larger file and added time to upload) had more clarity when viewed on YouTube. Once the new QT 7.4.5 downloaded all my AVIs had picture, but no sound! I downloaded the Perian component as posted in QT discussions. The sound returned to the AVI files. However, when I Exported an AVI movie from iMovie the picture quality was worse than MOV. There is something wrong with the new QT 7.4.5 when working with AVI, my AVI movies look terrible. These AVI files were all downloaded from my Ultra Flip Video camera with Flip’s codec 3vix. Flip is aware of this problem and acknowledged it last week, I sure hope Apple is also aware.

Photo shop Element 6 failed to open catalog The catalog could not be opened. It is either corrupt

Photo shop Element 6 failed to open catalog The catalog could not be opened. It is either corrupt, or the version is out of date and cannot ne updated

Hi John
Thank you very much. As a result of your advise, Adobe Photoshop Element 6 are now working perfect.
Once again, Thank yoiu
Kind regards
Boomie
Original Message----
From: [email protected]
Date: 08/03/2010 05:37 PM
To: "Boomie Shodeinde"<[email protected]>
Subj: Photo shop Element 6 failed to open catalog&amp;nbsp; The catalog could not be opened.&amp;nbsp; It is either corrupt
Your solution worked when applied to a administrative user account but did work with a student account.
I'm not sure why that is happening.
If you're on Vista or Windows 7, you could try setting the program to run permanently as Administrator, as described here:
http://www.johnrellis.com/psedbtool/photoshop-elements-faq.htm#_Slide_show_preview
If that doesn't help, my only suggestion would be to work through these tedious troubleshooting steps:
http://www.johnrellis.com/psedbtool/photoshop-elements-faq.htm#_Troubleshooting_Organizer_ crashes

In Mainstage When I try to open the last project i worked on it says The Concert could not be opened because the file is corrupt ?

In Mainstage When I try to open the last project i worked on it says The Concert could not be opened because the file is corrupt ?

<moved from Adobe Creative Cloud to Bridge General Discussion>

"The file could not be opened"

Allright, here comes The Learning Curve.... just downloaded the trial version (CD on order)after using beta 4.1 for awhile. Though I removed the beta version via "add/remove programs", LR 1.0 automatically repopulated the previous images, and now, as I try to use the Develop module, a number of those images come tagged with an edit across the top "The file could not be opened", which inactivates the Develop tools.
This also happened with some of the images that were newly imported into LR 1.0. Any ideas on what I might be doing wrong?

You have to repoint LR to where you moved them. Next time move them in LR, not in Explorer. They probably show a ? on the Grid thumnbail cell. Click it for one and navigate to show Lr where it is and LR should find the others.
Don
Don Ricklin, MacBook 1.83Ghz Duo 2 Core running 10.4.9 & Win XP, Pentax *ist D
http://donricklin.blogspot.com/

The catalog could not be opened. An internal programming error occured.

I have gotten the following error when I started Elements today...
Failed To Open Catalog
! The catalog could not be opened. An internal programming error occured.
I have tried to move the catalog to a different directory to no effect.
This computer is rarely online, it is only used to catalog my pictures, and I have 100s of hours of work in this catalog.
Is this recoverable? How did this happen?
Background:
Size of the catalog directory: 61MB
Core Version 9.0.3
Operating Systems: 6.1 SP1
Thanks for your support.

Create a new, empty catalog: Hold down your Shift key when launching the Organizer and you'll get the Catalog Manager window. Create a new catalog, naming it something completely different than your existing catalog.
Once you're in the Organizer, use File...Catalog to open the Catalog Manager window. Highlight your old catalog and hit the "Repair" button. When that finishes, repeat, using "Optimize". Then try to open your old catalog.
Ken

"The file could not be opened, there is no handler defined for it"

Hi,
Sorry if my question is not appropriate for this group.
I added a media file(.wmv)in one of the folder of my Web Application,if I try to open from Weblogic Workshop the message "The file could not be opened, there is no handler defined for it", if I added like a reference in a jsp file
<a href = "/Begin/videos/movie_0001.wmv">movie </a>
the browser (The test one or Internet Explorer)open is like "strange" text.
Any help is appreciated.
Thank you,
Mariana

Hello Mariana,
It looks like workshop simply does not support this file extension, I would raise a support case with bea to see if workshop does suppport it or not, or if there are any plans for supporting it in the future.
Cheers
Hussein Badakhchani
www.orbism.com

Quicktime movies corrupting randomly. "The movie could not be opened."

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for