Why a recovered video won't play
Recovery software finds a deleted video in one of two ways. When the card's file table still lists it, the tool can copy the file back whole, and it usually plays. When the table is gone, after a format or a damaged card, the tool scans the raw card for the bytes a video starts with and guesses where it ends. That guess is where things go wrong:
| What you see | What usually happened |
|---|---|
| The file has a normal size but shows 0:00 or won't open | The tool found the start and the footage, but not the index at the end, the moov atom that tells a player where each frame sits. |
| It plays for a while, then freezes or turns to blocks | The card stored the video in pieces. The tool joined the first piece to whatever came next, often part of another file. |
| Every recovered video has the same size or the same length | The tool cut each file at a fixed size instead of at its real end. |
| The file is a few KB, or all zeros when opened in a hex viewer | Nothing of the video survived. Another file was written over it. |
The first case is the one you can fix. The footage is there and only the index is missing, which is the same damage a dead battery or a pulled card leaves.
Check the file first
- Copy the recovered videos to your computer and work on the copies.
- Open one in the checker on this page. Your browser reads it from your own disk; nothing is uploaded.
- The free check tells you whether it found pictures and sound, and how much of the recording it can rebuild.
- Press Repair and watch the free 5-second preview, at reduced quality with a watermark.
- If the preview plays your footage, download the full video with a paid plan. If the repaired video doesn't play, you get a refund.
If the checker asks for a second clip, give it a video that plays, recorded on the same camera or phone with the same settings. It reads that clip's settings and copies nothing from it. Many files don't need one at all: see repairing without a reference file.
Before you blame the file
- Recover again with a different mode. If the card's file table survived, a recovery that uses it can bring the video back whole. A raw scan is the fallback, and it loses file names and ends.
- Stop writing to the card. Each new photo or video can land on top of the footage you are trying to save.
- Try the copy on another player. If it plays in VLC on your computer, the file is fine and your first player lacks the codec.
What we have tested
We removed or damaged the index of real recordings and repaired them, then compared every frame with the original. With the index stripped, zeroed or cut at 70 %, on four different encoders, every picture came back identical when the checker had a fitting clip from the same camera. A file cut short kept every frame before the cut. On real camera files, recordings from GoPro HERO5, 6, 7, 8 and 10, a DJI Avata, 70mai and Tesla dash cams and a Samsung Galaxy A56 came back frame for frame.
A recovered file with pieces of other files inside is harder. The checker places the frames it can prove and leaves the rest out, so the preview shows you how much survived before you pay.
What people say after a repair
These are public Google Play reviews of the Video Repair app for Android, which uses the same repair engine as the checker on this page. We quote them as written.
"recovered a video from a place I'll never visit again. it was 1 hour long going on to my YouTube channel. it was worth every bit of the $3.99." (John C., Google Play review, October 2026)
"Only app that actually works and it's incredibly fast as well! Totally worth paying for the premium, and it's surprisingly cheap." (Google Play review, October 2026)
Not every review is five stars. In late October a reviewer wrote, in Spanish, "no reparo nada" ("it didn't repair anything"). Some files have too little left to rebuild, and the free check and preview are there so you find that out before paying.
How the repair engine got here
- 24 August 2026: Video Repair 1.0.0 for Android goes live on Google Play.
- 1 September (app 1.0.3): a reference clip that is itself damaged no longer stops the repair. The failed repairs reported from the field at the time all came from people adding a second broken clip.
- 17 September: the damage tests above, on four encoders, and the rule that a file cut short keeps every frame before the cut. Live from 1.0.21 on 19 September.
- 9 October: GoPro sound. A HERO5 recording had come back with 1 sound frame of 1,620; after the fix, HERO5, 6, 7, 8, 10 and MAX returned every picture and sound frame.
- 10 October: DJI. A DJI Avata 4K60 file had come back with 5 pictures of 364; after the fix, all 364.
- 12 October: the same engine runs in the browser as Video Repair Online, and gives the same file, byte for byte, as the app.
- 29 and 30 October: repairs that need no second clip when the recording proves its own settings, and MP3 sound in dash-cam MP4 files.
Other ways to repair a recovered video
| Video Repair (this page) | Untrunc | Stellar Repair for Video | Wondershare Repairit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | Any browser; Windows program; Android app | Windows build; build from source on Mac and Linux | Windows and Mac program | Windows and Mac program; online |
| Free before you pay | Check and 5-second preview | Free and open source | Preview of up to 20 % of the video's size | Preview of the repaired video |
| Needs a clip from the same camera | Only when the file can't prove its settings | Yes | For "Advanced Repair" | For "Advanced Repair" |
| Price | $4.99 one video online, $3.99 on Windows, or $9.99 a month | Free | Standard edition $49.99 (offer until 16 Nov 2026, normally $59.99) | $29.99 a month, $39.99 a year or $59.99 once (Windows) |
Stellar and Repairit open more formats than we do: Stellar lists 17, including MKV, WMV and MTS, and Repairit lists 25. Video Repair rebuilds MP4, MOV and AVI. If your recovered file is MP4 or MOV, you can see your own footage play here before paying, with nothing installed and nothing uploaded.
Sources, checked 2 November 2026: the Untrunc README on github.com/anthwlock/untrunc, stellarinfo.com/video-repair.php and its buy page, repairit.wondershare.com/video-repair.html and its Windows buy page.
