How to Repair Partially Corrupted Video?

As a content creator, there’s nothing worse than pouring all your hard work and creativity into filming a vlog, only to find out later that your video file is partially corrupted and refuses to play smoothly.

I still remember one time when, while playing one of my Vietnam travel vlogs on VLC Media Player on my Mac, it froze halfway through. When I tried opening it in GOM Player, the file wasn’t recognized. If you’ve been there, you know just how frustrating it feels.

However, a corrupted video doesn’t always mean your footage is lost. With the right tools, you can repair partially corrupted videos.

In this guide, we’ll explore how to fix partially corrupted video files and repair damaged footage, providing you with reliable methods and tools to restore your videos. This guide is designed for everyone: whether you’re a novice aiming to become a content creator or a professional videographer looking to save crucial footage.

Why Do Videos Get Corrupted?

There are multiple reasons that may lead to partial corruption in videos. Some common reasons are:

• Video recorded with a camera or smartphone running on a low battery or with less storage space.
• Virus or malware in your system
• Interruption during editing, viewing, saving, uploading, or transferring the video files
• Sudden power cut or system shutdown while transferring videos
• Bad sectors on the SD cards, USB drives, or hard drives
• A missing or unsupported codec was used during compression
• Incomplete download of the videos
• Incompatible video players can overwrite or damage the file header of your video.

Signs and Symptoms of a Partially Corrupted Video

• The video will play only halfway and then freeze.
• Audio will play, but the video is missing or black.
• Media player displays “Unsupported format” or “File not recognized.”
• Distorted frames or pixelation while playing video.

Fix Partially Corrupted Videos Using Video Repair Software

Stellar Repair for Video is a professional and reliable tool designed to repair partially corrupt, broken, or damaged video files. It simultaneously repairs multiple videos of any file format, including MOV, MP4, MKV, MPEG, M4V, AVI, AVCHD, etc.

This DIY video repair tool works on all kinds of video corruption issues like broken file headers, compression issues, frame corruption, etc. You can even repair unplayable, stuttering, black screen, flickering, jerky, frozen, out-of-sync, and truncated videos.

Steps to Repair Partially Corrupt Video Files

• Download, install, and launch the Stellar Repair for Video software on Windows or Mac.
• Click Add File to add corrupted videos for repair.

• Next, click Repair to start the repair process.

• Once the repair process ends, click Preview to see the repaired videos. Then click Save Repaired Files to save the videos at the desired location.

Workarounds to Fix Partially Corrupt Video Files

1. Transfer or download the video again.

Any interruption during transferring or downloading the video can lead to file corruption. Try transferring or downloading the video again without any interruption this time.

2. Play the video on another media player.

Try playing the video file on a different media player such as VLC Media Player, QuickTime Player, MPC-HC, etc. VLC player can sometimes play damaged or corrupted video files.

3. Repair video using the VLC Player’s Video Fix Feature.

VLC Media Player includes a built-in feature to repair damaged AVI files. If your corrupted video is in another format, such as MP4 or MOV, you can change its extension to .AVI and then use this file to attempt to fix the issue. Steps to repair damaged video files using VLC:

• Right-click on the video file, select Rename, and change the extension to .AVI. Hit the Enter key.
• Launch the VLC Player and click Tools > Preferences.

• Go to Input or Codecs, select Always Fix next to the Damaged or Incomplete AVI Files option, and click Save.

• Now, try playing the converted AVI file.

4. Download the Necessary video codecs.

Proper audio and video codecs are crucial for playing MP4 files in any media player. But without them, sometimes, your video won’t play and throws errors like ‘video cannot be played’, etc. To fix this, download the necessary codec from a reliable source and ensure smooth playback. 

5. Restore from Backup or Cloud

If you regularly sync your media files to Google Photos, iCloud, or another backup service, check to see if you have an uncorrupted version of the video.

Tips to Prevent Video from Corruption

• Carefully mount and unmount the SD card on your camera or system.
• Avoid using the same SD card on multiple devices.
• Avoid interruption while transferring videos from one device to another.
• Use a copy of the original video while editing or converting the video file.
• Ensure your camera, smartphone, and laptop battery are fully charged while recording or working on videos.
• Make sure to back up your videos at multiple locations.
• Keep your PC updated and install the latest antivirus.

Final Thoughts

In our journey through this comprehensive guide on how to repair partially corrupted videos, we’ve explored various workarounds and tools that can help you repair corrupted videos and ensure that crucial footage is not lost forever. Your video can get corrupted due to software crashes, hardware failures, improper file transfers, etc. 

Whether you’re a novice content creator to rescue personal vlog or a professional videographer to save important video footage, the methods described in this blog offer practical solutions to repair partially corrupted video files. We have seen that while the workarounds, such as re-downloading the video, restoring from a backup, installing the required codec, or using VLC Player’s built-in repair feature, can sometimes resolve minor corruption issues. However, for more complex video problems, Stellar Repair for Video is highly effective, supporting multiple formats and providing an easy-to-use interface for everyone.

Remember to always make a backup before trying to repair a corrupted or damaged video. This precaution gives you a safe fallback copy in case the repair process fails or causes further issues, ensuring your original file remains protected.