FAQ
Learn how to recover corrupted, unplayable video and audio files using Restore.Media
Q1: What file formats can I repair with Restore.Media?
A: Restore.Media can repair video files in the following formats:
MP4, MOV, MV4, QT, 3GP, MXF, INSV.
We can also repair M4A audio files.
Supported video codecs include:
H.264/AVC, H.265/HEVC, Apple ProRes, Avid DNxHD.
Any codecs and stream combinations for MXF files.
Supported audio codecs:
AAC, ALAC, ADPCM, PCM, AC-3, MP3, AMR.
Also, we can recover GPS metadata (tracks) from corrupted Insta360 video files.
On our blog, we publish detailed instructions for recovering many types of media files recorded by different cameras. Here are just a few of the most common ones:
How to recover corrupted: MP4 files | MOV files | MXF files | M4A audio files | GoPro videos.
Q2: What cameras / encoders does Restore.Media support?
A: Restore.Media can repair video and audio files recorded on almost any camera, smartphone, drone or software.
If you do not see your camera model in the list below, this does not mean that we cannot recover the video files recorded on it. We support hundreds of different camera models, encoders and video recording applications.
You can always sign up for a free account at Restore.Media and check if it works for your particular file. Also, we recommend that you read our blog, where you will find detailed instructions on how to recover video and audio files.
For the following cameras, Restore.Media uses specially tuned algorithms to guarantee a higher probability of recovering damaged files:
Smartphone cameras
All Android smartphones
All iPhone models, including iPhone 4, iPhone 5+, iPhone X
Filmic software
iPhone X Pro Movie Application
Nokia Lumia
GoPro
GoPro HERO / 2 / 3+ / 4 / 5+ / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / Session
GoPro MAX (Since GoPro Max cameras record two video and audio streams at the same time, manual processing by an engineer may be required. If you need to repair a GoPro MAX file, please contact us for help.)
When repairing GoPro files, Restore.Media can recover gyroscope metadata. This is useful if you need to edit video files with image stabilization software.
Insta360
Insta360 One X, Insta360 Pro, Insta360 Pro2
Also, we can recover GPS metadata (tracks) from corrupted lrv (low resolution) MP4 files recorded by Insta360 cameras.
SONY
SONY Alpha ILCE-7 Mark III (A7M3), Alpha ILCE-7R Mark III (A7RM3), Alpha ILCE-7S (A7S), Alpha ILCE-7S Mark II (A7SM2)
SONY Alpha ILCE-6000 (A6000), Alpha ILCE-6300 (A6300), Alpha ILCE-6500 (A6500)
SONY FDR-AX1E, FDR-AX100E, FDR-AX700, FDR-X3000, FDR-AX33, FDR-AX53
SONY HDR-CX240, HDR-CX405, HDR-CX625, HDR-CX900E, HDR-AS200V, HDR-AZ1
SONY HXR-NX5R, HXR-NX80
Canon
Canon EOS C100 Mark II
Canon Canon XA25
Canon Legria
Canon Vixia
Canon EOS R
Canon EOS 5D Mark II, EOS 5D Mark III, EOS 5D Mark IV
Canon EOS 1D X Mark II
Canon EOS 5DS, EOS 6D
Canon EOS 7D, EOS 7D Mark II
Canon EOS 70D, EOS 77D, EOS 80D
Canon EOS 100D, EOS 200D, EOS 550D, EOS 600D, EOS 650D, EOS 700D, EOS 760D, EOS 800D
Canon EOS Rebel SL1, EOS Rebel T2i, EOS Rebel T3i, EOS Rebel T4i, EOS Rebel T7i
Canon EOS Kiss X4, EOS Kiss X5, EOS Kiss X6i, EOS Kiss X7, EOS Kiss X9i
Canon EOS M50
Canon PowerShot G3X, PowerShot G7X, PowerShot G7X Mark II, PowerShot SX270 HS, PowerShot SX600 HS
JVC
JVC GY-HM200
JVC GC-XA1 Adixxion
Panasonic
Panasonic Lumix DMC-G7, Lumix DMC-GX80, Lumix DMC-G85, Lumix DMC-GH4, Lumix DC-GH5, Lumix DMC-FZ1000
Panasonic HX-WA10
Panasonic HC-WX970, HC-X1000
Panasonic AG-DVX200
Panasonic AW-HE40
BlackMagic
Atomos Ninja
Samsung
Samsung NX1000 and other DRIMeIII based camcorders
Samsung NX1/NX500 and other DRIMeV HEVC/H.265 based camcorders
Samsung Gear360 (manual troubleshooting of 3D stitching problems upon request)
Samsung Galaxy S8 and other Galaxy S devices
Nikon
Nikon D750
Nikon D3300
Other Nikon camera models
Fujifilm
Fujifilm X-T3
Other Fujifilm camera models
SJCAM
SJCAM SJ4000, SJ5000
SJCAM M10 WIFI, M20
Other action cameras
Aim SmartyCam HD, Apeman TRAWO Action Camera, Contour Contour+2, Drift Ghost HD, Garmin VIRB Ultra 30, Kandao Obsidian S, LAMAX X8.1 Sirius, Ricoh Theta V, TomTom Bandit, Xiaomi YI
DJI
DJI Mavic Pro. Mavic Air, Phantom, Spark, Osmo
Hubsan
Hubsan H501SS, H501S, H507a
Other drone cameras
Atomos Ninja 2, Xiaomi Mi Drone, Yuneec CGO3, Yuneec Typhoon
Car DVRs / Dash cameras
BlackVue DR500GW, Corvette Performance Data Recorder, Mio MiVue 768, Novatek (DV turnkey), Street Guardian, Street Storm, Vicovation, Xiaomi YI CarCam, Xiaomi YI Smart Dash Camera
Security / surveillance cameras
iCatch
Video recording software:
OBS (Open Broadcaster Software), vMix, Lav/ffmpeg, Mainconcept, Wowza, Apple ProRes and other encoders
Hardware encoders
AVerMedia Live Gamer Portable C875 and other hardware encoders
Q3: How are video files damaged?
A: Most often, video files are damaged as a result of interruption of the recording process.
This can happen if the battery is suddenly discharged while shooting a video. Or if you turned off the camera before stopping recording.
Other examples include: faulty memory card, broken camera or dropped device, damaged camera in a car accident, water damage, drone crash, and other types of breakdowns.
Another common problem is when a video file was accidentally deleted and then restored using some "undelete" tool, but as a result, the "restored" file does not play.
In most of these cases, Restore.Media can repair damaged video files, provided the actual video data remains in the file.
We recommend that you read our detailed guides for each case to improve the chances of recovering your specific files.
Q4: I cannot download the recovered file due to disconnection. What can I do?
A: Use a download manager that can resume the file download process if the connection is interrupted.
We recommend using the Free Download Manager:
https://www.freedownloadmanager.org
Q5: What types of video file corruption can you fix? How does file recovery work?
A: Restore.Media can repair video and audio files with damaged headers.
Such files usually look like regular video / audio files, have the correct size, name and extension, but you cannot open them in any media player.
Headers in video / audio files contain information about the media format, indexes, and other metadata needed to play the files.
Restore.Media scans the video and audio tracks in the damaged file, determines their format, collects information about any missing or damaged metadata and indexes, and then recreates the file header.
Q6: What is a sample file and why do you need one?
A: Different cameras record media in different ways, even if you select the same settings.
To recover a damaged video file, Restore.Media needs information about the entries in the file's metadata, which are usually unique for each camera model and settings used to record video.
Since these entries are missing in the damaged file, Restore.Media can take them from a good playable file recorded with the same camera and with the same settings as the damaged file.
As a sample file, you can use a good file recorded just before the broken one (if you haven't changed your camera settings). Or write a new file with the same settings as the damaged file.
An inappropriate sample file is the most common cause of video recovery failure. For a detailed guide on how to choose the correct sample file, see this article.
Q7: What is the size of the sample file required to repair a damaged file?
A: The size of the sample file does NOT affect the quality of the recovery.
The recommended sample size is around 100 MB.
In this case, uploading the sample will not take much time, and the data in the file will be enough to restore the damaged video or audio file in automatic or manual mode.
Q8: I accidentally deleted a video file and then restored it with a data recovery tool. However, I still can't play it. Can you help recover such a video?
A: When recording video to a memory card, such as an SD, the file is usually split into fragments and saved in available blocks of free space, scattered throughout the memory card.
After deletion, the sequence of fragments of the video file is lost.
Most common data recovery tools can usually locate and recover only the beginning of a video file correctly. And of course, such a file will not play.
Generally, we can restore such a file so that it plays again. But it can contain many artifacts and fragments of other files.
Keep in mind that Restore.Media may not always be able to correctly repair a video file "recovered" after deletion.
This is because we only repair missing headers and indexes in the files.
But if the source video data in the file has been corrupted, there is little we can do.
The solution in this case can be the correct recovery of all video fragments from the memory card. For more details on how to do this, read our guide to recovering deleted video files.
Also note that some cameras (such as GoPro 4 and newer, Xiaomi, DJI, etc.) record multiple files at the same time, resulting in the files becoming highly fragmented.
We have special filtering algorithms for these cameras. When uploading such files, indicate that they were recovered after deletion.
Q9: The recovered GoPro 4 or Xiaomi Yi video contains artifacts every 3 seconds. Can you fix this?
A: Some cameras, like GoPro 4 and Xiaomi Yi, record two video streams simultaneously. One in high resolution and the other in low resolution for preview.
Both streams are recorded simultaneously, which leads to significant fragmentation of the file system on the memory card.
If the MP4 file was deleted and then recovered using some “undelete” tool, it will most likely contain fragments from both streams.
High resolution video parts will be shuffled with fragments of video in low resolution, creating artifacts in the image. The sound will most likely be duplicated.
Restore.Media has an algorithm that allows you to filter out garbage fragments from such video files.
To activate it, please select the option – "This file has been restored from the media after it has been deleted or the media has been formatted".
Please note that it is not always possible to filter out low-resolution fragments and synchronize the audio with the resulting video sequence.
If this option does not work, try another data recovery software that can more accurately restore the sequence of file fragments. Or send us a message detailing the problem and our engineers will try to help.
Q10: What about the privacy of the uploaded video files?
A: The video files you upload are recovered automatically.
No one will view them unless you explicitly make a request for our engineers to manually restore the files.
When you create a request to restore a file in manual mode, only in this case, our engineer may need to review a part of the file to determine how it can be repaired.
Q11: How long after uploading will the files be stored on the Restore.Media server?
A: You can delete the uploaded and recovered files yourself at any time. To do this, simply delete the recovery task, so all associated files will be deleted too.
If you do not delete the task yourself and there is no activity on it, the task and all files associated with it will be deleted automatically after 7 days. We will send you an email notification prior to deletion.
Please note that when removing a task, all records and files associated with it are permanently deleted. Including files uploaded by the user and files generated during processing (recovered files, logs, etc.). We do not keep backup copies of these files.
Q12: After deleting a task, all files associated with it disappeared. Can I restore them?
A: Unfortunately, not – we do not keep backups of uploaded and recovered files.
When a task is deleted, all files associated with it are permanently removed from Restore.Media.
You can try to recover the file again by creating a new task.
Q13: I don't have a sample file and cannot record it. What should I do?
A: In this case, at the stage when Restore.Media will ask you to upload a sample file, you can instead upload any MP4 file.
For example, you can record a few seconds of video on your smartphone and use it as a sample file.
Most likely, Restore.Media will not be able to recover the damaged file in this case.
You will see a page with a report, where Restore.Media will inform you that the file has not been restored. On this page, click on the button "Ask for a manual recovery by an engineer".
Our engineers will do their best to find a suitable sample file or manually repair your damaged file.
Q14: I paid to restore the file, but after downloading it, I noticed artifacts in the repaired video. What should I do?
A: Please always check the preview of the repaired video before paying for the service.
We provide screenshots taken at the beginning, middle and end of the video, as well as a full-length preview of the recovered file.
If you notice any artifacts in the preview, select the option "Ask for a manual recovery by an engineer".
Our engineers will help you fix damaged video fragments.
If you have further questions, please contact us at: info@restore.media
Q15: I have recovered a deleted video, but the file size seems smaller than the original and cannot be played. Can you help?
A: This problem may be due to the fact that a part of the deleted video file was not recovered.
Our engineers can try to recover all parts of the deleted video from your SD card manually.
To do this, we need an image of your SD card (full copy in RAW format).
Please note that we will be able to recover the deleted video only if it has not been overwritten by other files.
Therefore, it is important to safely remove the memory card from the device as soon as you discover that a video file has been accidentally deleted.
For more detailed instructions, read our article on how to properly create an SD card image and recover deleted video files.
Q16: Can I send you a memory card or other storage device via a postal or shipping service to recover my files?
A: We do not currently accept hardware storage media (e.g. flash memory cards, hard drives, etc.) sent by a post or delivery service.
To repair a file, upload it to your Restore.Media account and follow the instructions.
If the file could not be recovered, please contact us. Our engineers will check if it can be fixed.
If the file cannot be uploaded to Restore.Media for some reason, you can upload it to cloud storage, such as Google Drive, and send us the link with a brief description of the problem.
Similarly, to recover deleted video files from a flash memory card, create an image of the card as described in this article, upload the image to cloud storage and send us the link by email.
Q17: My GoPro HERO 6/7/8/9/MAX video freezes. Can you fix this?
A: There is a known issue with GoPro HERO 6/7/8/9 and MAX cameras where the video freezes at some point and you can only see a still image.
Unfortunately, this cannot be fixed as the still image is all the camera actually recorded. The problem is most likely caused by moisture that may have gotten inside the GoPro while you were changing the battery or SD card.
The only recommendation here is to avoid replacing the battery / SD card while near water or in cold weather. Make sure your GoPro battery is fully charged and there is enough free space on your SD card before going outside to take some great shots.
For more information on the issue, visit the GoPro support forum for HERO 6, HERO 7, HERO 8 and MAX.
Q18: I have recovered a voice memo from iPhone, but the duration should be much longer. Can you recover the entire file?
A: The iPhone Voice Memo app usually caches the recorded data before it is written to the phone memory.
If the recording process is interrupted unexpectedly, the Voice Memo application may not save the data from its cache to the iPhone memory, and the data will be lost.
In this case, the iPhone may mistakenly display the expected audio file size. Whereas in reality the damaged file is smaller due to the lost part of the audio recording in the application cache. Unfortunately, this part of the file cannot be recovered.
After repairing the file, Restore.Media shows the percentage of recovered data. If this value is close to 100%, it means that all the data in the file has been restored, regardless of the file size displayed by the Voice Memo application.
Q19: My GoPro HERO video gets jerky if I shoot with stabilization on. Can you fix this?
A: There is a known issue with video stabilization on some GoPro HERO cameras. If the stabilization function is active, distortion in the form of jerking frames may appear in the captured video. This is how the camera records video. Unfortunately, this cannot be fixed.
The only advice here is to try updating your camera's firmware and then testing it with stabilization enabled.
Here's a detailed guide on how to update your GoPro firmware.
You can also find more information on this issue on the official GoPro forum for HERO6 and HERO7 cameras.
Q20: Do you provide processing logs? If you do, how can I get them?
A: We can provide file processing logs for corresponding fully paid tasks during a limited time for addition charge. We keep the log of the last processing and it is available only till the corresponding recovery task gets deleted from your account. Please send your request by email and our engineers will provide you with the price and instructions.
Please note that if a task has been removed, all the files and records associated with that task are also deleted permanently. We do not keep backup copies of these files.
Have a specific request for data recovery? Need to repair a large number of files?