This page is for files you already have. They were copied off a card, or another program recovered them, and now they won’t open: video that won’t play or shows no length, photos with grey blocks or only the top half of the picture, RAW files your software refuses to load.
If the files are missing altogether, that’s a recovery job, not a repair. Start at memory card recovery.
What causes it
- The recording was cut off. The battery died, the card was pulled, or the camera crashed before it finished writing the file. The footage is in the file, but the part that tells a player how to read it was never written.
- The card was failing. When the file was copied, some of it came off the card wrong.
- The copy was interrupted. A transfer that stopped partway leaves a file with the right name and only part of its contents.
- Recovery software rebuilt it from fragments. The software found pieces and joined them, and some of the pieces were wrong, missing or out of order.
These look alike from the outside. What can be done about each is very different.
What to do right now
- Keep the original corrupt file exactly as it is. Don’t rename it, re-save it or convert it.
- Make a copy, and try things only on the copy.
- Don’t keep running repair tools over the same file. Each pass can change it, and the changes pile up.
- If you still have the card, set it aside and don’t use it.
- For video, find or record one healthy clip from the same camera at the same settings: same resolution, same frame rate. If you record a new one, use a different card.
What’s realistically fixable
Damaged headers and missing indexes often are. When a video’s footage is intact and only the part describing it is missing or broken, that part can often be rebuilt. This is where the healthy reference clip matters. It shows how that camera lays out its files, and it helps a great deal.
Damaged photos are less predictable. Sometimes the damage is in the part of the file that describes the picture, and that can be repaired. Sometimes the picture data itself is missing. I can only tell which by looking at the file.
Missing or overwritten data is not fixable. If the contents of the file aren’t your photo or your footage, because the copy stopped, or the card returned garbage, or the software filled the file with the wrong pieces, there is nothing to repair. No one can rebuild a picture from data that isn’t there.
I examine files by hand. I look at what’s actually inside the sample before I tell you anything.
When the card is the better route
If you still have the card the files came from, and it hasn’t been reused or formatted since, recovering from the card again can beat repairing a bad copy. The card may still hold the complete data that your copy lost.
- Files recovered by software that won’t play: see recovered video that won’t play.
- Files that were deleted: see deleted photos or video.
- A card that was formatted: see accidentally formatted card.
Tell me on the form if you have the card, and I’ll say which route makes more sense.
How it works
- You fill out the intake form and choose file repair. Tell me what the files are, what camera they came from, how they got damaged if you know, and whether you still have the card. Don’t include files or links.
- I reply with how to send a sample. One sample file, and for video, one healthy reference clip from the same camera.
- I take a free look and tell you whether it’s repairable. If it is, you get a quote and a preview: a watermarked or low-resolution version of the repaired result, so you can see what you’d be getting.
- You pay only if the preview shows what you need. The evaluation is free. I'll show you what's recoverable before you pay anything. If what you're looking for isn't there, you owe nothing.
There’s no fixed limit on sample size. If your files are large, say so on the form and we’ll work out how to send them.
Your files stay private
Files you share are treated as confidential. I look at them only to assess and carry out the repair, I don't share them with anyone, and you can ask me to delete my copies at any time. The details are in the privacy policy.