Guide
Your GoPro video won't open
What to do when a GoPro shuts down mid-recording and leaves an unreadable file.
Try this first — it's free and sometimes it's enough
GoPro cameras have a built-in repair called SOS. Put the microSD holding the broken file back into the same GoPro and turn it on: if the camera notices the interrupted recording it shows the SOS icon by itself and asks you to press any button to attempt the repair. Let it finish without powering off.
It works when the camera still has the interrupted recording in memory, so it's worth trying before anything else — and before copying, moving or renaming the file on the card.
Why that file won't open
While recording, a GoPro writes the pictures one after another into the file. The index — the map telling a player where each frame starts — is written at the very end, when you stop recording. It's the last thing it does.
If the battery comes loose, the card fills up or the camera dies suddenly, the pictures are already on the card but that map was never written. The file is there, it weighs what it should, and no player can open it. Hence the impression that it's empty or ruined: in fact everything is inside except the last piece of structure.
First things first: is your file recoverable?
The check takes two seconds, it's free, and the video is never uploaded anywhere: the analysis runs inside your browser, on your own computer.
See if it's recoverableWhat not to do, under any circumstances
- Don't reformat the card, not even if the camera suggests it.
- Don't record more footage onto it: every new recording can take over the space of the broken file.
- Don't run random repair tools on the original file. If you want to try, work on a copy and keep the original untouched.
- Don't run it through a video converter: without an index there is nothing to convert, and the attempt can overwrite what's left.
If SOS didn't save it
A missing index can be rebuilt, and there's no guesswork involved: all it takes is a second video shot on the same GoPro with the same settings — same resolution, same frames per second. That healthy file holds the exact blueprint this model uses to write its index, and from there what's missing in the broken file can be put back together.
The images are never re-encoded: they go back into a working container exactly as they were, with the audio. The final fraction of a second, the one the camera never had time to write, may be missing.
Questions I get every time
I already reformatted the card. Is it over?
Not necessarily, but the route changes: the file first has to be fished back off the card with data recovery software, and that only works if you haven't recorded over it. Stop using that card right now — that's what matters most.
The file is exactly 4 GB. Is that normal?
Yes, and it's a common case: many cards are formatted as FAT32, which can't hold files larger than 4 GB. The GoPro splits the recording into several 4 GB files, and if it stopped right there the last chunk is left without an index.
I no longer have the GoPro I filmed with. Can it still be done?
A reference video from the same model with the same settings is needed: a friend may have one, or one of your own older clips from that camera may do. If nothing compatible turns up I'll tell you straight away, at no charge.
If you'd rather I handled it
You send me the file and the reference video, I send you a preview of the recovered one, and only then do you decide whether to pay. Twenty euros per video, thirty-five for up to five files from the same device.
You only pay if the video turns up.