Guide
Your Insta360 INSV file won't open
The camera shut down and Insta360 Studio says the file is damaged.
Try this first: the official repair
Insta360 has its own repair tool, in the app and in Insta360 Studio, built exactly for files left half-written when the camera shuts down abnormally. Try it first: it's free and it knows the format better than anyone.
One thing throws almost everyone off: a 360° shot isn't one file, it's two — one per lens, sharing the same name. Hand the repair tool only one of them and it cannot work. It always needs both.
Why an INSV breaks
An INSV file is an MP4 carrying the extra information needed to stitch the two half-spheres back together. Like any MP4, the frame map is written at the end of the recording: if the camera powers off, runs flat or freezes mid-shot, that map never arrives.
The result is a file with the right weight that no player will open, and that Insta360 Studio flags as damaged. The images, as a rule, are all still there.
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 delete the second file of the pair because it looks like a duplicate: without it there's no 360° to rebuild.
- Don't reformat the card from the camera.
- Don't rename the files: the pair is recognised by name, and renaming breaks it.
- Don't export or re-convert the only file you have left before setting a copy aside.
If the official repair isn't enough
The index gets rebuilt from a healthy shot taken on the same camera with the same settings: that file's structure says exactly how the broken one's frames go back together. For 360° both halves are needed, of the broken file and of the reference one.
The video comes back at original quality and loads into Insta360 Studio like any other file, ready for reframing.
Questions I get every time
I only have one of the two INSV files. Can it still be recovered?
That half can: it becomes a single-lens video, watchable but no longer 360 degrees. The rest can only be rebuilt if the second file turns up off the card.
Insta360 Studio says 'damaged file' but the file is 8 GB.
That's confirmation the images are there: the weight is the recorded frames. What's missing is the closing structure, which is tiny.
Is it worth running the official repair several times?
Once, yes, with both files of the pair. If it fails twice it won't change its mind on the third go: at that point the index has to be rebuilt from a reference file.
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.