recover mp4.part file

[diga76]

Hello,
sometimes the download don't finish after the end of streaming and I have to break it with ctrl-c.
So I have a mp4.part file and I cannot open it with any media player.
Is there a way to fix this file to have a working mp4 file?
Thank you and congratulations for your great and very usefull software.

[yan12125]

Rename xxx.mp4.part to xxx.mp4. If it does not work, run the following command:

ffmpeg -i xxx.mp4.part -c copy xxx_fixed.mp4

[diga76]

I tried the command, but I receive the error:
[mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 @ 03289ae0] moov atom not found
xxx.mp4.part: Invalid data found when processing input
Have you other suggestions?
Thanks

[yan12125]

How about adding more options to ffmpeg: -movflags empty_moov

[diga76]

With the command
ffmpeg -movflags empty_moov -i xxx.mp4.part -c copy xxx_fixed.mp4
I receive the same error.

[yan12125]

Which URL are you downloading?

[diga76]

It was an old periscope link, now is disappeared.

[yan12125]

Sorry, that's all I know. I found lots of "solutions" on Google with "moov atom not found" as the keyword. I didn't try them, though.
For future videos, add --hls-prefer-native or --hls-use-mpegts to youtube-dl. With these two options, it's less likely to get broken videos. The downside of these two optoins is that the whole download process is longer and the generated file may not play on all media players.

[diga76]

Thank you very much for your support.
This thread will remain closed or is better to set it open ?

[yan12125]

I'll keep it closed. There are already some options to prevent incomplete files broken, and recovering a MP4 file is beyond the scope of youtube-dl. This thread can be left for discussions only.

[diga76]

Ok, if, in the future, you need to replicate the problem I think it appears, sometimes, on periscope live when the user delete the streaming immediately after the end.
Thank you very much

[yan12125]

--hls-prefer-native does not support live streams (yet). Could you try ---hls-use-mpegts in the future?

[diga76]

Ok, if I will need future download, I will try with this option.
Thanks

[sixem]

I encountered this issue too and i can confirm that running youtube-dl with --hls-use-mpegts and --prefer-ffmpeg fixes the issue.

To repair the file after it has been interrupted or whatever you can do ffmpeg -i "file.mp4.part" -codec copy "file.mp4"

[diga76]

In these days I made some test but the streaming isn't blocked so I can't test if the parameters and the recover procedure works fine. If happen in the future I will test its.
Thank you very much for your suggestions.

[rezaarifandee]

I experienced the same problem as you and been able to recover the livestream videos with untrunc. However, you need to have a "similar video" to be used as reference for recovering the moov tags.

sorry for necroing btw.

[diga76]

Thank you for you reply, I tried untrunc some months ago, sometimes it works but many times no.