Lost file

Help/How To
1

Hi,

I’m working on a project since 3-4 weeks, but I lost the file after a message popped up (something about the space memory that was almost full). Two options appeared: “save and quit” or “stay and try again”. I had this message before and I always selected “try again”, Shotcut slow down a bit but I can continue. But this time, I selected “save and exit”. When I re-opened Shotcut and my file, there was only 4min of a black screen, rather than 40min with photos, videos, audios in the timeline. This new file is about 915 octet(s).

My first step was to try recovering the previous file: I used “Previous Files Recovery” from Nirsoft. I found a file dated from 2 days ago, which is about 1,10 Mo. But, when I tried to open it in Shotcut, it says “Failure opening…”. A friend tried to open the recovery file from an other PC and on the last Shotcut version, but its fails too.

I made many researches on diverses forums, including this one, and I tried lots of actions, without any results, as:

  • Open Shotcut as a administrator
  • Open MLT file as a clip
  • Rename the file which is long (after making a copy of course)
  • Settings > App Data Directory > Show >> there is nothing at all in “autosave”

I asked friends with computer skills and I tried to see if the file was not hidden by entering the computer system. I believe to understand that my previous file doesn’t exist anymore as I didn’t find it.

Other information:

  • Operating system: Windows 10
  • Shotcut version: 22.01.30
  • Space memory of my PC is fifty-fifty.
  • I don’t have any backup file, of course (that’s the first lesson that I’m learning as a video editing beginner…)
  • I switched off and restart my computer

I really don’t see what can I do. My only option is to use the recovery file, dated from 2 days ago, but as long as I can’t open it, I don’t really know if it’s a viable option or not.

If any of you have an idea, it would be a very valuable help.

Thank you very much by advance.

Best regards,

Alexandra

2

If you are willing to post your two mlt files on this forum, someone here could try to make them open.

3

Here they are:
brouillon enquête musées - Réparé - Réparé - Réparé.mlt (915 Bytes)
brouillon enquête musées - Réparé - Réparé - Réparé0001.mlt (1.1 MB)

4

This file is an empty project (as you already determined).

This file is filled entirely with zero (null) data. Unfortunately, there is nothing in here that can be saved.

Both files are a lost cause, unfortunately. I hope you are able to find another backup somewhere.

The problem of lost/corrupt files had been improved in newer version of Shotcut. Regardless, we always recommend people to save backup files periodically.

5

Thank you for taking the time to check the files. Unfortunately, I don’t have any backup files and I believe that I will have to start again…
However, I will try to look at this experience in a positive way: I learnt a lot since this problem happened…!

6

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