IntactFile

Repair MOV files that won't open — no upload, works on Mac

QuickTime refusing a video you know is real footage? The container is usually what broke, and it can be rebuilt in the browser, with nothing to install.

Your file never leaves your device — repair runs in your browser. 0 bytes uploaded.

Your data is the big block — usually intact. What breaks is the small index. Repair rebuilds it.

Drop a file here or browseTap to choose a file

ZIP · Office · PDF · video · JPG · PNG · RAR/7z · SQLite — repaired right here in your browser. Nothing is uploaded

0 bytes uploadedFree: 3 repairs/day — up to 500 MB video, 100 MB docs & archives, 50 MB photos. Free download. Single repair €5.90. No account required.

The short version

This tool repairs MOV files whose structure broke — a damaged or truncated index that leaves real footage no player can navigate — by rebuilding the container around the video that survived, without re-encoding. It runs entirely in your browser: the file is read on your machine and 0 bytes are uploaded, which you can confirm in the Network tab. It can't bring back footage that isn't in the file — an iCloud placeholder stub or a 0-byte file needs a re-download or recovery, not repair.

Fix your MOV now

  1. Drop the file
  2. Repair runs locally
  3. Download the result

Drop the MOV above. The tool reads it on your machine, tells you what it actually is and whether the structure is intact, then rebuilds the damaged container around the footage that survived. No .exe to download, no app to install, which matters on a Mac, where most repair tools are Windows software.

Full MOV repair is rolling out in stages: the structural remux repair (rebuilding a damaged but readable container) runs today, and deeper reconstruction for files whose index was never written is in development. The diagnosis always tells you which case your file is first.

"QuickTime Player can't open this file"

The file isn't compatible with QuickTime Player.

Apple's wording is different, but the failure underneath is the same one MP4 users hit. MOV and MP4 are siblings: the MP4 format was standardized from Apple's QuickTime container, so both store your footage as one large block of compressed data plus an index that tells the player where every frame lives. That index is written when a recording or transfer finishes. Interrupt the ending (a dead battery, a dropped AirDrop, a crash) and you get a file full of real footage that no player can navigate.

QuickTime is also the strictest mainstream player: it refuses files that VLC will attempt to play. That makes VLC a useful test: if the MOV plays there but not in QuickTime, you have a codec gap, not corruption. If it plays nowhere, the structure is damaged, and that's the repairable case: rebuilding an index is routine work when the footage behind it survived.

iPhone and Mac scenarios

Recording interrupted on the phone

A call coming in mid-recording, a battery dying, the Camera app crashing — anything that stops a recording before the phone finalizes it leaves the index unwritten. The footage up to the interruption is on the phone; the file just has no map to it.

Partial transfers

AirDrop that didn't finish, an iCloud download cut short, a copy off an SD card interrupted midway: the result is a truncated file. Because the index sits at one end of the file, a truncated MOV often loses its entire index while keeping most of the footage.

HEVC (H.265) from newer iPhones

iPhones record HEVC by default, inside the same MOV container. Structural repair doesn't care: it rebuilds the container without re-encoding the video, so HEVC footage passes through untouched, at original quality.

What this can and can't fix

Can fix

  • Structural MOV damage — broken or truncated index, bad offsets
  • Recordings interrupted before the phone or camera finalized them
  • Files cut short by failed AirDrop, iCloud, or SD-card transfers
  • iPhone HEVC footage — repaired without re-encoding

Can't fix

  • iCloud placeholder stubs — a few KB standing in for the real file; re-download the original instead
  • DRM-protected video (iTunes/Apple TV purchases)
  • Footage whose bytes were overwritten — data that isn't in the file can't be regenerated
  • Files that read as 0 bytes — that's a recovery problem, not a repair problem

A quick sanity check before anything else: a healthy-sized file is a repair candidate; a file far smaller than the footage it should hold usually isn't. The diagnosis above tells you which you have, and a failed repair is never charged.

FAQ

Why won't my MOV file play on my Mac?

Most often because the file's structure is damaged, not because your Mac lacks anything. A MOV stores an index that is written when the recording or transfer finishes; if that step was interrupted, QuickTime has no map to the footage and refuses the file. If the file plays in another app such as VLC or IINA but not in QuickTime, it's a codec issue instead, and QuickTime supports fewer formats than third-party players.

How do I fix 'the file isn't compatible with QuickTime Player'?

First test the file in VLC. If it plays there, the file is healthy and QuickTime simply doesn't support the codec, so keep the VLC copy or convert it. If it fails everywhere, the structure is damaged: repair it in your browser with the tool above, which reads the file locally and rebuilds the container around the surviving footage.

Why does my iPhone video say it can't be loaded?

Check the file size first. With iCloud's "Optimize iPhone Storage", the video on your device can be a small placeholder while the original lives in iCloud — that file isn't corrupted, it's a stub, and the fix is re-downloading the original on a good connection. If the file is full size and still won't load, the structure is damaged and repair applies.

Can I convert a corrupted MOV to MP4 to fix it?

No. A converter has to read and decode the file before it can write a new one, so it fails on exactly the same broken structure your player does. The order matters: repair the MOV first, and once it plays you can convert it to anything you like.

How do I repair a MOV file without software?

Use a repair tool that runs in the browser. IntactFile installs nothing: the page loads once, then the engine reads your MOV locally, rebuilds the damaged structure, and saves the result to your Downloads folder. Nothing is uploaded, which you can verify in the Network tab.

Related: it's an MP4, not a MOV ·camera or app died mid-recording ·why nothing gets uploaded — the proof ·any other video problem