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I have a Windows 7 machine and for a few months now I have a strange thing going on on my PC. When I rename or copy and paste it in a new folder, an .mp4 video it becomes unplayable by any video player. I can see the files and thumbnails and after a couple of minutes I can see them slowly lose their thumbnails and become unplayable just if a process is running and destroying them.

After a search on the net I found that this is happening because an extra atom is added to the file, corrupting the file (Xtra : WM/MediaClassPrimaryID"). I have found ways to fix this and make them playable again either by removing this extra field with a Hex editor or with automated tools such as MP4XtraAtomRemover.

My question is though: How do I stop this from happening? Is there a setting in media player or windows that I can change? It is really annoying.

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  • remux them into MKV
    – gamer0
    Commented Jun 16, 2018 at 13:57
  • Normally this issue only happens when you transfer mp4 files from a phone to PC, never heard of this happening on just a rename.
    – Moab
    Commented Jun 16, 2018 at 14:10
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    "become unplayable just if a process is running and destroying them" I would scan your system for malware or virus.
    – Moab
    Commented Jun 16, 2018 at 14:11
  • @Moab I have scanned my system with Avast, Malwarebytes antimalware and AdwCleaner. Everything is fine.
    – papakias
    Commented Jun 16, 2018 at 14:21
  • @Moab the files come from my phone. The funny thing though is that I first copy them to desktop and they play normally. When I put them into folders and move them elsewhere, then the problem happens. It even corrupts old files that I have.
    – papakias
    Commented Jun 16, 2018 at 14:23

1 Answer 1

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The easiest solution is that you could mark your file as read only before you move them. That way windows won't be able to "repair" your file and it'll have all it's bytes intact.

Alternatively, you could try using a third party copy paste program like terracopy. These programs shouldn't try to fix anything like how windows is trying to. If you don't want to use terracopy then you could try any of these: http://www.techyard.net/tools-to-replace-windows-default-copy-paste/

I'm sorry I haven't faced this problem that you say but these should be able to solve the problem IMO.

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  • Hmmm that is a very interesting solution! I will try that! Is there a way to do this from the mobile device or do I need to do this through windows?
    – papakias
    Commented Jun 22, 2018 at 8:10
  • I'm not sure whether we can do that from Android. But see if you can do it via windows before you initiate the copy.
    – Mugen
    Commented Jun 22, 2018 at 8:21
  • @papakias I've edited my answer with one more solution in case the first one doesn't work for you. An alternative file copier for windows will also have to pause and resume functionality.
    – Mugen
    Commented Jun 22, 2018 at 8:51

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