- iPhone 17 Pro running iOS 26.1
- We don’t use iCloud
- Haven’t used iTunes to transfer files to PC since Apple stopped forcing us to. File Explorer works just fine for the most part.

So now that I’ve transferred a bunch of photos and videos, half the videos won’t play. Not on media player, not in VLC, not in Infuse, not in ACDSee.

I’m currently running data recovery on the phone using iMyFone (yes, I know it’s Commie spyware, but one of these corrupted videos is that important to recover).

Anyone here an expert in iPhone video issues or file un-corruption?

-Rob

To clarify..
Were the files originally on the iPhone?
Do the files still work on the iPhone?

I would use iTunes, since that works. (if using the limited data allowance)

Copy to iTunes, transfer to file folders on the PC, repeat until all are done.

This is typically related to file transfer settings using "auto" instead of "Keep Original", and not having the correct codecs installed on the PC. HEVC/HEIC, although VLC player usually installs them.

I had similar issues and those were the steps I took when I first got the iPhone after always using Android.

Files were on the iPhone. No longer.

Deleted them after confirming transferred file details matched. Didn’t play the transfers (stupid), otherwise, wouldn’t have deleted from phone.

VLC is my default media player. I updated it so the latest codecs are in place. It identifies in Infuse as a 2.6MB QuickTime video, but then I get an error message.

Really hoping iMyFone will let me recover the deleted file from the phone. It’s only been a matter of an hour or so. Can’t imagine it would be overwritten or otherwise compromised so quickly unless iOS works so much differently than PC systems.

-Rob

May not be your issue (codec / encoding related) but I had phone pictures that I couldn't view on Windows. I had to change the default file format on the phone in order to view pics after transferring to my Windows PC. Not sure what other workarounds are available. And not sure if videos similarly affected (I don't really take videos; I hardly take pictures).