Quicktime Player crashed while I was doing a Movie Recording. I was unable to save the video. I have not yet closed Quicktime, it is just stuck unresponsive. I'm on macOS 15.0 which did not crash. I have not rebooted yet. Is there any way to recover the file? I did not find anything relevant in ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX/ or /private/var/folders/50/1h82d6c92c343ygv_m4qm4sr0000gn/C/com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX/com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX/com.apple.metal/16777235_322/

I'm converting MKV files to MP4 with ffmpeg, and when I try to open some (but not all!) of the resulting files, QuickTime Player (version 10.4 on macOS 10.13.6) produces an error dialog with the message: > The document “….mp4” could not be opened. An unknown error occurred (-50) What is this "unknown error (-50)" that is preventing my MP4's from being opened? How can I get more details about the error so that I know how to fix it?

I find quicktime player to be very useful for scrubbing through videos, since it does so smoothly and with the touchpad scroll gesture. I am, however, deeply confused by its timecode output and I'd love an explanation if anyone has one. When cycling through the various time displays in the control bar, there's one that looks like this: As I interpret this, or as I *want* to interpret it, it's showing the time of day at which the video starts and ends (presumably relative to its creation time), followed by the frame count. The problem is, these times don't match any dates I can find related to the video file. Using the video whose control bar I screenshotted above, the file (let's call it NINJVP_S140_S001_T002.MOV) has the following dates associated with it. system dates:

$ stat -f 'accessed: %Sa%nmodified: %Sm%nchanged: %Sc%nbirth: %SB' -t '%F %T'  NINJVP_S140_S001_T002.MOV
accessed: 2025-05-29 20:34:42
modified: 2025-05-19 11:20:34
changed: 2025-05-19 11:20:34
birth: 2025-05-19 11:10:16

dates from the exif data:

$ exiftool -'*Date*' NINJVP_S140_S001_T002.MOV  | grep -v '^File'
Create Date                     : 2025:05:19 10:10:16
Modify Date                     : 2025:05:19 10:10:16
Track Create Date               : 2025:05:19 10:10:16
Track Modify Date               : 2025:05:19 10:10:16
Media Create Date               : 2025:05:19 10:10:16
Media Modify Date               : 2025:05:19 10:10:16

Neither the file dates nor the exif dates match the timecode in QT player. I feel confident that it's not a timezone thing (because of the seconds difference, if nothing else). Nor is it showing the current time, since it shows 12:33:28;24 no matter what. Can anyone tell me what this timecode actually is and where that information is coming from? And further, if there's a way to get QT player to either use the proper times from the exif metadata or to use touch to change the file dates so it shows what I want? Do quicktime files have special proprietary metadata in addition to the exif? And if so, why would that date be different from the exif date?

Using MacOS Ventura 13.5 Is there a Terminal command for macOS to specify a custom saving directory for QuickTime player videos? For **screenshots** I use: defaults write com.apple.screencapture location "" What would be the equivalent for **quick time videos/recordings**? ps aux | grep com.apple.quick yields these paths for QuickTime: - /System/Applications/QuickTimePlayer.app/Contents/XPCServices/com.apple.quicktimeplayer.SharedPrefsVendor.xpc/Contents/MacOS/com.apple.quicktimeplayer.SharedPrefsVendor - /System/Library/Frameworks/QuickLookThumbnailing.framework/Support/com.apple.quicklook.ThumbnailsAgent Tried to modify it to my needs:

write com.apple.quicktimeplayer.SharedPrefsVendor location "~/Desktop/video_recording"

to no avail. Using the UI. Upon each screen recording I have to select the custom target folder regardless of having clicked on "Remember Last Selection". The 2nd time I try to record the screen, it no longer saves the recordings in the specified folder. Steps to activate "Remember Last Selection" *QuickTime Player > File > New Screen Recording > Options > Remember Last Selection*

I'm using an iPhone as a camera source via USB to record video using Quicktime on my Macbook. I want to use AE/AF Lock, but when I do, the recorded video will show the yellow square and AE/AF lock message. The only way to disable it is to unlock AE/AF. Does anyone know of a way to keep it locked, without displaying the message and square on screen? Thanks

I have a pair of video clips (mp4) that I would like to join into 1. The internet tells me that I can do this with Quicktime. Unfortunately, whenever I try exporting joined clips, with clips of any size, I get the same error: "The operation could not be completed; an unknown error occured" If I try to save, rather than export, I cannot. But if I try and close, I'm given an option to save. If I choose to save then, I get this error: Can anyone tell me where I'm going wrong? For full information: there is a two minute video of me running into the problem [here](https://youtu.be/OYKW0RErcxM)

I have a screen capture of my computer screen using QuickTime's Screen Recording feature, but that saves it to an MOV format. I'd like to export it to MP4. Is that possible without installing anything else? I'm using Yosemite, and I'm pretty sure I could do that with Mavericks.

There seems to have been an applescript compatible command "open image sequence" in previous versions, but that seems no longer supported? This gives me some error related to the incorrect syntax around image sequence: #!/bin/sh osascript -e 'tell application "QuickTime Player"' \ -e 'activate' \ -e 'open image sequence file "$1"' \ -e 'set frameRate to 24' \ -e 'set resolution to "1920x1080"' \ -e 'set encodeFormat to "H.264"' \ -e 'save document 1 in file "$2"' \ -e 'end tell'

I have some DRM-free m4v video that I would like to edit by trimming here and there. * QuickTime X ($0) * *Pros:* free, built-in to OS X * *Cons:* selector to choose 'start' and 'end' times is not very easy to use to get precise in/out * iMovie ([Free](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/imovie/id408981434?mt=12) if you have bought a recent Mac) * *Pros:* free * *Cons:* can't handle mp4/m4v directly, has to be re-encoded [I believe] * QuickTime 7 Pro ([$30](http://store.apple.com/us/product/D3380Z/A/quicktime-7-pro-for-mac-os-x)) * *Pros:* Can make very precise (to the frame) edits * *Cons:* saves only as .mov not .mp4/.m4v * [SimpleMovieX](http://simplemoviex.com) ([$40](http://simplemoviex.com/SimpleMovieX/redirectStore.html)) * *Pros:* claims to be able to do this (although I tried the demo and found the UI so terrible I can't even verify if it works, and if it does, if it does anything that QuickTime X cannot) * *Cons:* appears to be 'abandonware' as it hasn't even seen a minor update in well over a year, [MacUpdate reviews](https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/16311/simplemoviex) are nearly entirely negative, going back to 2009, including slow- or no- responses from the developer. Are there other _good_ options out there\*? If so, what are they, and what are their pros/cons? \* I specified "good" because Google is useless for topic as the results are littered with sites offering “reviews” of software that *by some mere coïncidence * they also happen to sell. (Most of the sites and most of the software appear very similar as well.) There's clearly a lot of _crap_ out there

I have an orange dot floating in the top-right corner of my display. I believe that means that a program is using my microphone. Clicking on the dot doesn't do anything, hovering the dot doesn't do anything. But none of the programs in Preferences > Security & Privacy > Microphone are running, and I've even tried disabling them all but the orange dot didn't disapppear. I've even installed OverSight as [this question and answer suggest](https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/467548/150109) (because OverSight is the free option out of OverSight and Micro Snitch), but OverSight didn't identify anything. OverSight was working: I opened QuickTime to record a movie, and OverSight correctly identified that QuickTime was using the microphone. But when I closed QuickTime, OverSight reports that nothing is using the microphone, even though the orange dot persists. When quicktime is open, the orange dot was on the control center tray: When I quit QuickTime, the orange dot moves to the corner of the monitor and floats on top of everything all the time (even full-screen apps): Here's a gif of what happens to the orange dot when I open and quit quicktime, there's a smooth animation between the two orange dot states: I've checked Activity Monitor results for "audio", deleted a couple drivers (Zoom's and MSTeams' — apps which had long ago been deleted themselves) from /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL, but nothing is getting rid of the dot. How can I find out what is causing the orange omnidot? I'm hoping there will be a deep command line or private framework that might reveal the mystery.

I'm trying to write separate AppleScripts where one opens a new movie recording in Quicktime Player, and then a second script begins the actual recording. Currently I have a script that opens the new movie recording, a script that opens the new movie recording *and* begins recording immediately, but when I try to start the recording after the new recording window has opened, I just get error messages. I'm new to AppleScript, so I'm very naive on terms and best practices.

I did a horrible newbie mistake. Recorded about half of a really cool interview with my headphones on, without realising it. I can hear my voice, coffee shop noise, and very very light sounds from the interviewee. Is there a way I could clean the noise to only get the interviewee? So sad.

I have an **.avi** file that I wanted to play via **Quick Time Player** only. But when I try to open an example **.avi** file, I get this error dialog pop-up given below: **Note:** I know that I can use advanced media players like **VLC**, **Elmedia** and so on which has support for **.avi** files. But I still want to use **Quick Time Player** for all video extension files (including non-supported too). **Question:** Is there any plugin which can be installed in **Quick Time Player** to support **.avi** files?

I have two instances of the Quicktime application running. I use two different video sources (Facetime camera and iPhone camera via USB), and I use "Movie recording" to record them. I also have Spotify running. I want to initiate "Record" in both Quicktime apps as well as initiate the "Play" command on the Spotify app at the same time via one key press. I have read this solution using Automator to create a Service with a shortcut here https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/334857/439929 . on run tell first document of application "QuickTime Player" to start end run I created a service for both QT apps and assigned the same keyboard shortcut to start both. I also assigned a shortcut to stop recording. When I tested, two problems occurred: 1. Only the second instance of QT player will record, irrespective of which is in the foreground. 2. When I stopped recording, a dialogue with “Finishing Recording” came up and would not disappear, even though the recording was finished. This doesn’t happen when stopping the recording by clicking the on screen stop button. I then added Spotify using the same process, with the same keyboard combination. Spotify will only play when the QT apps are disabled in System Preferences. I realise my approach is flawed, but I’m not sure if there is a way to achieve this. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!

I've created a Animoji (video version of an emoji) on my iPhone and I noticed that it appears to have a transparent, alpha background. I would like to save this Animoji with its transparent background and transfer it to my Mac for further use. I've seen another post here that opening and saving it in Quicktime on a mac makes it possible to keep the transparency, but it turned to alpha channel into a static black background after saving.

How can I do this with QuickTime (sorry I don't know the exact nomenclature): - I have a saved recording of my screen (i.e. the question is about/for mov files) - I want to replace the video (only!!!; keep the audio part intact) from a certain moment to another moment with a static image OR I want to stretch the time an image/frame is displayed in the video for a longer time. Is this possible with the default apps from MacOS Sonoma 14.5? And if so, how? (I'm new to MacOS ecosystem, so please give me a step-by-step recipe.)

I use Quicktime player as a direct and simple way to trim the head and foot of videos I record in ecamm. I'm on a Mac Studio with Apple silicon and plenty of ram and hd space. Sonoma 14.5 and Quicktime is 10.5, the latest version. Sometimes once a week, sometimes three times a day, QT freezes completely on the split clip command and even the power button won't restart. I have to unplug and restart from there. Console shows no reports. I know QT has been problematic for years here and there, and Apple support was zero help. Any suggestions on what I might try? Thanks. I tried to edit videos, I expected it work, it crashed instead.

I have a .mov file that I believe has corrupted metadata. Every player thinks its duration is 1 second, but it's really over a minute long. I've tried converting it with ffmpeg -i input.mov output.mp4 and Handbrake, but neither worked. I get a 1-second-long output file. Googling for this topic lists a variety of apps which want you to buy a subscription to use them, I just need to fix this one instance. Any suggestions welcome. (Sonoma 14.4.1 on an M1 MacBook) # Update 1 - ffprobe output Here's the output of ffprobe:

ffprobe version 6.0 Copyright (c) 2007-2023 the FFmpeg developers
  built with Apple clang version 14.0.3 (clang-1403.0.22.14.1)
  configuration: --prefix=/opt/homebrew/Cellar/ffmpeg/6.0 --enable-shared --enable-pthreads --enable-version3 --cc=clang --host-cflags= --host-ldflags= --enable-ffplay --enable-gnutls --enable-gpl --enable-libaom --enable-libaribb24 --enable-libbluray --enable-libdav1d --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopus --enable-librav1e --enable-librist --enable-librubberband --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsrt --enable-libsvtav1 --enable-libtesseract --enable-libtheora --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvmaf --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwebp --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxml2 --enable-libxvid --enable-lzma --enable-libfontconfig --enable-libfreetype --enable-frei0r --enable-libass --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libspeex --enable-libsoxr --enable-libzmq --enable-libzimg --disable-libjack --disable-indev=jack --enable-videotoolbox --enable-neon
  libavutil      58.  2.100 / 58.  2.100
  libavcodec     60.  3.100 / 60.  3.100
  libavformat    60.  3.100 / 60.  3.100
  libavdevice    60.  1.100 / 60.  1.100
  libavfilter     9.  3.100 /  9.  3.100
  libswscale      7.  1.100 /  7.  1.100
  libswresample   4. 10.100 /  4. 10.100
  libpostproc    57.  1.100 / 57.  1.100
[mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 @ 0x157e05a40] Found duplicated MOOV Atom. Skipped it
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'P3160054.mov':
  Metadata:
    creation_time   : 2002-03-16T18:29:10.000000Z
    com.apple.quicktime.player.movie.audio.gain: 0.980469
    com.apple.quicktime.player.movie.audio.treble: 0.000000
    com.apple.quicktime.player.movie.audio.bass: 0.000000
    com.apple.quicktime.player.movie.audio.balance: 0.000000
    com.apple.quicktime.player.movie.audio.pitchshift: 0.000000
    com.apple.quicktime.player.movie.audio.mute:
    com.apple.quicktime.player.movie.visual.brightness: 0.000000
    com.apple.quicktime.player.movie.visual.color: 1.000000
    com.apple.quicktime.player.movie.visual.tint: 0.000000
    com.apple.quicktime.player.movie.visual.contrast: 1.000000
    com.apple.quicktime.player.version: 7.6.6 (7.6.6)
    com.apple.quicktime.version: 7.7.3 (2943.14) 0x7738000 (Mac OS X, 10.11.6, 15G22010)
    original_format : Digital Camera
    original_format-eng: Digital Camera
    comment         : OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
    comment-eng     : OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
  Duration: 00:00:00.07, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 3016430 kb/s
  Stream #0:0[0x3](eng): Video: mjpeg (Baseline) (jpeg / 0x6765706A), yuvj422p(pc, bt470bg/unknown/unknown), 320x240, 2334 kb/s, 15 fps, 15 tbr, 600 tbn (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2024-04-23T15:42:32.000000Z
      handler_name    : Apple Video Media Handler
      vendor_id       : olym
      encoder         : Photo - JPEG
  Stream #0:1[0x4](eng): Audio: pcm_u8 (raw  / 0x20776172), 8000 Hz, 1 channels, u8, 64 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2024-04-23T15:42:32.000000Z
      handler_name    : Apple Sound Media Handler
      vendor_id       :

QuickTime can create a movie from a sequence of input images. Different formats for the output can be selected, including HEVC and Apple Pro Res. Unfortunately, QuickTime allows for no control over the compression rate. The file using the HEVC codec is too noisy for my taste and the file using Apple Pro Res is huge. Alternatively a file can be produced using ffmpeg, like so

ffmpeg -framerate 60 -i %d.png -c:v libx265 -pix_fmt yuv420p -x265-params lossless=1 -vf scale=out_color_matrix=bt709 -color_primaries bt709 -color_trc bt709 -colorspace bt709 out.mov

Unfortunately, the resulting file is not compatible with QuickTime. This is quite surprising, as the metadata for the file produced in QuickTime and the file obtained from ffmpeg seem to be quite similar. Here's the metadata for the QuickTime file

Metadata:
    major_brand     : qt  
    minor_version   : 0
    compatible_brands: qt  
    creation_time   : 2021-01-06T16:42:09.000000Z
  Duration: 00:00:03.02, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 1927 kb/s
    Stream #0:0(und): Video: hevc (Main) (hvc1 / 0x31637668), yuv420p(tv, bt709, progressive), 1280x960 [SAR 1:1 DAR 4:3], 1918 kb/s, 60 fps, 60 tbr, 600 tbn, 600 tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2021-01-06T16:42:09.000000Z
      handler_name    : Core Media Video
      encoder         : HEVC

and here's the metadata for the ffmpeg file

Metadata:
    major_brand     : qt  
    minor_version   : 512
    compatible_brands: qt  
    encoder         : Lavf58.45.100
  Duration: 00:00:03.02, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 8003 kb/s
    Stream #0:0: Video: hevc (Main) (hev1 / 0x31766568), yuv420p(tv, bt709, progressive), 1280x960 [SAR 1:1 DAR 4:3], 7990 kb/s, 60 fps, 60 tbr, 15360 tbn, 60 tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      handler_name    : VideoHandler
      encoder         : Lavc58.91.100 libx265

Does anyone know how to produce a QuickTime compatible file using ffmpeg or some other freely available software?

Here we see that _Movie Recording_ and _Audio Recording_ are enabled, but _New Screen Recording_ is not. Why would this be? I have stopped/restarted _QuickTime_ several times now and this behavior persists. I am on macOS Ventura 13.3.1 so am quite up to date.