Repair recordings that were cut off

When an Insta360 X4-family camera loses power or crashes while it is recording, the file keeps the picture and sound but not the index a player needs, so no player, editor or Insta360 Studio can open it. Media Organizer can repair such a file into a new one next to it.

Turn on the check

1. Open Tools > Settings and choose Advanced.
2. Tick Check camera recordings for damage and save.

From then on a scan labels a damaged recording and says whether it can be repaired: one the camera never closed can be; one where the camera stopped a moment after starting, before it had saved a single complete picture, cannot. In the file list each one is marked with one word, and hovering over the mark tells you more:

• Repairable: the camera never closed the file. Repair it as below.
• Repaired: a repaired copy of it is in your library.
• Unrepairable: there is no complete picture in it, so there is nothing to recover and the file holds nothing worth keeping.
• Empty: the file has 0 bytes.

To check the files already in your library at once, choose Library > Check catalogued recordings for damage; it checks the drives that are connected.

Repair

• From the browser: select the files, then right-click and choose Repair…, or use Repair in the bar above the list. Filters > Damaged files lists every damaged file.
• After a scan: open the scan in the Activity panel. Its Problems list its damaged files and offers Repair….
• From a camera card: when a card holds damaged recordings that can be repaired, the card's window has a tick box to repair them after they are copied. Nothing is written to the card; the repair runs on the first copy once the card is copied off.

The Repair dialog shows the files that can be repaired and the space they need. Below them it lists the files it leaves out, grouped by reason, with what you can do about each: for example 2 are on WD2, which is not connected. Connect the drive and choose Repair again. When you press Repair, Media Organizer finds a healthy recording from the same camera, in the same mode, for each file to borrow the camera's settings from: first in the file's own folder, then anywhere else in your library. If none works for a file, the dialog says why for each one it tried and lets you pick one, or leave the file out. The repair then runs in the Activity panel, where you can pause or cancel it.

What you get

The repaired file is written next to the original with -repaired before the extension, so it sorts beside it, and the recording's proxy and other sidecars are copied beside it under the same name. The repaired file becomes the recording's main file. The original is never changed or deleted; delete it yourself when you no longer want it. Insta360 Studio stitches the repaired recording and plays its sound, but cannot stabilise it, because the camera writes its motion data only when it stops recording.

If a file cannot be repaired, the repair's row in the Activity panel lists it with the reason, and Repair… there lets you try again with another reference recording.