Repair .3GP file

Gopher_By_Fende

Gopher_By_Fende

Gopher_By_Fende

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6 Sep 2005
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244
Hey guys

Does anyone know if its possible to fix a corrupted .3GP file. I was at my bros wedding this weekend, and recording lots of footage on my phone to make em a DVD of it. I recorded all the after dinner speech, about 20 mins in total, but just as it finished, my phone automatically kicked me out back to the home screen due to low power. this seems to have stopped the file closing and saving properly. I have the file, its around 250mg, but it will not play in anything I try. Obviously this was pretty much the key part of the DVD i was making for them so without it im pretty much scuppered.

Any help would be reeeeeeeally appriciated

cheers in advance
 
Doesn't sound too promising then. If you open it in a hex editor does it display lots of different letters/numbers (hex) or are they all the same (00 00 00 etc). An old 3GP from my phone starts with:

Code: 
....ftyp3gp4....3gp53gp4isom..˵mdat..

Which clearly states 3gp.
 
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 08 6D 64 61 74 3C 91 17 16 BE 66 79 E1 E0 01 E7 AF F0 00 00 00 80 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

thats the first 4 lines in the hex editor
 
Is most of the rest of the file like 64 61 74 3C 91 17 16 BE etc? (i.e. not 00 00 00 00)

If so it could be the header which hasn't been saved/got corrupted. Could you post a few lines from a working 3gp file (taken on the same phone, with the same settings)? Ideally the data on the right in HxD rather than just the hex.
 
Corrupt Hex (8 lines)
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 08 6D 64 61 74 3C 91 17 16 BE 66 79 E1 E0 01 E7 AF F0 00 00 00 80 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 3C 48 77 24 96 66 79 E1 E0 01 E7 BA F0 00 00 00 C0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 3C 55 00 88 B6 66 79 E1 E0 01 E7 CF F0 00 00 00 80 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

Corrupt Data

................................mdat<‘..¾fyáà.ç¯ð...€...............<Hw$–fyáà.çºð...À...............<U.ˆ¶fyáà.çÏð...€...........

Working Hex
00 00 00 1C 66 74 79 70 33 67 70 34 00 00 03 00 33 67 70 34 6D 70 34 31 33 67 70 36 02 B2 A3 EF 6D 64 61 74 3C 91 17 16 BE 66 79 E1 E0 01 E7 AF F0 00 00 00 80 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 3C 48 77 24 96 66 79 E1 E0 01 E7 BA F0 00 00 00 C0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 3C 55 00 88 B6 66 79 E1 E0 01 E7 CF F0 00 00 00 80 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

Working Data
....ftyp3gp4....3gp4mp413gp6.²£ïmdat<‘..¾fyáà.ç¯ð...€...............<Hw$–fyáà.çºð...À...............<U.ˆ¶fyáà.çÏð...€...........

Looks to me like theres obvious data missing, but no idea how to go about fixing it lol
 
If you do make sure you have several backups just incase (and make sure they're not in the same folder as it's all too easy to pick the wrong one).

Long shot, but try replacing in the corrupt version this:

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 08

with:
00 00 00 1C 66 74 79 70 33 67 70 34 00 00 03 00 33 67 70 34 6D 70 34 31 33 67 70 36 02 B2 A3 EF


Failing that, according to the header it looks like it records in MP4 format which might help when Googling for fixes.
 
Last edited:
ok, tried that, no joy on it playing, although this time when i ran it thru mediainfo it comes up slightly different -

General
Complete name : D:\Documents and Settings\Gopher\Desktop\VIDEO0027.3gp
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : 3GPP Media Release 4
Codec ID : 3gp4
File size : 285 MiB
 
MP4Box can deal with 3GP as its part of the MPEG 4 standard. If it is readable enough you might be able to load it in and demux the file into separate MPEG4 audio and video streams and then remux to an MP4 file.
 
Sounds like a good idea. You'll probably have far more look searching for MP4 repairing than 3GP, I assume a general repairer could extract MP4 from a 3GP container?

What programs have you tried to play it in? I'd try a few - VLC, Media Player Classic etc (assuming they all support it).
 
Tried playing in WMP, Winamp, VLC and QT, no joy on any.

Tried manipulating the file in MP4Box using YAMB, got this error msg -

[19:45:51] : Error opening file D:\Documents and Settings\Gopher\Desktop\VIDEO0027.3gp: IsoMedia File is truncated

Had a google round, couldnt find any other ideas :S
 
thanks for the suggestions guys,

tried the suggestion above, neither program will recognise or open the file thou, either the original or hacked one :/

starting to think i might be fooked, so annoying since i know the data looks all there, just cant get it ><
 
Technically the data is still there so it's a matter of finding a program that can analyse the data and detect the raw streams. I haven't looked although there must be some program that can do it, or there might be specialists out there that can recover audio/video data if it is really important.
 
As a last resort, could you upload the file anywhere? Some people might be able to pick it up and help you.
 
Sounds like the file is truncated (missing data at the end). The header is apparently written at the end of the file in the .3GP container hence why it's corrupt and will be more difficult to fix if it's even possible. You'd basically need to transplant the header from a working file to the corrupt one but this is more difficult with 3GP than with say AVI.

GOM player may be able to play the file so it's worth a try at least.

http://www.gomlab.com/eng/
 
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