Resolved Recovering lost video

[Ambrosia7177]

Hi. I was conducting an interview on my iPhone and the battery died, and I lost like a 2-hour interview that was really important.

In the past, I used the "Image Capture" app on my MacBook Pro to download photos/videos from my iPhone to my laptop.

While I hated Image Capture - because it was consistently dropping files during transfers - one saving grace about it was that if my iPhone died during an interview, I was always able to recover (i.e. download) the video - even though it wouldn't appear on my iPhone itself.

Thanks to advice on MacRumors, I now use the iMazing app to download (and manage) files from my iPhone 15 Pro Max to my MacBook Pro's.

When I went into iMazing last night, I cannot see the missing file, and it doesn't show up on my iPhone either.

Right now I am using the Cinema P3 Pro camera app on my iPhone 15 Pro Max, and I use iMazing on my laptops.

My fear is that because I was using the Cinema P3 Pro app that when my iPhone shut off maybe that app doesn't save things like the native Camera app does?

Bottomline, I am hoping there is a way to find, download, and thus recover this lost video interview.

I am posting here, because IF there is a solution, it likely involves my MacBook Pro...

Please help!

 

[wonderings]

There are apps that can scan an iPhone for missing files, been a long time since I did that so can't remember what I used before. I am sure someone else will be able to help. It sounds like this is not your first time having this happen, I would serious suggesting getting an external batter and just plugging it in to your iPhone when recording something to avoid this problem in the future.

 

[960design]

You are probably correct.
I do not know the format Cinema P3 uses.
MP4 (any MPEG format) uses compression that is easily corrupted during 'hicups'.
MKV (and .mov) often is lossless and provides much better error correction and corruption recoverability.

 

[Boyd01]

You could have a look at iMazing. Used to have a copy but stopped updating because I wasn't using it much, so I haven't kept up with the changes. It gives you more access to content on the phone than the standard Apple apps, maybe it could find some temp files or something? They used to offer a free trial but it had some limitations.

 

[Ambrosia7177]

There are apps that can scan an iPhone for missing files, been a long time since I did that so can't remember what I used before. I am sure someone else will be able to help.

I hope you are right on this one!

It sounds like this is not your first time having this happen, I would serious suggesting getting an external batter and just plugging it in to your iPhone when recording something to avoid this problem in the future.

Well, two things...

1.) I do have an external battery, but I have a new iPhone and new field rig, and haven't set up a way to hang my new powerbank, so I didn't set it up at the beginning like I normally would.

2.) I was interviewing one person as as that was wrapping up, some crazy dude walked up and took over for the first person and then proceeded to scream for 2 hours - I was so overtaken by this guy that I got distracted and didn't set up my powerbank.

Live and learn...

 

[Ambrosia7177]

You could have a look at iMazing. Used to have a copy but stopped updating because I wasn't using it much, so I haven't kept up with the changes. It gives you more access to content on the phone than the standard Apple apps, maybe it could find some temp files or something? They used to offer a free trial but it had some limitations.

As mentioned in my OP, I bought iMazing and have been using it exclusively for the last couple of months.

Yes, it is superior to Image Capture, but I don't see the missing file on either my iPhone or in iMazing.

 

[Ambrosia7177]

You are probably correct.
I do not know the format Cinema P3 uses.
MP4 (any MPEG format) uses compression that is easily corrupted during 'hicups'.
MKV (and .mov) often is lossless and provides much better error correction and corruption recoverability.

Do .MOV files work in such a way that if a recording crashes the files are still intact, whereas with an .MP4 file that isn't the case?

Do you think this is an issue of the application or of the file format determing what my end fate is?

Any ideas how I can try to even see the file?

I find it had to believe there isn't some video file somewhere.

If I was working on an MS Excel or MS Word document, and my laptop crashed, there would still be a file, it just might be corrupted or lack data.

Files rarely just "disappear", and the first goal is to try to *find* the file - because I cannot transfer or opne a file that I cannot see!

 

[Ambrosia7177]

A HAPPY ending...

I reached out to the company that makes the Cinema P3 Pro Camera app, and it turns out that the app first of all saves video as .MOV files like every 5-10 seconds, so similar to Apple's Camera app, if your iPhone shuts off, it's pretty likely that your original video file is okay - except that you lose the end of your ecording of course.

It also turns out that the Cinema P3 Cmera app saves things in the Apps > CinemaP3 > Documents folder *first* and then copies them over to the Photos library - if that is where you have things configured to be stored.

So all I had to do was navigate to that destination in iMazing, and there was my missing video! (I believe on modern macs, you could use Finder to navigate to the same location on my iPhone 15 Pro Max.)

The whole video (1 hr 45 min) was intact and looks good except for the very end of the interview not being captured, but no biggies there.

I need to make a mount to hold my new power bank on my tripod so I can always have my iPhone plugged in, but since I didn't have a way to do that, I just had to "wing it" and because this guy was ranting and raving, I lost track of time and towards the end my iPhone went *poof* and shut off.

Glad there was a happy ending, because this interview was priceless!

 

[960design]

Do .MOV files work in such a way that if a recording crashes the files are still intact, whereas with an .MP4 file that isn't the case?

For completeness:
Yes, .mov are uncompressed and recoverable.
MP4 needs that last bit to lock the compression, if the file closes before the close() operation is started (aka app crashes, battery dies ) the mp4 is almost* impossible to recover. *governments and researchers can recover via memory cloning, but not normally available to normal people.

Do you think this is an issue of the application or of the file format determing what my end fate is?

The developers choice in file formatting. MKV is free and open source and should be used for most video/live streaming formats. MP4 should be used for archival / stream from disk. When the content is being initially captured, it is best for the developer to use MKV (or .mov).

Any ideas how I can try to even see the file?

You did the hard work on this one and found the answer.

I find it had to believe there isn't some video file somewhere.

If I was working on an MS Excel or MS Word document, and my laptop crashed, there would still be a file, it just might be corrupted or lack data.

Files rarely just "disappear", and the first goal is to try to *find* the file - because I cannot transfer or opne a file that I cannot see!

Too right you are. Good on you finding it! Good to know for others that may have the same issue!

 

[Ambrosia7177]

@960,

Thanks for the thoughts!