To give greater context, I had one hour long video file recorded using OBS as the only clip I had imported and edited it down to ~30 mins. I saved the project before I attempted to export it as an mp4 and when it asked me to replace the original file (since they had the same name) I accidentally clicked yes. Then I tried to play the mp4, but all I got was a black screen. I went back into my software editor and the preview of the clip turned black too. Oddly, they did actually keep the thumbnails of the individual pieces. I thought that maybe in the process of exporting the project it turned completely black because it overwrote the only clip it had, but in that case, the clips that were already placed shouldn't have needed that clip to play. I tried using data recovery software to get the original clip back, but couldn't find it. Is there anything I can do?
Exported a project as an mp4 and accidentally replaced a clip and now the mp4 is entirely black
- Thread starter Fleche24
- Start date
konsolenritter
Active Member
Not really, i'm afraid. Did you let the data recovery soft searching for unbound/losely data? Because you've overwritten the file a valid file structure do exist even now. So - if any - pieces could be found on disk it would be in the "unassigned" sectors. If any.
Surely overwriting something is serious. Ever. Thumbnails are nuts (and even delusive): They belong to your (even temporary) project in your editing software and are most often cached, while the original clip might be lost meanwhile (what is your case).
Lesson to learn (sorry, but i've to say that): NEVER work on the single solely primary source of a clip. AT LEAST make an external backup of a primary source BEFORE touching it for editing or something else.
Surely overwriting something is serious. Ever. Thumbnails are nuts (and even delusive): They belong to your (even temporary) project in your editing software and are most often cached, while the original clip might be lost meanwhile (what is your case).
Lesson to learn (sorry, but i've to say that): NEVER work on the single solely primary source of a clip. AT LEAST make an external backup of a primary source BEFORE touching it for editing or something else.
koala
Active Member
It's gone. You started to overwrite your original video with a processed version of itself. What you see as thumbnails, is some cached remains in some internal cache buffer of your video editor. The raw video itself is gone. The moment you confirmed to replace the original file that original file was removed to make space for the replacement.
Saving a project in a video editor usually means saving all configuration stuff except the video data itself. The project is a recipe how to process the video data, but not the video data itself.
Saving a project in a video editor usually means saving all configuration stuff except the video data itself. The project is a recipe how to process the video data, but not the video data itself.