Need help. Important video corrupted

LupusGelos

So ive had videopad for years now, and its been an absolute struggle all throughout. Im unable to make any kind of videos longer then a few minutes because once i do, i can no longer see any of my edits or view the clips until its been exported. Not only that but most of the time the video cant be exported in a certain quality because the editor cant actually do it, and leaves it 90% blank... BUT thats not even the problem im here for:

So ive been working on yet another video for days and days and days. Then all of a sudden part way through editing, the audio files go silent, with its wave form image just being a big set of bars. So i quit for 2 days as this happens all the time. I come back, and the audios back to normal, but now all of the video files are invisible, all of their effects aren't working (with muted videos now making sound again despite being invisible both on the screen and on the chart, can still be dragged though) and when it comes to exporting it it'll show the exact same thing.

Im on an older version, 6.10 i believe. I've tried to update it in the past but it appears to be.......dodgy? I mean in my previous projects ive had it "crash" whilst nothing was wrong, where a sign would conveniently pop up telling me theres this brand new update available that could "fix" it. So i click on it, it installs the newer version and at the same time deletes the old version. It then tells me to pay full $80 price again in order to use a newer version (the only editing company on planet earth that seems to be doing this), forcing me to re-download the older version, and also scrubbed my projects too so that was just fab!

SO, i just want help fixing this last ever project i do on videopad. I really REALLY just want to get this one done, its of a large importance to my channel and it was almost completed as it was. Ive had to abandone so many over the years due to bugs like this but i just want THIS ONE at the very least to pull through. TY

borate

6.10 is very dated, and architecture has been changed. That's why it is recommended to edit and export with the same - or closely to the same - version. Newer versions can be used without licensing, though some features may be unavailable. But full compatibility with your older construct isn't assured.

For licensed users upgrades are free for up to six months from purchase date. After that, VP will continue to fully function but a fee will be required in order to register the newest. As you've noted, the older licensed release doesn't expire.

Never should a project be scrubbed if you regularly Save Project Files AS, giving them a unique # or name, so as to not overwrite old saves. Using Save Project Files will do that. Don't abandon your work; let folks here help.

UHD resolution large files are at times problematic - slow editing / missing export elements. It may help to break a project into exported segments - later to be merged. Project layout matters. Generally speaking, for any editor, the fewer tracks and effects the better. Proxy editing, a common approach when there is marginal hardware, large files or a slow server, can make the UI more responsive.

Projects should always display in full on the timeline. Your reference to not seeing them, and intermittently vanishing audio or video is a puzzlement.

Video editing is resource intensive, so hardware can be a factor. Be sure that the video driver and Direct-X are up to date. https://www.nch.com.au/kb/10265.html

Someone here will be glad to check out what's going on if you share. It's easy, quick and can be done privately. Just follow these few steps carefully ...

With your project on the timeline, click on MENU at the top-left. Click FILE|BACK UP PROJECT FILES TO FOLDER. Choose a folder and SELECT FOLDER.
Locate the saved, numbered folder, NOT the exported or VPJ file. Upload it to a free server - Google Drive, MS OneDrive, etc.*
Get a shared, public link. If using Google Drive click GET SHAREABLE LINK. Change "restricted" to "anyone with the link can view" Then click COPY LINK | DONE.
Paste that link here, or click the folder at the top-right of this forum and privately message it to me. It won't be shared.

* Before uploading, right-click the folder, click PROPERTIES. Look at the File Size to confirm that it's not too big for the free space on the server.

[deleted]

It seems very strange that you have been using VP for "years" and experiencing problems all along. and yet this seems to be your first post to the forum to ask advice. The forum is here for just that purpose. 🙂

VP will not scrub your project even if it crashes or you download another version..newer or older. Note also that your project will always be available if you Save Project or Save Project As regularly.

It is at least two years since VP 6.10 and a lot has changed since that version.

Upload as Borate describes and it might be possible to see where things may be going wrong. There is obviously something as you should be able to make videos of more than a few minutes

Nat

LupusGelos

Thank you for your responses so far 🙂. A few things just to clarify:

I've been using Videopad for years since i was a clueless kid in my late teens, as the first ever "proper" editor that i ever bought. The vast amount of my technical knowledge comes from clueless trial and error, so a lot of the keywords that folks will offer me tend to end up as technical mumbo-jumbo in my mind! 😅

Having looked a little closer at the project, i can explain some more of the core details:

All of the image files in the video are untouched and working as intended, with all their edits intact. The MP4 files howether are all blank on the timeline. When i click play on the project, they produce their original sounds, even though they were all edited to be muted (amongst other edits). The view screen is black whenever an edited mp4 snippet is supposed to be playing. When i click on these semi-visible files on the timeline and select "effects" to check on the edits, i find out that its only offering edits for audio, with the entire range of visual edits no longer being present, as if it was solely an audio file i had selected and not a video file.

Also, i dont know if its connected in anyway, but i recently went into my recycle folder and deleted a ton of autosaves from videopad that were chucked in there in order to free up some space on my computer. When i went back onto videopad afterwards, it asked me to resolve 3 allegedly missing files i had deleted from the project. TRhese 3 files were stored with the others on the far left tab but never actually used, so i just clicked continue. Like i said after that one of the audio files went funny, i click off and return next day, and now its all solely the mp4 files.

So sorry again for this overload of issues, when i first bought the product i didn't have any social media of any kind (other then youtube) despite my modern teen years. I think i'll first start with just getting this project back up and running and then later on go through the other historical problems one by one? Thanks again.

[deleted]

VP is pretty intuative but most users still find their way around it by trial and error. However they don't usually have the problems you are reporting so there seems to be something very odd going on here and I am pretty sure it's not program bugs. What is the source of your mp4 files?

As mentioned upload your project and someone can take a look

Either your PC or the installationof VP on your PC is fouling things up.in some way.

Note also that Autosaved (or any Saved project files) are .vpj files. These are, in effect text files and are usually very small; a matter of a few tens of Kb so they actually don't take up a lot of space. Deleting these won't have had any effect..

Nat

LupusGelos

Ok, so i believe i have done what you have asked and got a sharable link to the folder. It has 91 files in it, if thats normal....?

The mp4 files were all almost exclusively extracted from youtube via using a 3rd party site, which has always been a lil dodgy full of spam and the like, but its always gotten me what i need, so just bear that in mind.

So the audio for everything works. Theres the background music, my commentary, and a handful of audio effects. The problem is that ALL of the mp4 files are no longer visible, yet they are ALL playing audio, despite 90% of them either being muted or having half of their runtime muted. Its as if all of their edits were removed and it no longer seems able to recognise them as mp4 files. Oh yeah and the video itself is a lil weird so thanks for working around that 😅

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/16cC31lnU3BHvTI18bciu8Y5UIl7w2MSW?usp=sharing

borate

Individual mp4 files load both video and audio. This hints that the VPJ control file, made when the project was saved, was not saving all tracks. Did you unintentionally hide or solo a track/s? Use 6.10 for both editing and exporting. OR a recent version. Mixing them can result in incompatibilities.

Clear Unused Cache Files, under OPTIONS | DISK tab before starting a new project or, in this case perhaps, restoring a project. Reimport your mp4 files and verify that they all show up on the timeline. In the bin now there is but a single video file - Homer bush.

Once that's done, be sure that all tracks are active, then Save Project File AS.

Save Project File AS routinely, giving it a unique # or name, so as not to overwrite prior saves. Using Save Project Files (no AS) will overwrite. Then you can restore a project to the state it was in when saved. Just double-click the VPJ file (which isn't playable).

Audio needs work: some track 3 content is overriding your narration. There is no video whatsoever from 3:09 to 6:13.

LupusGelos

ok, So ive re-added the files back into the video tab on the left hand side via clicking "add files" and added them from my various folders, where before there was just the one gif of homer bush. I then went and saved the project as a typical Videopad file VPJ and gave it a different name. I also went and cleared the cache of 357mb of stuff. I dont know what you mean by project file AS? So far the video files are all still unchanged though despite all of that.

After hovering over some of the greyed out files on the timeline, i noticed that its only recognising them as audio files. So i selected "restore linked video files", where Videopad promptly crashed. Repeated attempts have also resulted in crashes. SO it seems that the former mp4 files are now only thinking they are audio files, although still being located on the video timeline and not the audio timeline. As in, when i select these files, it has mp4 in the names, but it says "file type: Audio". Meanwhile if i pick up one of the files from the far left tab and dump them anywhere on the timeline, it appears just fine, despite an edited version of the very same file now having these issues.

As for the narration quality, its because i sped up the speed of the audio file, and i lack the knowledge to fix the resultant echo effect from it. The video past the 3 minute ish mark has nothing on it as its not yet finished.

Additional Edit: I went to one of the greyed out videos that still has its original audio on the audio timeline. I deleted the greyed out videofile, then clicked on its original audio file below it, and selected "restore linked file", which promptly made the video reappear. Not sure if i can go ahead and do this with all of them, because doing so would probably restore them but without all of my edits, and at the same time most of them dont have any linked audio files at all so its not 100% possible. Just throwing out whatever info i can to help narrow it down for you folks in the know.

borate

Did you use version 6.10 throughout the edit, or did you switch to another release?

Save Project Files by clicking the SAVE button on the toolbar overwrites the older VPJ file. Instead, click the chevron to the right of the button and choose Save Project File AS, giving it a unique # or name. That will not overwrite the earlier file. Do this often, so various steps in the project build can be restored if necessary.

Yes, files on video tracks are being seen as AUDIO. Yet when the same file is independently added it is correct. Very strange behavior never before reported.

At this juncture, it might be best to install a recent VP version and simply, if painfully, reconstruct the earlier section. If unlicensed, certain features - such as effects and some export formats - may not be available. But most are. If no export format is available come back here. But, in any case, regularly SAVE AS and do not move the source files.