klayhamn wrote:
I have the exact same issue. this started a few months ago ---
Now any new project i save can no longer be opened. The project files (VPJ) themselves seem totally normal (when inspected in notepad)
I can load OLDER vpj files, i just can't save anymore new ones. This makes the software totally unusable. I just spent an entire WEEK working on a project and saved it like 5 times in 5 different separate files, all of which fail to load.
There is no problem editing the video itself or exporting to mp4, the ONLY problem is loading the VPJ
The cache was cleaned multiple times --- it did absolutely nothing.
One thing i notice is that the loading tries to load unrelated files from nearby subfolders (i know because it suddenly asks me to choose an audio channel for these unrelated clips) -- these OTHER clips were never in the project or in ANY project for that matter
The only suspicion i have is that it might be related to the fact it's referencing clips from the Downloads folder which has 74,727 files and 700+ GB. but that's a complete guess.
I expect this to be fixed or i request a refund for my license.
UPDATE: with GPT 5's help i was able to un-corrupt the VPJ file.
Here is a summary of the fixes it had to apply (not sure if all of them were necessary):
Still, if the software can't produce uncorrupted project files it's a BUG and needs to be fixed.
Yes!!!
This worked for me, thank you! I don't have GPT-5, so opened the .VPJ file manually in notepad.
What worked for me was to create a copy of the most recent .vpj that would load, then open it in notepad. I then opened the .vpj with the error in a separate notepad, and copied all of the data from "trackclips=..." (starting at "h=..." until "subtitles tracks") and replaced it in the new file into the same section.
Saved it and when I attempted to open in videopad, it says "file appears to be damaged, open anyway?", but it was able to open.
It said "failed to load clips" for any clips that were added in between saves. The effectchains and other effects didn't carry over, but I was more worried about the clip edits.
Not sure what caused it fail, but this is the only solution that has ever worked.
Most of the data for the other headings such as "bookmarks", "tracks", and "subtitletracks" were the same. The only differences were "clips", "trackclips", and "effectchains" numbers. I wasn't able to look for small changes like missing numbers because it was way too many characters and I don’t have a coded background.
If the trackclips data for "effectchains" from the corrupted file was able to carry over, then the bug must be somewhere else. I wonder if the effectchains is the culprit because that's when the fail message usually pops up.