Sandisk USB is storing some of my videos but not others?

USB Flash Drives All other USB Flash Drives
1

As the title says, it stores videos of many different file types yet not others for some reason. They show as being stored in the disk yet when I try to play them (through MPC-BE) it says “cannot render file.”

Different file types, different sizes, in folders and some not in folders. I can’t find any rhyme or reason as to what factors lead to it making the videos unstoreable and unplayable.

I’ve tried formatting it and still the problem persists. Anything else I could try?

2

If some videos have become unreadable on the SanDisk USB, avoid copying new files to it until you figure out the cause, as that could overwrite recoverable data. First, check whether the missing or corrupted videos still play from the original source. If not, scan the USB with a USB recovery tool to look for intact copies. If the recovered videos are still unplayable, they were likely corrupted during transfer and may need video repair software afterward.

3

They do still play from their original source. I’ve tried multiple times, as a batch, one video at a time, there still seems to still be no obvious reason as to why some videos play and some don’t :confused:

4

Since formatting didn’t change anything I’d stop looking at file types and check the drive itself. This sounds like silent data corruption from a failing drive, bad USB cable or enclosure, or even a drive reporting more capacity than it really has, which can make files appear normally in Explorer even though their contents are damaged. Try a different cable and USB port first, then copy a known good video to the drive and back to your PC and see whether the returned copy still plays. I’d also check the drive’s health with CrystalDiskInfo and, if it’s a flash drive or suspiciously cheap external SSD, verify its real capacity with ValiDrive or H2testw. If those tests report errors, don’t trust the drive with anything important and replace it rather than continuing to reformat it.

5

I’d try a couple of things before giving up on the drive. First, copy one of the videos that won’t play back to your computer and see if it works there. You can also try playing it with VLC, just to rule out an MPC-BE issue.

If the videos still don’t play after copying them, there’s a good chance the files are getting corrupted when they’re written to the USB. Since you’ve already formatted it and the problem is still happening, I’d also test the drive on another computer and with a different USB port.

If the videos are important, I wouldn’t keep copying new files to the drive until you figure out what’s going on. You could try a recovery tool like Stellar Photo Recovery to see if the original video files can be recovered properly.