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After update to macOS 12.6.4 strange file permission change, plus QuickTime Player does not open downloaded mp4 files

Hi there:


After the update to macOS 12.6.4 I noticed some changes to the file permissions and ownership in my home directory, that prevented opening some of my text-, jpg, or psd files.


After further investigation I was able to fix that, but that shouldn't have happened after a minor macOS update.


After another update to macOS 12.6.5 one problem still persists.


When opening downloaded mp4 videos using QuickTime Player 10.5 after the update to 12.6.4 and 12.6.5 I download videos using Firefox with "Easy YouTube Video Downloader Express" extension, for later offline viewing and archiving. That worked great so far and it still works on my old MacPro using macOS 13.6.


Immediately after downloading the video (usually as 720p) it is possible to open and play it back. Now on my MacBook Air M1 with macOS 12.6.5 it needs two cold reboots of the machine and the video will finally open and play back on QuickTime player. What is going on there? No problems with macOS 12.6.3.


Using VLC Player instead of QT Player, the video plays back immediately after download on macOS 12.6.5 (!). Does some Apple technician have any ideas on what to do? Two cold reboots aren't a really acceptable solution to the problem, to make QuickTime Player work again.


Please help.


Cheers,


Frank N.


MacBook Air 13″, macOS 12.6

Posted on Apr 13, 2023 6:11 AM

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Posted on Apr 14, 2023 1:17 AM

FrankNStein wrote:

Hmmm, I don't quite understand, what this has to do with the problem. Some files had umlauts in their file name, but some did not. After 2 cold reboots QT Player finally opened those files and played them back.


There is a current known problem in that files with umlauts, accents, or other non-ASCII characters fail to open.

That is why I asked. Now it is clear this is a different problem.



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6 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Apr 14, 2023 1:17 AM in response to FrankNStein

FrankNStein wrote:

Hmmm, I don't quite understand, what this has to do with the problem. Some files had umlauts in their file name, but some did not. After 2 cold reboots QT Player finally opened those files and played them back.


There is a current known problem in that files with umlauts, accents, or other non-ASCII characters fail to open.

That is why I asked. Now it is clear this is a different problem.



Apr 13, 2023 8:44 AM in response to FrankNStein

Since it does play, eventually, it is probably not a codec problem, but an mp4 does not uniquely identify a video file. Many codecs can be used to wrap it up into an mp4 wrapper. Apple has started dumping old codecs from the OS. Just because it is an mp4 doesn’t imply it should play in macOS.

VLC bundles almost every codec ever created, so almost everything will play in it.


I think, like dialabrain, that it may be caused by the codec used by the app you are using.

It may be something that is not optimized or fully compatible with the Apple Silicon processor.

Apr 14, 2023 1:03 AM in response to dialabrain

I'm sorry, but "Easy YouTube Video Downloader Express" definitely is not the problem. As I already wrote, VLC Player plays back immediately, but QT Player does not. See above. After 2 reboots those very same, unchanged mp4 files also play back with QT Player.


I made a few more tests and it seem to me that some background process keeps QT Player from opening / playing back new mp4 files. Something prevents QT Player from working as expected...

After update to macOS 12.6.4 strange file permission change, plus QuickTime Player does not open downloaded mp4 files

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