In the Photo's app on my macbook pro M1, many of the videos now won't play. error (-1). I can't export them either. All files are stored on an external hard drive (SS) Restarted. Rebooted -rebuilt. Help! :-)
MacBook Pro 14″
You didn't say what OS you are using for this.
Are these isolated video files, which Photos isn't designed to work with? Or are they in your Photos Library?
Are you saying that the Photos Library is on an external drive? To avoid damaging the Photos Library an external drive must be formatted in either APFS format or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format. The drive must be connected directly to the Mac by cable, not networked, clouded, NASed, etc. Additionally, the drive can not have had Time Machine on it since it was formatted. There have been so many problems with using incompatible drives that the newest macOSs won't even allow a Library on a non-Mac formatted drive to open, since there is a chance of damaging the Photos database. See this:
Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support
If this drive is in a an incompatible format, stop running Photos with it immediately! A Photos Library can sit on an incompatible drive, but running it may corrupt the database.
Video codecs are really flaky, and they change without notice. The extension .mov doesn't always mean the same thing. You should try an app desinged for video, like the free VLC that comes close to working with everything. You may also be able to change the format of a video to one that other apps recognize.
Let us know…
You didn't say what OS you are using for this.
Are these isolated video files, which Photos isn't designed to work with? Or are they in your Photos Library?
Are you saying that the Photos Library is on an external drive? To avoid damaging the Photos Library an external drive must be formatted in either APFS format or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format. The drive must be connected directly to the Mac by cable, not networked, clouded, NASed, etc. Additionally, the drive can not have had Time Machine on it since it was formatted. There have been so many problems with using incompatible drives that the newest macOSs won't even allow a Library on a non-Mac formatted drive to open, since there is a chance of damaging the Photos database. See this:
Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support
If this drive is in a an incompatible format, stop running Photos with it immediately! A Photos Library can sit on an incompatible drive, but running it may corrupt the database.
Video codecs are really flaky, and they change without notice. The extension .mov doesn't always mean the same thing. You should try an app desinged for video, like the free VLC that comes close to working with everything. You may also be able to change the format of a video to one that other apps recognize.
Let us know…
Thanks Richard. These are videos in my Photos library. The drive is connected directly and is APFS. Operating system is 26.1
OK--good. I think you should export some videos and see what VLC (or Handbrake, also free, and more mac-like) does with them.
Photo's app on mac won't play my videos
