5 Simple Methods to Repair Corrupt WMV Files

Read time 9 minutes

If you’re a Microsoft Windows user, you would be familiar with WMV files. WMV stands for Windows Media Video, which refers to a pack of video codecs and the corresponding video coding formats developed by Microsoft. Although its specific design makes it compatible with all Windows operating systems yet, it doesn’t support macOS. Therefore, .wmv files cannot run on Apple devices.

Like other video file formats, WMV files can also corrupt or damaged, and won’t run in Windows Media Player, the default media player for Microsoft Windows. Let’s discuss the possible errors or types of corruption that you might experience while playing videos.

• Error Notification: “file could not be played.”
• Frozen Frame/Frame Freeze
• Codec Issue
• No Sound
• Crackled Sound & Distorted Sound
• Video Crash
• Black Screen
• Damaged File

When the file is corrupt, it becomes challenging for the user to identify the type of corruption or media error. To gain more information about the issues mentioned above, you can read the article titled Fixed: Top Five Common Video Errors which provides you clarity on the most common video errors and will help you to avoid such issues in future.

Reasons behind WMV file turning corrupt:

• Viruses and malware attacks.
• Unnecessary faulty add-ons.
• Video downloaded from unauthorized website.
• Incomplete video download
• Accidental shut down

How to fix corrupt WMV file issue?

There are numerous solutions to resolve the corrupt WMV file issues on the internet, but not all of them are worth it. Here, we have covered all the legitimate solutions to fix the issue and give you a seamless WMV video-watching experience.

Solution 1: Open the corrupt WMV file in VLC

Video LAN VideoLAN Client (VLC) is a powerful technical media player software that supports Windows OS, Linux distributions, and MacOS. VLC has native support for a wide range of video codecs. For all the media files that fail to open with Windows Media Player or other media players, VLC is the ultimate solution, as it includes additional utilities capable of repairing and opening files with minor corruption.

By following the steps outlined below, you can avoid encountering the same error

Step 1: Right-click on the corrupt WMV file and tap on the Open with VLC media player..

Step 2: Your WMV file will play in the VLC media player.

Solution 2: Convert the WMV file to MP4 format

If your WMV video file is not playing smoothly, try to change the format to see whether it’s playing. Occasionally, video players do not support some formats.

You can choose a VLC media player to change the format of the video and fix the damages of the video format within a few steps. Follow the steps to convert the WMV file to MP4 format.

1. Open the VLC media player.
2. Click on Media and select Convert/Save.
3. Tap on the Add button and select the corrupt WMV video file. Once the file is loaded, click on the Convert/Save dropdown and select Convert.
4. Select Video – H.264 + MP3 (MP4) file format. Click Browse to select a path to save the converted MP4 file and click Start.
   

   Note: Unless you’re aware of what other settings would do when changed, don’t mess with other options available.

5. Try playing the converted MP4 file in the Windows Media Player or VLC media player

In extreme video file corruption cases, the above methods won’t perform. VLC is the technical media player and can only fix minor corruption issues related to the video files.

Solution 3: Update the computer driver

Outdated drivers hardly play some formats of videos; accordingly, update the PC drivers regularly to play a WMV video flawlessly.

Step 1: Press the Windows + X key to launch the Menu.

Step 2: Hit the Device Manager option.

Step 3: Double-tap on Display adapters, then left-click on your graphics card like Inter(R) HD Graphics. Tap on Update Driver Software to update the driver.

Step 4: Hit the Search automatically for updated driver software.

Step 5: Your driver will be updated soon. Restart your PC and play your WMV videos.

Solution 4: Download the video from an authorized source.

Always download WMV videos from the authorized website and reliable sources. Third-party websites have malware that can corrupt WMV video files.

Solution 5: Download the video again.

When you are doing some work on WMV video files and accidentally your computer gets shut down, WMV video gets corrupted. So, download the video again and enjoy a seamless watching experience.

However, if your videos are still not playing, they have severe corruption issues, which demand a professional and advanced tool to repair corrupted videos within a few minutes. Kernel Video Repair tool stands out as the best because it offers compatibility with an extensive array of multimedia file formats, such as MP4, AVI, WebM, MPEG, MPEG2, M4V, 3GP, and more. It empowers users to effortlessly resolve various video file corruption and damage issues, all without the need for specialized technical knowledge. It even recovers lost pictures and videos from hard drives and preserves high quality in the original hierarchy.

Tips to prevent WMV errors

Preventions will lead you to save your file for the future, and you will know how to deal with these problems and why your WMV file gets corrupted. Here are some tips that you should take care of while dealing with WMV files.

• Install an organic and trustworthy antivirus in your system
• Avoid occupied memory in your hard drive.
• Do not rename the WMV file extension
• Ensure there are no interruptions and power cuts during the transfer of videos.
• Format your storage card and camera from time to time.
• Take backups of all your video files regularly.

Conclusion

The article discussed the reasons why WMV files are not working properly and provided manual solutions to resolve them. However, conventional troubleshooting techniques are not effective for severe file corruption or damage. In that case, it is advisable to use an automated Kernel Video Repair tool, which stands out as the best video repair tool.