Cannot locate recorded video on iPhone 4

Good morning, and welcome! I am new here.... I've owned mac products for several years without any major problems, but alas, one has finally emerged!

I have an iPhone 4, version 5.0.1

Yesterday, I recorded an extremely important video (court evidence pertaining to an arrest) as an event was occurring... The video recorded, and timer behaved as normal, however, I cannot find the video now! It is not where the videos are normally stored, nor can I find it in the photo app.

The total duration was about 15 minutes, and I currently have almost 10 GB free, so there's no way that I ran out of space. Does anyone know a way that I might be able to retrieve the video, or is it lost for good?

Is it possible that you use a third-party video app to capture this footage? Have you tried connecting your iPhone to your computer to see if the footage just mysteriously turns up in iPhoto?

Nope. That's the weird part. I just used Camera, per usual.

I've tried connecting it to the computer, but I cannot see it there, either.

I found this thread online since I posted this one: iPhone video lost, missing or disappeared. - MacRumors Forums

So I suspect that there is hope, as I am not the only one to have encountered the issue.

I'm *trying* to install Linux, but I'm not quite tech savvy enough! I'll figure it out, though. I NEED this video.

Wow, Linux? Before you go that far, why not try downloading the free iPhone app iExplorer and see if you can locate the file on the actual drive in the iPhone. I'm not sure exactly what file name you want to be looking for, but just check any file with the ending .mov or .mp4, etc.

CHAS!!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!

I had actually tried iExplorer, but I was unable to find it....but since you recommended trying it, I searched again, and VOILA!

Here's some info if anyone else arrives at the same issue:

The filepath in iExplorer is as follows:

Root > private > var > mobile > Media > DCIM > 100APPLE > (All of your photos and movies will be stored here)

And it is was a .mov file.

The total size was 1.2 GB... so I guess the iPhone has trouble storing large, recorded video files?

In any case, thank you so much! And I hope this can help people who encounter this issue in the future

Yay! Thanks for letting us know.

deleted video

i did as you guys said and found my lost video but it is 188 mb and only plays for 12 seconds.. the video i recorded was about 2 min long... help :-(

same issue. lost video. any other ways to browse saved video?

Try this to browse iphone photos and videos - >

1. Connect the iPhone to your Mac.
2. Open Preview, then click the File menu and select Import From [iPhone Name].
3. An easy to use window will open, where you are free to play with your photos.

Chas-- thank you...

...from me as well! I recorded a sweet video of my nearly 3-year-old being sung Happy Birthday to at his preschool this morning. When I looked for the video to replay it, it was not there. Heartsick, I thought it was gone forever. Then I found the "iPhone video lost, missing or disappeared. - MacRumors Forums" post that suggested browsing the iPhone in Linux. So I pestered my poor husband to install Linux on something, anything, this evening so we could try that tip. Then I kept looking... which is when I came across your advice to try iExplorer, followed it, and viola! I have my missing video. Thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart!

chas_m said:

Wow, Linux? Before you go that far, why not try downloading the free iPhone app iExplorer and see if you can locate the file on the actual drive in the iPhone. I'm not sure exactly what file name you want to be looking for, but just check any file with the ending .mov or .mp4, etc.

Click to expand...

i have a video of my 8 month old daughter that seems to be missing off my phone. I downloaded iExplorer but I can't find any video's on there at all. only jpg. I know I have plenty of video's that have been recorded with my phone. Why can't I find them?

hvnsnt said:

i have a video of my 8 month old daughter that seems to be missing off my phone. I downloaded iExplorer but I can't find any video's on there at all. only jpg. I know I have plenty of video's that have been recorded with my phone. Why can't I find them?

Click to expand...

If you couldn't find it with iExplorer, perhaps it was erased along with your other videos. Have you recently synced your iPhone to iTunes? And more importantly, have you been making backups either to your computer or iCloud?

Yes. iCloud every day.

I don't sync with iTunes. iTunes has always confused me.

Nothing gets deleted unless I import it to iPhoto . So how could it have gotten deleted? Furthermore all my other videos were there's today. They are now all in iPhoto because I can't trust my phone. Usually I use my SLR to record.

If you've been backing up to iCloud, restore your videos from there.

chscag said:

If you've been backing up to iCloud, restore your videos from there.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately icloud only keeps the last 3 backups and mine is backed up daily. I have been missing the video for over a month now. I am restoring my phone and I'm going to try it but I don't anticipate finding the video.

I just don't know what I"m doing wrong with iExplorer.The other people seemed to find their video's just fine. And it was a fairly long video too.