VLC hid/deleted a bunch of my files, help please.

I found a link here http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/switcher-hangout/131559-vlc-deletes-my-files-printthread.html

That fellow is having the same problem as me it sounds like.

I don't know how or why, it doesn't seem to be a certain file type, but most of my missing files are .mkv I think. VLC just never loads a the file, the playlist will have a diagonally spinning bar, like a progress bar when burning a CD in itunes, nothing ever happens, I eventually quit, then it freezes and I have to force quit, after this the file is gone.

It seems to mainly/only happen with mkv files downloaded from BakaBT, I don't know if it's because they are so artificially inflated to be huge files (gigs and gigs) or what, other mkv files are ok.

Vlc recently had me update as well, and after that it cleared it's own history, so I have no hope of finding the files.

I probably should have started with this, but I don't think it's actually deleting them, as with the fellow in the link, they never appear in the trash, and in addition I never regain any storage space from them being "deleted". It seems more like when you could make files invisible with RezEdit forever ago.

Anyways, if anyone has input OTHER THAN "Don't use VLC LOL" I would really appreciate it. I haven't used a computer to do anything but download tv shows and watch them, in years, and MUD, so feel free to use small words.

My hope would be to, find where my files are hiding if they are just hiding, or find out exactly what all it deleted, as I didn't notice missing files for a while, then my tech friend told me "programs don't delete files, vindictive girlfriends do" which she wasn't, then I eventually had a stroke of semi-genius and put it together while walking to the store "Hey!11111! It's VLC doing it!!!111"

Thanks.

Welcome to Mac-Forums

Sana said:

I don't know how or why, it doesn't seem to be a certain file type, but most of my missing files are .mkv I think.
It seems to mainly/only happen with mkv files downloaded from BakaBT, I don't know if it's because they are so artificially inflated to be huge files (gigs and gigs) or what, other mkv files are ok.

Click to expand...

You don't say how big these files are, because 'artificially inflated' doesn't tell me the size. You need to tell us, what Mac you are using and what OS you are running as well.

Sana said:

Anyways, if anyone has input OTHER THAN "Don't use VLC LOL" I would really appreciate it. I haven't used a computer to do anything but download tv shows and watch them, in years, and MUD, so feel free to use small words.

Click to expand...

I would never say this, because VLC is one of, if not the BEST App around to watch any type of file. It has been for years, and will forever be.
And on top of this, VLC wouldn't delete ANYTHING, or hide anything, so there could be something else going on too.

Sana said:

My hope would be to, find where my files are hiding if they are just hiding, or find out exactly what all it deleted, as I didn't notice missing files for a while, then my tech friend told me "programs don't delete files, vindictive girlfriends do" which she wasn't, then I eventually had a stroke of semi-genius and put it together while walking to the store "Hey!11111! It's VLC doing it!!!111"

Thanks.

Click to expand...

For now, all I can suugest is to start with do a Repair Permissions on the Macintosh HD:

Open Disk Utility from the Applications>Utilities Folder and select the Macintosh HD from the left column.
Then click the First Aid Tab and then Repair Permissions at the bottom of the window.
Let DU do its thing and DONT worry about the Permission Errors, and when its done, close DU down, and restart your Mac and see if that helps.

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No, after that is done, open Finder up, and in the search bar, type, .mkv and make sure you have This Mac selected, and it will bring up a list of ALL your .mkv files on the Mac. Go through this list, and see if you can see these files, that are hidden. . . .

After thats all done, if you still can't find them, then post back and we can take it form there.

I'm using a Mac Mini, the specs window says it's a "Late 2012" 2.3 GHz intel core i7. I was using, I don't know, Maverick? Whatever came out last September, just tonight I updated to Yosemite.

Artificially inflated...i'll spare you that rant, but one of the (five actually) files that I know is missing is an 8 episode series, and they are about 2 gigs per episode for 40-50 minutes. An hour and a half movie is between 15 and 40 gigs.

Ridiculous, pointless...an episode of The Simpsons is under 100mb, and the difference in the sound/visual quality is nil. Maybe if I was using a monitor literally the size of a barn...movies from the 70s even, how much "HD" do you think you are gonna get out of something that was shot on an 8MM handheld camera?!

Anyways, I did what you said step by step, every step, and it did not recover any files

Thank you for the super fast response, I will probably fall asleep any second, I got 3 hours sleep and had to take my mom into surgery, and have been up since, hence ranting about anime fanboys trying to be the computer version of trendy fashionistas. If you would be so kind as to tell me the next thing to try, i'll do it in the morning.

P.S. I have one file, no exaggeration, the file was ripped from a VHS tape (however they do that) a very well used and worn out VHS tape, it cuts out the last 10 minutes of the episode, looks terrible, sounds terrible, like unwatchably so, and it's still somehow over 3 gigs. The heck?!

Sana said:

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P.S. I have one file, no exaggeration, the file was ripped from a VHS tape (however they do that) a very well used and worn out VHS tape, it cuts out the last 10 minutes of the episode, looks terrible, sounds terrible, like unwatchably so, and it's still somehow over 3 gigs. The heck?!

Click to expand...

That 3 GB file size might not be an exaggeration depending upon the format used for the capture. Here's an example of what I mean. A while back I captured some old video tape in uncompressed QuickTime Movie format. It was not unusual for the files to run to over 100 GB. An equivalent length transport stream file runs in the tens of GB and mp4 videos are even smaller due to compression (3 GB or so depending upon settings.

I don't really have an answer for what's happening here. In fact, I'm not entirely sure what's happening. To solve the mystery of the file size exaggeration we'll probably need to know what format the files were each saved in.