FileFix vs FFmpeg for corrupted video repair.
Try FFmpeg first when your file can be remuxed or decoded. In our testing on real-world corrupted videos, FileFix fully repaired about half, while the two FFmpeg approaches produced different tradeoffs.
Try FileFix freeWhat the test found
| Approach | Full repair | Partial repair | Failed repair |
|---|---|---|---|
| FileFix | over half | almost none | about a third |
| FFmpeg remux | almost none | about a third | over half |
| FFmpeg re-encode | just under half | fewer than 1 in 10 | just under half |
Source: our test of real corrupted videos, Jul 29, 2026. Each cell is the share of test files fully repaired, partially repaired, or not repaired, rounded into plain words.
Try the free tools first
Remux without re-encoding
ffmpeg -i broken.mp4 -c copy repaired.mp4Re-encode video and audio
ffmpeg -i broken.mp4 -c:v libx264 -c:a aac repaired.mp4When the free tool is the right answer
Try the free option when
- Use FFmpeg remux when it can read the input and the streams do not need to be rebuilt.
- Use FFmpeg re-encode when FFmpeg can decode the footage and changing the encoded streams is acceptable.
Try FileFix when
- Try FileFix when FFmpeg cannot open the file or when you want to inspect a free watermarked preview before deciding whether to pay.
Neither option can recover footage that is not present in the file.
Repair guides
Questions
Yes. The commands above are free to run, and they are a sensible first step when FFmpeg can read your file.
Not necessarily. A tool can fail because it cannot interpret the damaged structure. A genuinely empty file, however, has no footage to recover.
See what's recoverable.
Preview the repaired video before you decide.