Why am I getting a "Can't play video." error?

[AC Question]

When I record a video using the camera on my phone or using a screen recorder, I am unable to watch them back. The video file is not corrupt because if I email it to myself I am able to watch it on my computer, and when I look at it in the gallery it shows me a thumbnail of the video. I'm not using any third party software, it's literally just recording a video with the camera and then viewing it in the gallery. Videos are saved directly to the phone, no SD card, and I even tried deleting a ton of pictures and uninstalling a couple apps I didn't use to clear space but still no solution. Black screen with white text stating "Can't play video." Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated!

As a side note, I have tried
-Restarting the phone
-Turning the phone off and removing the battery
-Turning the phone off and removing both the battery and sim card (carefully)

 

[BRob72]

I was having this exact same issue and I was about to reset my phone out of frustration but I found the culprit! There was a Google+ update that was installed recently... I uninstalled it and tried to play a video from the Gallery... it gave me the option to select the App that I wanted to use to play the movie (something that wasn't happening with the error)... I chose Photos and it worked with no further issues!
The reason I decided this Google+ update was the next target of my troubleshooting was that when the "Can't play video" message came up there was a red header on the screen and I knew this was the Google+ header color (none of my other apps have this color header) so I took a shot and it worked
Hope it works for you too!

 

[bmahogany]

Worked like a charm, thanks!

 

[BRob72]

No worries glad to hear it worked for you

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[livingecho]

I was able to assist a work colleague using your solution. It worked perfectly. Thank you!

 

[M Power]

I was having this exact same issue and I was about to reset my phone out of frustration but I found the culprit! There was a Google+ update that was installed recently... I uninstalled it and tried to play a video from the Gallery... it gave me the option to select the App that I wanted to use to play the movie (something that wasn't happening with the error)... I chose Photos and it worked with no further issues!
The reason I decided this Google+ update was the next target of my troubleshooting was that when the "Can't play video" message came up there was a red header on the screen and I knew this was the Google+ header color (none of my other apps have this color header) so I took a shot and it worked
Hope it works for you too!

Hi i did all the steps but it didn't work
I have a t-mobil phone an xperia z3 i am using it abroad but whenever i record a video it will play a lil bit but then when i open the file it says can't play video
Any other suggestions or am screwd
Thank you

 

[B. Diddy]

Hi i did all the steps but it didn't work
I have a t-mobil phone an xperia z3 i am using it abroad but whenever i record a video it will play a lil bit but then when i open the file it says can't play video
Any other suggestions or am screwd
Thank you

See response in your other thread: http://forums.androidcentral.com/sony-xperia-z3/696181-can-t-play-video-error-album.html#post5250167

 

[FATMama82]

The same thing happened to my idol3 touch phone. I did stuff the community told me to do & lost all my pics. Found them on google+ archive but they would not allow me to put them back under my pic app. I tried everything. I disabled GOOGLE+ and they all came back and my videos are working

 

[kfogel]

BRob72, thank you! This also fixed the problem for me -- I had been at my wits' end.