any recourse when Voice Recorder file has file size but no play length?

[Android Central Question]

I have an LG POS (L44VL) running Android pOS 5.1.1 and this happens way too regularly. I can't pin down what causes it, but I'll sometimes note that the recording has stopped and figure that I ran out of space and check the file to see when that was and the details say the file size is fairly normal, like 109 MB, meaning around 2 hrs worth, and the datetime stamp is normal, too, but the length is 00:00. I typically still have space left on the phone/SD card so it's not that it didn't have room to write the file, tho I'm betting it's related to failing for some reason to properly write some little code that says 'end file' (I'm blanking on what the correct term is; sorry).

Has anybody experienced this and have any suggestions about potentially recovering the file? Of course it won't play on the device or anything I can move it to, and it won't convert (except just manually changing the file format, ".3gp" to ".mp3"), and it won't open in any editing program.

Of course keen insight to 'get a different, new phone and/or OS and/or application' is always helpful and appreciated. /s I already know that I don't have this problem with an LG Optimus running 4.4.2, which is one reason I don't "update" -- the new stuff is regularly worse than the current version, and is done just to a) stay busy, and b) keep users hooked.

Thanks.

 

[Rukbat]

Not exactly "end file" - The length (or time) of the recording isn't known until you end it, so 0s are dropped in there to begin with. After the recording ends, that's filled in with the time. The length is updates as blocks are allocated, so the file size is right. But the recording ended before the time could be written. And in playback, the app looks at that, sees 0 time, and doesn't play anything. if you can edit the file (like using XVI32 [google it - it's one file and it's available and free] in Windows), record a 2 hour recording and see what's at the beginning. You'll see some 0s at the beginning of the bad one that has numbers in those locations in the good one. Put those numbers into the good one, copy it back to the phone (always work on a copy of the file, not the original, in case you mess up) and see if it plays. (It will have the same play time as the good file, even if they're different sizes.)