How to RECOVER your ZOOM VIDEO FILES: double click to convert error message on Mac and Macbook Pro

How to recover Zoom call video files, if they haven't converted after the meeting has ended.
If you have a folder containing files called double_click_to_convert_01.zoom
and they don't convert when you double click on them, here is how I recovered my Zoom meeting video files on my Macbook Pro, so it might work on your Apple mac, ipad or who knows, maybe even Windows 10.

How to RECOVER your ZOOM VIDEO FILES: double click to convert error message on Mac and Macbook Pro



Knowing you've recovered your files is reward enough!
But here's a virtual tip jar if you'd like to buy me a coffee, thanks!
https://paypal.me/NeilMossey

0:00 Intro I've got a folder of Zoom recordings but they won't play
1:10 What to do when you get the error message: The document double_click_to_convert_01.zoom could not be opened. zoom.us cannot open files of this type.
2:50 How to recover video recordings from a Zoom generated folder, which contains files called double_click_to_convert_01.zoom
6:30 How to convert files from a Zoom call recording

Start a new Zoom meeting: hit record then press stop recording
You get the message "The recorded file will be converted to mp4 when the meeting ends"
DO NOT CLICK END MEETING or LEAVE MEETING!
Open the new recording folder for this call, and delete the "double click to convert" files in there.
Copy over the files you want to recover into THIS new folder.
End the Zoom Call, click Leave Meeting
Zoom then converts the video files (and audio files) you need in this new folder and will give you a progress bar.
Your recovered video and audio files will appear in this new folder.

TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

Hello welcome back to the Happy Hut, I'm Neil and usually I'm a development producer.
I try to encourage as many people as possible to make youtube videos but this video is very specific - and if you've had to search this I'm so sorry that you're in this situation
It's a beautiful day out here except it isn't because you have gone on to Zoom, like me, and had a very long conversation - very long zoom call - and you've gone to get the recording in the recording folder on your computer and the recording isn't there.
Let me show you what it looks like.

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!

The folder looks like this and in the folder instead of your beautiful recordings of your scintillating zoom call, like mine, all you get are these files that say "double-click to convert" - it's actually "double click to convert" as if to ram it home:
double_click_to_convert and you're watching this video so I know that you double clicked on that file and got this error message.

"The document double_click_to_convert_01.Zoom could not be opened. Zoom.us cannot open files of this type."

I've got good news for you.
There is a way to recover these video files from your zoom conversation - from the folder that's been placed onto your computer.

Obviously I've got a MacBook - I think this workaround works with either but a lot of the websites that I visited to try to recover my video files seem to only deal with converting the files in Windows, Windows 10.
So I'm hope that this advice is really helpful for anyone with an Apple Mac or a MacBook Pro or an iPad even.

There are other ways to attempt first. This is a bit of a last ditch, last resort way of recovering your video files from the Zoom conversation
I'll put in the description if I can find any links to these other things that you can try first - I'll put them down there.

They didn't work for me. I suspect that's why you have looked up this video on YouTube.
So let me walk you through how to recover a failed recording in zoom.

So here we have the folder that's all the problem.
Look the audio only is a temp file.

Double-click to convert - if you double click on it it doesn't work, and you've probably tried right-clicking and "open with zoom" but you get the same error message
I really did not want to lose this video recording, so this is how to recover these video files.
If you double click, open up zoom, and then you get the welcome screen that you're used to and we're going to click on "new meeting"

It's ok I think I can recover your video files - I hope so - don't hate me if it doesn't work but it did work for me.
It doesn't matter if you join with computer audio - I will join with computer audio

Now we're going to open up a new zoom call and we are going to hit just down here - my giant finger!
We hit record - we are now recording a completely different zoom call - this one - the new one.

We're going basically trick the zoom app into converting the files that we want to convert.
So if I hit stop recording there - you see up here it says the recorded file will be converted to mp4 when the meeting ends

That's what we're going to use to recover your precious video files
Now the really important thing at this stage is do not click end the meeting

All we've done is stop the recording - the meeting is still open and we're going to use that to our advantage.
So we'll step away from the zoom call now and go back to the folder that had the failed video recordings from the zoom call, that we actually want to convert... and then what we're going to do is open up the folder for this call - this temporary call that we're... that we're doing right now.

This is the folder right here that zoom has created for this meeting that we've got right now.
Hello. Here I am!

It's just... this is great! I've can just point to stuff on my screen this... this folder here
If we open it up you can see that this also has some files that say double click to convert.

Now we're going to get rid of these, so if you select them all. You can hit Apple-A to select them or select them individually, and we'll just delete them.
Move to bin... or move to trash there they go

And then what we're going to do is to copy these files from the folder that you want to recover the video from... we'll select them all.

Now I'm going to I'm going to copy them

I'm not going to move them so at least I've still got the original files if this system doesn't work
The original folder will still be there, so I'm going to go Apple-C for copy, or you can maybe right-click and then go down to "copy 5 items" and then we'll go over to this new folder and we will paste.
Here's where the magic happens you can now hit "end meeting" - end meeting for all.

Look what happens! It's converting something!
What it's doing is converting... it's a bit like a cuckoo in a nest: it's now converting the files that it didn't convert in the first place - because it's going to that folder - so we just let it do its thing.

The reason I think the zoom recording failed is that I think I hit "leave meeting" instead of stop recording - so to avoid this in future I'm gonna always hit stop recording before I hit the leave meeting or end meeting in zoom.
And there we go!

It's even opened the folder for me, so instead of having that test recording that you saw me make... if I double click on the mp4 this is the actual meeting that I wanted to convert and not lose.
So I hope this recovery system works for you.

Just to recap:
open up the folder where the recordings are and the files for "double click to convert"

Then start a new meeting, hit record, and then hit stop - so that zoom has created a new folder for converting at the end of this meeting.

Don't hit end meeting but go to the folder with that new recording in, and delete out the recording files there.

Copy over the broken files - the video files that you're trying to recover - and paste them into that new folder.

Go back into zoom and then hit "leave meeting" or "end meeting" and then zoom will convert those video files for you.

Did it work?!
I really want to know: leave a comment below.

If it didn't I'm sorry and I'll try and put some links in the description for other articles for other methods for recovering your video files from a zoom recording, but if it did work - oh my goodness, I'd love to hear from you.
Just say hello in the comments below - it'd be lovely to know this helps someone somewhere.

If it did it would be wonderful if you could show your appreciation by hitting the subscribe button. Every subscription helps me get closer to 10,000 subscribers, and if you hit the thumbs up button that will help other people find this solution too.
And good luck for your next recordings of zoom calls!
I hope this never happens again.

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