File format not supported by WhatsApp - what to do

If you have been using the Windows operating system for quite some time, then this is probably not the first time you have encountered the problem that Windows Media Player does not play music or video files. Most often, the message “Windows Media Player cannot play the file” appears when you reinstall the system or replace it with a different version. How to make the player work again - I will tell you about this later in this article.

Error in Windows Media

How to always open photos with a convenient program

You can right-click on any photo on your laptop. In the menu that appears, click “Open with” and then “Select another application”. In Figure 1, this option is marked with the number 4. Then it will be possible to set another application as the main program, which by default will always open all photos on the laptop.

Figure 2 shows the window that appears on the screen after clicking “Select another application”.

Rice. 2. Selecting a program that will always open photos.

To always open photos with a convenient program, you should select it, check the box next to “Always use this application to open .jpeg files” and click on the “OK” button.

In Figure 2, the Microsoft Office Picture Manager program is selected as an example for viewing photos. If you click "OK", then this program will constantly open all the photos on the laptop.

About other programs

Sometimes the problem of how to open a photo can be solved by installing a new photo viewer. This should be done from trusted sources, preferably from official websites.

FastStone image viewer

FastStone Image Viewer, official website https://faststone-image-viewer.ru/

FastStone program in Russian. It opens photos in JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF and TIFF formats.

There are additional options, quite a lot of them. For example, removing red eyes from a photo, adding special effects, and others.

Google Photos

Google photos is an online service. This means that in order to use it, you will need an Internet connection and a Google account.

Google Photos official website https://www.google.com/intl/ru/photos/about/

This service can be used on all devices – computer, tablet, laptop, smartphone. You will need to install the application from Google Play on your phone.

Photos can be viewed from your Google account. It is possible to set up automatic saving of all photos to your Google account.

Loading failure in WhatsApp on iPhone

As is the case with Android OS, on iPhone there are several reasons and negative factors that affect the quality and loading speed of pictures, videos and other media files.

Let's take a closer look at them. For ease of understanding, we will divide the further narration into several logical blocks.

Bad Internet

Everything described above regarding the wireless network is also relevant for iOS. It’s the same for you, if you use mobile Internet, it is important to monitor the amount of available traffic, as well as make sure that the router, cable are intact and its settings comply with the standard.

We also recommend checking the quality and performance of the Internet using other programs or online services that measure the speed and stability of the connection.

If everything is clear with this, then we move on.

Incorrect date and time

As with Android OS, it is important to keep an eye on the date and time settings. To set custom values ​​for the above parameters:

1. Unlock your smartphone and tap on the gear-shaped icon on the desktop.

2. Scroll through the system parameters to the “Basic” , scroll down the page until you find the “Date and Time” .
3. Remove the active slider from the automatic time zone detection function.
4. And then we turn it on again.

5. You don’t need to apply anything, just close the settings page.

Now you can safely check the functionality of loading and displaying user information in private or group WhatsApp chats.

Software glitch

If none of the above helped, then all that remains is to make a backup copy of your personal data, saving the media files, and reinstall the messenger.

To make your plans come true:

1. Unlock your smartphone and enter your WhatsApp login data.
2. Go to the gear-shaped tab in the lower right corner of the user window.
3. In the page that opens, tap on the tab "Chats", and then - "Backup".

4. In the window of the same name, tap on the corresponding button and confirm the need to save media files.
5. We are waiting for a system message in the lower left corner about the successful completion of the procedure.
6. Close the application and activate the editing mode with a long tap on any shortcut on the desktop.
7. Activate the gray cross at the top of the shortcut and confirm the need to delete WhatsApp.
8. We wait for the procedure to complete and tap on the icon App Store.

9. Activate the tab in the form of a magnifying glass in the lower right corner of the software interface.
10. WhatsApp request .
11. Reloading the messenger.

12. We are waiting for the procedure to complete.

All that remains is to activate the application shortcut on the desktop, go through double authentication, and agree to the system’s offer to restore personal information from a backup copy.

November 2022 update fix:

We encourage you to try this new tool. It fixes a variety of computer errors and also protects against things like file loss, malware, hardware failures, and optimizes your computer for maximum performance. This fixed our computer faster than doing it manually:

• Step 1: Download PC Repair & Optimizer Tool (Windows 10, 8, 7, XP, Vista - Microsoft Gold Certified).
• Step 2: Click “ Start Scan ” to find Windows registry issues that may be causing problems with your PC.
• Step 3: Click " Fix All " to fix all problems.

(additional offer for Advanced System Repair Pro -> Website | License Agreement | Privacy Policy | Remove)

• Click Start and go to Control Panel. All control panel elements. Screen resolution and click More options.
• Go to Color Management and click Color Management.
• Under Devices, turn on my settings for this device, then select and remove the profile assigned to this device.

Perform a complete system analysis with ASR.

To do this, follow these steps:

1. Turn on your computer. If it is already enabled, you will need to reboot.
2. The BIOS screen will then appear, but if Windows appears instead, restart your computer and try again. On the BIOS screen, repeat the F8 key to display the advanced option.
3. To go to the advanced option, use the arrow keys and select "Safe Mode with Networking", then click
4. Windows now boots into Safe Mode with Networking.
5. Hold the R and Windows keys.
6. If you did this correctly, the Windows Runtime window will appear.
7. Type the URL in the Run dialog box, then press Enter or OK.
8. The program will be downloaded. Wait until the download completes, then open the launcher to install the program.
9. Once the installation process is complete, run ASR to perform a full system analysis.

Completion

WhatsApp developers designed the system to work with certain formats and codecs of user media files. However, recently new extensions have appeared that are not read by the messenger’s built-in algorithms. This is the first reason for the inability to view a picture or play a video.

Alternative reasons for this problem are poor or unstable Internet, lack of free space in the smartphone’s internal storage, and incorrect date and time settings. There is a possibility that several factors are behind the error, so an integrated approach is necessary.

If all else fails, then we recommend creating a backup copy of your personal information and reinstalling WhatsApp by downloading the latest version from the official store.

The article provides comprehensive information on the topic, so you, dear readers, can only use the acquired knowledge in practice. Try it, and you will definitely succeed!

“MIME format not found”: what to do

The first, and easiest method to try to resolve the error is to change the format of the video content you open from HTLM5 to Flash. This feature is not supported by all sites, however, where there is a switching option, the result can be achieved by simply pressing the manipulator on the video, then selecting the “Open video” item in the drop-down list and confirming the change in playback type. If this option does not produce results, further actions should be carried out in the following order:

1. Try opening the video file in a different browser.
2. Try to solve the problem by sequentially restarting the browser and computer device.
3. Clean your browser from accumulated “garbage”, in the form of browsing history and cached elements. This can be done either manually or using special utilities.
4. Temporarily disable your antivirus application.
5. Upgrade your browser to the latest version.
6. Update Adobe Flash, or install it if it is missing. Additionally, you will need to download and install the Microsoft Media Feature Pack on your PC, and you should choose a variation of the utility that synchronizes with the OS version installed on the computer device.
7. Check for the presence of a standard Media Player, and update it if necessary, or install it if it is missing. The absence of a default player may be on unlicensed OS. As an alternative, some experts are considering an attempt to replace the standard player with VLC, the installation of which can help eliminate the error.

In a situation where the simple options presented for review did not produce results, the user, when opening the content, continues to contemplate the statement “MIME video is not supported”, it is worth moving on to a radical method of troubleshooting, by interfering with the operation of the IIS software included in Windows as element for revealing the capabilities of web servers. Instructions for working with a conditional dispatcher are as follows:

1. Through the “Control Panel”, go to the “Administration” task category, and then open the “IIS Manager” tab.
2. The user will see a list of tasks performed by the dispatcher, among which he must find and select the line called “MIME types”, and in the right column of the window confirm the “Add” action.
3. After the completed manipulations, a window with extensions and MIME types will open. In the list you will need to select the webm and mp4 extensions, indicating the parameters video/webm and video/mp4 in the “Type” column, respectively.
4. All that remains is to save the data by confirming the action with the “OK” command, followed by rebooting the PC for the changes to take effect.

Sometimes IIS Manager is not listed in the Administrative Tasks list, which necessitates the need to enable it before making the described changes. To do this, you need to go to the “Programs and System Components” directory through the “Control Panel”, select the “Enable or disable components” option in the left column of the window that opens. The user will see a list of all programs and utilities available on the PC, among which he will need to find and select, by checking the box, the “IIS Services” item, confirming the directive with the “OK” key. After the completed manipulations, the dispatcher will automatically appear in the “Administration” directory, which will allow you to add extensions and types using the described method.

Solution

To resolve the issue, use the methods described below (performing the steps in the order listed). After performing each action, check to see if the problem has been resolved. Attention! Windows Media Player supports playback of the most common types of media files. Make sure the file is one of these types. Otherwise, do not use the methods described below (except the first one). Contact the file's content provider for information about a program to play it. For more information about the associated error message, see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.

156286 Error message "The video stream cannot be played"

The photo file is corrupted

There are some disruptions in our lives that cannot always be explained logically. Sometimes, when normally copying photos, when transferring a file from an external hard drive, or from a memory card or flash drive, something went wrong. As a result, it turns out that the file is damaged.

In some situations, it is possible to recover a damaged file, but sometimes this does not work. The simplest, but very rarely working method is to rename the file. Let's say we give a damaged file a new name with a mandatory extension, for example, .jpeg. It happens (rarely) that after this the file opens normally.

To restore a damaged file, you can try using a converter - this is a special program that changes the format of a photo or video. Converters can be found on the Internet, many of them do not even need to be downloaded and installed. The above FastStone Image Viewer program allows you to convert from one format to another, that is, it works like a convector.

It is enough to “send” the damaged file to the converter program, run it and get a new file that will open perfectly. Unfortunately, this method works very rarely. Often you have to come to terms with the fact of losing a photo if the file in which it was recorded turns out to be damaged.

By the way, it’s a good idea to periodically make copies and archive important personal files, including photos. Such archives often not only offer, but simply impose various cloud services. Sometimes, in order to complete the proposed archiving, you just need to agree to the cloud service. Then, if a file with one or another important and necessary photo is damaged, the file can be found among previously made archives.

The most unpleasant thing when working with archives may be that the file in the archive may also be damaged. After all, when recording in the archive, photos are not checked for their functionality. Don't despair. You need to look for even older archives, where the desired file may be of good quality. If this last resort does not help, we can only admit that the photograph is lost, most likely beyond the possibility of its recovery.

Video: Why photos do not open on a laptop or computer

“Open with”: selecting the appropriate program

You can independently search for a program for opening photos on your laptop. To do this, click on the name of the photo (more precisely, on the name of the file with the photo) with the right mouse button. A context menu will open in which you need to click “Open with”. If there are several programs in the proposed menu, you can click on each program in turn to check whether the photo opens or not.

The following screenshot shows the sequence of actions described above.

Rice. 1. Right-click on the photo, then “Open with”, then select an existing program or search for a new one.

The number 1 in Figure 1 means that the first thing you need to do is right-click on the file name. After this, a menu will appear.

2 in Fig. 1 – In the menu, click “Open with”.

3 in Fig. 1 – Click on each program in turn, or immediately select the appropriate program.

4 in Figure 1 - You can look for another application, in addition to the above programs, which are marked with the number 3.

Conversion services

The file format is not supported by WhatsApp when sending - annoying! If you don’t want to use a cloud drive, we suggest using conversion services.

We have selected several reliable resources for you - but you can find analogues on your own. There are a lot of similar on-demand offers on the Internet, everything works quickly and for free.

• https://convertio.co/
• https://www.fileconverto.com/
• https://www.online-convert.com/
• https://onlineconvertfree.com/
• https://cloudconvert.com/
• https://www.filezigzag.com/
• https://www.files-conversion.com/
• https://www.zamzar.com/
• https://www.swiftconverter.com/

All converters work on the same principle - just upload a document and select the new resolution you want to get (more popular and widespread). Wait a few seconds and download the result!

Even if the file format is not supported by WhatsApp, there is a way out! More precisely, two – just choose which one you like best.

Browser support for media formats

All the audio and video formats in the world will be of no use to you if you don't know how they are supported by different browsers.
The following tables, which show the major browsers' support for audio and video formats, will help you understand this issue: You can change the action for an existing type, but you cannot delete or add new types. Items are added automatically when you select actions and start downloading. Learn how to change what happens when you click or download a file.

If you have a problem or just want to start from scratch, you can reset all boot actions to their default settings. If you're encoding video for the Internet, remember that you're still at the mercy of two factors, namely your server's outgoing bandwidth and the user's Internet connection speed. The smaller you can make your video files, the more likely it is that playback will be smoother.

Supporting these formats in mobile browsers presents a special kind of challenge. First of all, this is the irregularity of work. Some features, such as auto play and repeat, may not be supported, and some devices may only play video in a dedicated player rather than directly in a window on a web page. Also, video for mobile devices usually needs to be encoded with a smaller frame size and lower quality.

If you want your video to play on mobile devices, make sure to encode it in H.264 Baseline Profile

(not in High Profile format). For iPhones and Android phones, the size should be 640x480, and for BlackBerry, 480x360. Many encoding programs come with presets that can help you create videos that are optimized for mobile devices.