How to check a video that will not play from USB

Checks and troubleshooting

1. Compare the failing video with a working one.

   In the USB media player, check the allowed media types and try another video on the same USB storage. Note whether the failing file is missing from the menu, will not start, or plays without sound. Leave USB connected. These local files do not automatically undergo cloud media conversion.

2. Find where the USB storage is mounted.

   First check the connected USB devices in device monitoring. Then check that lsblk is available and list storage with the commands below, one at a time. This listing alone does not confirm that a particular video is readable.

   command -v lsblk

   command -v should return the tool’s path. If it does not, stop and ask your provider for help.

   lsblk -o NAME,TRAN,SIZE,FSTYPE,MOUNTPOINT

   TRAN may show usb for USB storage; some connections leave this field empty. MOUNTPOINT shows where the storage is accessible in Linux. If it is empty for the data partition, this listing does not give you access to its files. Ask your provider to check the mount; do not format anything.

3. Check that the file-inspection tools are available.

   The first command looks for file, the second for ffprobe. Run them separately. Each should return the path to its tool. If either is not found, do not attempt that check without your provider’s help. A missing tool does not mean a damaged video.

   command -v file

   command -v ffprobe

   The commands in the next two steps contain only the example path /skutecna/cesta/video.mp4. Replace the entire placeholder with the actual video path, including folders and filename. The USB mount point alone is not enough. Do not guess the path; ask your provider to find it if needed. Keep the quotes around the path.

4. Identify the actual file type.

   file estimates the type from the file contents. Look for a recognised media type, such as an MP4 container. The filename extension does not guarantee the actual format. Recognising the type does not confirm that the entire file is intact.

   file -- '/skutecna/cesta/video.mp4'

   For No such file or directory, check the path and filename. Permission denied means access is missing; do not change permissions broadly. Send the result to your provider. Save any other error or incomplete listing: the message alone does not identify the cause.

5. Read the video and audio stream information.

   ffprobe prints structured information. You do not need to understand the whole listing: find the items explained below. Compare the values with a working video and the supported formats.

   ffprobe -v error -show_entries format=format_name,duration:stream=index,codec_type,codec_name,width,height,sample_rate,channels -of json '/skutecna/cesta/video.mp4'

   What to look for	What it means
   codec_type: video / audio	Identifies a video or audio stream. If no audio stream is listed, no audio has been recognised in the file by this check.
   codec_name	How the video or audio stream is encoded, such as h264 or aac. Files with the same extension can contain different codecs.
   width / height	Video width and height in pixels.
   format_name / duration	The file format (container) and its duration in seconds.
   sample_rate / channels	sample_rate is the number of audio samples per second (Hz); channels is the number of audio channels. These values appear when available.

6. Interpret the finding and verify the next step.

   If the type or streams cannot be read, compare the file with its original. Make any changes to a copy away from the player, then test it in the USB application. Recognised codecs and metadata do not guarantee full decoding or support by the actual playback path. If an audio track exists but the video is silent, continue with the audio output check.

ffprobe — FFmpeg