Recover Corrupted HEVC / H.265 Files

HEVC (H.265) is the high-efficiency codec behind most modern recordings — iPhone "High Efficiency" video, GoPro's higher-quality modes, DJI drones, Android phones, and Sony's XAVC HS. It packs more video into less space, which is part of why a half-written HEVC file is so common: anything that interrupts the recording or the transfer leaves a file whose frames survive but whose index doesn't.

This page is about the H.265 format across all of them. For a specific device, the guides at the bottom go deeper.

What HEVC actually is

HEVC = H.265, the successor to H.264, usually in an MP4 or MOV container.
Audio is typically AAC (phones, drones) or LPCM (cameras).
The container index — the moov atom — is written only when the recording stops cleanly.
Sony's XAVC HS is HEVC; XAVC S / S-I is H.264 — see Recover XAVC-S files if yours is the H.264 variant.

What's in the file when it breaks

[ftyp]   ← MP4 / MOV declaration, intact
[mdat]   ← all your H.265 frames + audio, interleaved
[????]   ← the moov index that should be here is missing

The frames are there. The map is gone.

Why HEVC recordings corrupt

The codec is rarely the problem — the interruption is:

Phone: the camera app crashes, storage fills mid-save, or an AirDrop / USB / iCloud transfer is cut off and you're left with a partial copy.
GoPro / action cam: battery dies, card pulled, or a thermal cutoff on a long 4K/5K take.
Drone: signal loss or an abrupt power-off ends the recording before the file is closed.

All of them leave the same fingerprint: a healthy-looking .mp4 or .mov that won't play.

What you can try first

Re-download the original. If the file came off a phone, the intact original may still be in iCloud / Google Photos / the device — grab that before recovering a partial copy.
VLC. More permissive than QuickTime or Photos; sometimes plays a file those refuse.
ffprobe to see what FFmpeg reads.
untrunc (open-source) for the missing-index case; needs a healthy reference from the same device and mode.

Always work on a copy.

How our recovery handles HEVC

No reference clip required. The HEVC parameter sets (VPS / SPS / PPS) are read from the stream itself.
hvcC → Annex-B handling. The rebuilt file carries a valid HEVC decoder configuration, so players accept it — the H.265 equivalent of the parameter-set fix we do for H.264.
AAC and LPCM audio both detected and rebuilt.
co64 for files over 4 GB, common on long 4K/5K HEVC takes.
Device-agnostic. Because recovery works at the codec level, it doesn't matter whether an iPhone, a GoPro, a DJI drone, or a Sony body in XAVC HS wrote the file.

What you do

Upload the HEVC file. Up to 50 GB.
About a minute later, a free 5-second preview.
Pay only if it works. Adjust the settings or escalate to a human if it doesn't.

FAQ

Is iPhone "High Efficiency" video the same as HEVC? Yes. When an iPhone or iPad records in High Efficiency, that's HEVC (H.265) in a .mov or .mp4. This is the right page for it.

Does this cover GoPro and DJI HEVC files? Yes — GoPro's higher-quality / HDR modes and most current DJI drones record HEVC, and the recovery path is the same.

The file plays but my Mac says it "cannot decode H.265." That's usually a codec-support problem, not a corrupt file — a different situation. See Cannot decode H.265 on Mac.

My audio is AAC. Does that come back? Yes. AAC and LPCM are both handled.

Do I need a healthy reference clip? No. The rebuild reads the parameter sets and frames from the broken file itself.

Is my footage safe? The file sits on a server in France, is auto-deleted after 48 hours, and is never used to train anything or shared. Privacy policy.