Changing the file extension can cause file corruption?

Asked By Harry Miller 0 points N/A Posted on - 07/04/2011

I have some video which I thought was an MP4 file. But it shows no extension and when I opened it, my computer asked me to which program I will open the file. So I decided to add a.mp4 file extension into it and the ison changed to default program from where it will be use. Is it safe to rename or modify the file extension of a specific file? Will it damage or corrupt the file?

 

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Answered By Jenny Ham 0 points N/A #126240

Changing the file extension can cause file corruption?

 

It is true that all files can be renamed but it is not true that all files being renamed can be open by a certain program. For example a Batch file with a .BAT file extension is renamed to .EXE. It will not open because you renamed it on .EXE which is a compiled file.

In your case originally the file extension of the video that you have was a .mp4, if you use a download manager like YouTube Downloader sometimes it has no file extension because there are no default programs that is set to open that kind of video format.

In some cases like in note pad its file extension is .txt, when making a web using HTML you rename the .txt into .html which will now open in your default browser, another program opens the file because same content are being read by the browser.

 

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• Posted on - 07/04/2011
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Answered By techy 0 points N/A #126242

Changing the file extension can cause file corruption?

 

The first thing you always have to keep in mind is the source and use of the file. A site like YouTube, as far as I know, only deals with videos. When you download a video file using a particular Downloader, a file extension is added during the process. Otherwise, any popular video file extension will do. That is because the file comes from a video-on-demand site.

If you get a file from a site like Softpedia, cnet and others it is most often being a software for a particular platform (PC, Mac… etc.) will for sure include an extension for the target platform. Renaming a .exe or .msi to .tgz for eg, may not necessarily corrupt the app but render it useless unless the original extension is restored.

HTH

 

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• Posted on - 07/10/2011
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Answered By Babyface Nelson 10 points N/A #126238

Changing the file extension can cause file corruption?

Hi Harry,

Whenever you change an extension of a file or rename it, expect one of three things is going to happen:

1.   It will not really make any difference whatsoever as to how the computer deals with the file.

*Some files are able to adapt to the new extension or there are times when even with the new extension the file still remains the same. There are files which you can rename but the extension still remains the same. For example, the imagename.jpg can be renamed into imagename.png but when you look into the properties of that file it will still say it is a JPEG file.

Therefore technically, it is the image name. png .jpg but the extension is really JPEG and again, will still remain as a JPEG file unless the image file is opened using an image editor program such as MS Paint or Photoshop and SAVED AS another image file wherein such action would really change the composition of the file and therefore change its extension as well. This is true with usually image and document files.

2.   It will function and enable some programs to recognize the file and work with it, while other programs may not be able to read it.

* There are programs that can read multiple files and there are those which cannot. For example, Adobe Photoshop can read an image file which was originally a JPEG extension but saved as TIFF. If you open the same file with MS Paint, it won’t recognize it simply because MS Paint cannot read TIFF image files.

* Similar to the case above, even if the file is renamed, the file extension still stays the same as it was before. However, there are programs that will try to read whatever file extension is provided after the dot which in the example above is .png

3.   It will change the file and will no longer open properly.

* There are certain type of files where if the extension is changed, they will be corrupted and the computer will not recognize it. This is true with usually Batch files or executable files or files that are used to run a program or a certain action.

 

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• Posted on - 07/11/2011
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Answered By Louis Louis 10 points N/A #195849

Changing the file extension can cause file corruption?

 

Dear Harry Miller,

Source and file name extension is important for file rename. YouTube that deals about video file where the file extension remains by default flv or mp4. When you change it, it show may corrupt sometimes. The solution of this problem you can convert this file by using different media file converting software.

Thanks and Regards

Manik

 

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