Help! WB won't recognize recovered video files

[TarHeelMom]

Hi Curt! Can you help with a problem?

My iMac's operating system went berserk last week and, long story short, Apple ended up having to reformat the hard drive in order to fix the problem. I had all of my data backed up and was able to recover everything including my library of 20-ish Cathe downloaded workouts. All of them have re-loaded into iTunes and will play on my iPod and TV.

But none will load into the Workout Blender, I'm sure because they've been moved from their original location. I have followed your instructions re: deleting the Cathe folder, etc.., and I've reinstalled the newest version of the Blender, but nothing's helping.

Got any ideas???

[Curt Kapus]

Hi Kathy,

A couple questions just so I can be on the same page and help you the best that I can:

1. When you first installed the Blender, did you leave it set to the default storage locations for files, or did you change them?

2. Did they change the username of your computer when they recovered the data onto the drive?

If you have the answers to these, we can go on from there, because how you answer them will change the approach we take. Thanks!

-Curt

[TarHeelMom]

Hi Curt! Thanks for trying to help!

When I first installed the WB I left the files in the default folder. Until this recent problem I'd had no trouble using them in the Blender.

Apple did assign a new user name for me when they recovered my files and repopulated the hard drive. Also (and I don't know why) they did recover all my data, as I mentioned, but the files weren't all returned to their original locations. I had to search for my photos on the drive and reconstruct my iPhoto library, for example, and I also had to search for all of my Cathe video files. They were all structurally intact but had slightly garbled file names with random numerals and symbols "sprinkled" in the names.

Right now all of the Cathe files are in a folder that I created on my desktop, waiting for the WB to love 'em again.

[Curt Kapus]

Hi Kathy,

The names of the video files being garbled is probably the cause of the problems you are having loading the videos into the Blender. Even if you rename the files back to their original names, more than likely if the name was damaged, the metadata for the file was also damaged (the Workout Blender performs many checks on the files that are attempting to be imported to make sure that they are valid CatheDownload files, and if any of the data are not what is expected, it will not allow the file to be imported). Do you happen to have another back-up of the originally downloaded files? If not, about the only thing I can recommend is to re-download the files using your original links so that you get fresh, un-damaged files.

-Curt