PSA: That $60 'viral clip cleaner' app just deleted my best blooper footage

I downloaded this app last Tuesday that promised to auto-remove shaky frames from my videos, and it somehow trimmed 14 seconds from my favorite clip of a news anchor knocking over a plant. The company says it's a 'processing glitch' but they won't refund me, so I'm out $60 and the footage is gone forever. Has anyone else lost money to these editing tools that just make things worse?

2 comments

2 Comments

wren_mitchell2d ago

man that really sucks and honestly makes me furious for you. i swear these apps just get people hyped on marketing and then pull crap like this with zero backup or refund policy. i've been burned by that exact type of thing before where the tool deletes more than it fixes and the company hides behind "glitch" language like that makes it okay. it's not okay, you paid for a service and they ruined your actual memories, that blooper footage is priceless and no amount of "sorry" brings it back. i hope you left a brutal review everywhere and maybe try disputing it with your credit card company if you paid that way, sometimes they'll fight for you. but yeah, your anger is 100% justified and i'd be losing my mind too if i lost a clip like that.

hugotaylor2d ago

My brother lost six months of wedding footage the same way with one of those auto-editing apps, and the company basically told him to kick rocks. He filed a chargeback with Chase and actually got the money back because the service clearly didn't do what it promised, but that still didn't fix the lost files. He started keeping everything on a hard drive after that and now treats any cloud or app edit tool like a rental, not a home for the originals. Might be worth looking into local backup software too, something like Backblaze or just a cheap external drive, so this never bites you again. I know that doesn't help the bloopers, but at least you can make sure it's the last time.