KMPlayer plays deleted files

[Sjakko]

Sometimes I have this really weird thing with KMPlayer. When i try to preview a video that's only partially downloaded (like 5% done and still in download) it sometimes starts playing a video that i deleted long ago, but is apparently (although not visible) still there on my disk. :confused: Very strange. Is this a bug in KMPlayer? In that case: do the programmers know about this? I have the latest beta by the way (2.9.3.1375).

[Waldemar Sikorski]

If you're deleting with windows you only think that you are.
I use Simple File Shredder set for 7 overwrites.
This is a strange behavior in itself since you have to tell the player what to play.
Your system might be messed up.

[Sjakko]

I really don't think it's my system. It's nice and clean. I reformatted the disk with my OS a few weeks ago. My videos and downloads are on a second disk. Can something be wrong with this disk? Can't it be an issue with the "KMPlayer AVI Source Filter" (for damaged avi)?

[Sjakko]

Right, today I had the problem again. I double clicked an episode of COPS which wasn't done downloading yet (it actually hadn't even started yet: it said 0.0% downloaded in Bitcomet) and it started to play an episode of The Simpsons I deleted a week ago! When I drag the video in any other player (MPC, WMP, Zoom, Winamp, VLC and yes I do have the right codecs) it just says it can't play the file. This is definitely a KMPlayer issue. I have 2.9.3.1389 by the way. It's actually quite confusing 'cause the OSD does say that it's playing COPS. This time the problem occurred when I tried to play a file on my F: disk which is my third HD, so i can't blame my HD. Could this please be reported to the maker of KMPlayer? Please let me know if you need system specs or other info.

[z]

It's not clear why you have such a problem.

Try to switch the option "Open similar files together" to "Open selected file(s) only" in preferences.

Or check if the deleted file is in the playlist when KMP tries to play it.

[Sjakko]

Try to switch the option "Open similar files together" to "Open selected file(s) only" in preferences.
The "File open Method" was already set to "Open selected file(s) only" (I did that myself).

Or check if the deleted file is in the playlist when KMP tries to play it.
No the deleted file is not in the playlist. The playlist says "Cops.s14e35 Too hot for Fox.avi". Maybe it has something to do with the way downloads are stored by Bitcomet? Bitcomet allocates disk space before downloading. Or maybe it has something to do with the file size? Bitcomet allocated 179.122kB for the Cops episode and the Simpsons episode was 179.178kB (I know 'cause I have the episode on my brother's computer).

I thought I'd check out the Media Information (Alt+J). Besides the filename, they are completely similar for the Simpsons episode and the Cops episode, so The KMPlayer is getting the Media Info from the deleted file. Let me know if you need more info.

[z]

I'm sorry but it's hard to guess your problem.

Can you make an exact step to reproduce the problem?

How can I replicate your problem?

[leave]

what's the tool you used to download ?

[Sjakko]

Can you make an exact step to reproduce the problem?
Right now, just starting this particular Cops video is enough to reproduce it (probably until the deleted simpsons episode is overwritten with other data). I can also reproduce it by starting to download another COPS episode from the same torrent file. I just tried this and when I started the video (0,0% downloaded) it came up with a different Simpsons episode than the last time.

EDIT: With a third Cops episode this also worked. This time i chose an episode that had a completely different file size than any Simpsons episode that were once on my disk, so I can confirm it has nothing to do with file size.

How can I replicate your problem?
Maybe you can try the following:

1. download a video with Bitcomet
2. delete it (do not shred it)
3. start downloading the same video again (or another one off course)
4. try previewing it when it's zero (or just a few percent downloaded). That should be enough for Bitcomet to allocate disk space, but not enough for KMPlayer to actually show you a preview of the video.

EDIT: Maybe you need to paste your HD completely full with videos (or the same video) and then delete them. That way it'll probably work.

When i used my brother's computer to preview a Cops episode on my disk via the home LAN, it gave the same result, so it's not some weird registry setting on my pc.

[z]

Your explanation makes me confusing as you are saying that the deleted file starts playing a video. How did you delete the file? Within The KMPlayer or Explorer? The file could be locked by bitcomet. Make sure that the file trying to delete is not locked by other applications. Though KMP has an ability to play a shared file while downloading or else, it is impossible to delete a shared or locked file.

[Sjakko]

Sorry for my late response. I deleted the file just with Shift+Del or just Del and then emptying the recycle bin. So I deleted it from Windows Explorer. I'll try to be more clear:

When i'm downloading a video, i often preview it with the KMPlayer just to be sure it's not a fake file. Off course I do this long before it is done downloading (still has to download like 97%). Sometimes having 3% of the data is not enough for KMPlayer to actually preview the video. In that case, the KMPlayer will just crash or give me an error (like it should), but sometimes it will start playing a video I deleted long ago. So for example: when I'm trying to preview a COPS episode (which i'm downloading at that very moment), it will start playing a deleted Simpsons episode. The Simpsons episode was deleted a few weeks ago so it shouldn't even be readable for the KMPlayer. A workaround would be shredding your videos instead of just deleting them.

[clener]

the problem is your torrent client i think.

switch to utorrent, it fills files with 0 when allocating them.

[symphony]

To be honest there is no problem here. It is a side effect of all the things happenning at the same time.

1, When you delete a file, you don't really delete it. "You" (the operating system to be clear) just removes its location from the FAT table which contains links to all of the files. That makes its space "free", or to be more specific: it is flagged as "OK to overwrite".

2, You start to download another file. Your application which handles the download preserve the space fo the whole file. So instead of making a file 1Kb, 300 Kb, 600Kb and so on, it creates an empty file which it will fill with the downloaded data. This method has its advantages, example if you want to download a 600Mb file, the OS will search for an at least 600Mb continous "overwritable" (free) space on your disk - so at the end your disk will be less fragmented. But that isn't really an empty file...

3, You started to download the file, and you'll have a 600Mb file (in this example) on your disk, with a few Kbs of real, new data, and more than 599Mbs of junk data - that is the data whatever was on the disk before it was flagged as "overwritable". So if you deleted a movie before, you'll get a movie there, but you can have jpg's, doc's or whatever was on the disk on that place before.

So in summary, I don't see any bugs or errors here, it just an intresting side effect of all the systems around us trying to do the best for us. ;)

[Sjakko]

I understand. I tried VLC and it did the same! Now I'm sure I must blame Bitcomet. Sorry to take your time when it doesn't really have anything to do with the KMPlayer. Thank you.