Not a valid AVI (looks more like a MOV)

[raptorxp]

I am getting this error when trying to set metadata on a video:

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Error: Not a valid AVI (looks more like a MOV) - CIMG3068.AVI

If I rename the file from AVI to MOV, it does indeed accept to modify the metadata.

Is there a way to force ExifTool to set the attribute as if the extension was actually MOV, but without having to rename the file?

[Phil Harvey]

But this file should have a .MOV extension.  Why not just rename it as it should be?

This is not a minor error, so it can't be ignored.  This check was added because there was a case where some software wouldn't open a file after someone edited it with ExifTool, and ExifTool got blamed for the problem, but it was in fact just an incorrect extension.

And yes, ExifTool is sometimes overly conservative when it comes to being careful about writing files.

- Phil

[raptorxp]

I can't rename the file because I have a sidecar JSON file whose name is based on the video file's name.

It sounds strange to treat this as an error at all, a warning maybe, but file extensions don't really mean anything. It would make a lot of sense to at least have a flag for overriding this behaviour.