It could not be very pleasant when you receive the error message “Cannot playback image” on your Canon camera as it means that you can’t see your photos as normal. The error message “Cannot play back image” is a common issue that many Canon camera users experience. One user reported this error on the community.usa.canon.com forum:
Hello Team. When I click a picture from my Canon T7i, it gives me a preview for a few seconds, and a few moments later there is just a question mark "?" and it says "Cannot play back image"... When I tried opening it on my laptop, it said "It appears that we don't support this file format."...https://community.usa.canon.com/t5/EOS-DSLR-Mirrorless-Cameras/Cannon-Eos-Rebel-T7i-Cannot-Playback-Image/m-p/373340
If you’ve encountered the same error, don’t worry. In this guide, we will provide you with a step-by-step solution to help you resolve the issue.
Why Does My Canon Camera Show “Cannot Playback Image”?
Why does my Canon camera show “Cannot playback image”? After investigating extensive user reports and posts, I find that the Cannot playback image Canon error can mainly be caused by these reasons:
- Corrupted image files
- Incompatible Image formats
- Faulty memory card
- Camera firmware issues
- Camera issues
- Accidental deletion or formatting
Troubleshoot Canon Cannot Playback Image Error
How to troubleshoot Canon Cannot playback image error? You can follow the guide in this section to find out the culprit of the error on your Canon camera and then solve it in a targeted manner.
Way 1. Check If the Camera Card or Camera Is Corrupted
If the Canon camera or its memory card is corrupted, you can also encounter the Cannot play back image error easily. In this case, you can do the following steps to check it:
- Take out the memory card from your Canon camera.
- Insert it into another camera or use a card reader to connect it to another computer.
- Try to check files.
- If accessible, it means that there is something wrong with your camera. You can contact a technician and ask for help.
- If inaccessible, it means that there is something wrong with your Camera card. In this case, you can fix the error by replacing the memory card.
Way 2. Upgrading Camera Firmware
Outdated Canon camera firmware may also cause errors when you use it, including the Cannot playback image Canon error. In this case, you can try upgrading your Canon camera firmware to fix the error.
Way 3. Check the Compatibility
If you have transferred other devices’ images to the Canon camera card, you may encounter the Cannot playback image Canon error as well. In this case, you just need to remove these images from the Canon camera card to fix the error.
Way 4. Recover Cannon Files Affected by Cannot Playback Image Error
Accidentally formatting your camera card, corruption or accidental deletion of the image file are also responsible for the Cannot playback image error. In these situations, the best solution is to use a data recovery tool to recover the lost file. This will help you fix the error and access your images again.
MiniTool Partition Wizard is a professional Canon files recovery tool that can help you recover lost data or partitions from MicroSD cards, SD cards, flash drives, SSDs, etc. It can even recover data from the RAW file system.
Besides, it is also a surprising partition/disk manager that can help you format SD card FAT32, create/extend/resize/copy/format partitions, migrate OS to SSD without reinstalling OS, rebuild MBR, convert MBR to GPT, and more. Here’s how to use it to recover lost files from the Canon camera card:
Step 1. Click the Download button below to get the MiniTool Partition Wizard installation package. Then run the downloaded exe files and follow the setup wizard to complete the app installation.
MiniTool Partition Wizard DemoClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
Step 2. Connect the Canon Camera card to your PC, and launch MiniTool Partition Wizard into its main interface. Next, click the Data Recovery option from the top toolbar, select the partition of the device, and then click Scan.
Step 3. While the program scans your disk, you can preview files and click pause or stop when you find what you need. Here are some tools that can help you:
- Path: All lost files in this tab are listed in the order of directory structure.
- Type: All lost files in this tab are classified by types.
- Search: You can find files by their names.
- Filter: You can filter the files by File Type, Date Modified, File Size, and File Category.
- Preview: You can preview up to 70 kinds of files, but you need to install a package first.
Step 4. Once done, tick the files you want to recover and click Save. Choose a safe location to save the recovered files and click OK.
Bottom Line
This post analyzes the causes of the Cannot playback image error and introduces a wonderful data recovery tool to help you recover lost files.
In addition, MiniTool Partition Wizard is a professional and multifunctional tool. You can email us at [email protected] if you have difficulty using the MiniTool software and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
About The Author
Position: Columnist
Charlotte is a columnist who loves to help others solve errors in computer use. She is good at data recovery and disk & partition management, which includes copying partitions, formatting partitions, etc. Her articles are simple and easy to understand, so even people who know little about computers can understand. In her spare time, she likes reading books, listening to music, playing badminton, etc.