<![CDATA[qt.multimedia.ffmpeg.mediadataholder: Could not open media. FFmpeg error description: Permission denied]]>This used to work prior to updating Tumbleweed. Now, I cannot play media files from a smb (or sftp) network shared location. Here was my workflow: Open Dolphin, navigate to network share, enter credentials, then double click any file and have it open. Media files (pictures, videos) open in Gwenview. Images still open fine, but the video files throw this permission error. I've been searching for days and days for any help, and since QT.multimedia is in the title of the error, I am posting here. Here is more from the warning/error log: https://pastebin.com/xnJhVZTy

]]>https://forum.qt.io/topic/163324/qt.multimedia.ffmpeg.mediadataholder-could-not-open-media.-ffmpeg-error-description-permission-deniedRSS for NodeSat, 22 Aug 2026 06:41:07 GMTTue, 23 Sep 2025 16:16:21 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to qt.multimedia.ffmpeg.mediadataholder: Could not open media. FFmpeg error description: Permission denied on Fri, 26 Sep 2025 01:30:13 GMT]]>Yes, on further investigation. Dolphin and the 'browse' function of Gwenview all give a basic sort of pop-up window to enter the smb credentials, and then don't seem to be able to pass those credentials to ffmpeg to play videos. BUT, if I enter the credentials in Thunar or PCManFM (which has a different style credentials popup) and then double click the file, gwenview opens and can play the files. So I do not know the difference between how the credentials are being saved/stored/shared between the 2 apps, but I do know that one works, and the other broke with the recent update. It's very odd that gwenview cannot do it itself by 'browsing' to the file location, but an external file manager can do it and then send the credentials to the right place for video playback (reminder that basic photo viewing works, it's just the video playback which has broken). I appreciate your time and help, even if it doesn't seem to be qt.multimedia related. Do you know the different methods of how ffmpeg can get permission from other processes?

]]>https://forum.qt.io/post/832031https://forum.qt.io/post/832031Fri, 26 Sep 2025 01:30:13 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to qt.multimedia.ffmpeg.mediadataholder: Could not open media. FFmpeg error description: Permission denied on Wed, 24 Sep 2025 18:47:09 GMT]]>So it seems to be at a different level than Qt alone.

I would check if there's something with the distribution, then KDE.

Are you storing your credentials in KWallet ? If so, is it properly opened ?

]]>https://forum.qt.io/post/831973https://forum.qt.io/post/831973Wed, 24 Sep 2025 18:47:09 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to qt.multimedia.ffmpeg.mediadataholder: Could not open media. FFmpeg error description: Permission denied on Wed, 24 Sep 2025 01:59:54 GMT]]>if I change the command to -i smb://username:password@server.... it works. Same for running gwenview from the cli, if I have username:password in the file path, it will work.... but, double clicking files from Dolphin (which used to work) doesn't, because whatever in the backend was getting the password to ffmpeg apparently has broken. Again, jpgs and other filetypes can be opened from dolphin double click action, but not these video files.

]]>https://forum.qt.io/post/831944https://forum.qt.io/post/831944Wed, 24 Sep 2025 01:59:54 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to qt.multimedia.ffmpeg.mediadataholder: Could not open media. FFmpeg error description: Permission denied on Tue, 23 Sep 2025 21:21:17 GMT]]>[smb @ 0x55e9880a4e80] File open failed: Permission denied
[in#0 @ 0x55e9980a4580] Error opening input: Permission denied
Error opening input file smb://username@server//path/to/file.mp4
Error opening input files: Permission denied

The command I used was ffmpeg -i smb://username@server//path/to/file.mp4 test.mp4

]]>https://forum.qt.io/post/831935https://forum.qt.io/post/831935Tue, 23 Sep 2025 21:21:17 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to qt.multimedia.ffmpeg.mediadataholder: Could not open media. FFmpeg error description: Permission denied on Tue, 23 Sep 2025 20:16:39 GMT]]>Can you open one of these video with ffmpeg on the command line ?

]]>https://forum.qt.io/post/831933https://forum.qt.io/post/831933Tue, 23 Sep 2025 20:16:39 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to qt.multimedia.ffmpeg.mediadataholder: Could not open media. FFmpeg error description: Permission denied on Tue, 23 Sep 2025 19:49:58 GMT]]>I'm not entirely sure how the permissions are being shared, but presumably KIO has something to do with that and the KIO worker is failing at some point at getting the permission to ffmpeg (which I think goes through QT.multimedia). So not sure if it is compatibility or what changed with the update. Yeah, file permission didn't change, and I can open jpg from the exact same folder with the same permission 644. Not sure how ffmpeg normally is supposed to inherit the access permission, but that process broke apparently during the update. Any ideas what could be going on? or who else to bug :)?

]]>https://forum.qt.io/post/831932https://forum.qt.io/post/831932Tue, 23 Sep 2025 19:49:58 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to qt.multimedia.ffmpeg.mediadataholder: Could not open media. FFmpeg error description: Permission denied on Tue, 23 Sep 2025 18:52:25 GMT]]>Hi,

Looks like it is not specific to Qt Multimedia. The kio framework also seems to have trouble with these.
Did you check the file permissions on that share ?

]]>https://forum.qt.io/post/831929https://forum.qt.io/post/831929Tue, 23 Sep 2025 18:52:25 GMT