What is the BORIS version I am using?

Menu Help > About > Show details for versions of dependencies

My BORIS project file is corrupted and BORIS does not open it

First

Please remember that it is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT to do regular backups of your project files to prevent the lost of data. Software can be reinstalled but your data could quite possibly be lost for ever. Use an external drive or/and a cloud service. Use a timestamp in the file name in order to does not overwrite the last backup with the new one (for example: my_project.YYYY-MM-DD.boris).

The BORIS project file is in JSON format (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSON). If the size of your corrupted project file is not 0 you can open it with a text editor like NotePad++, Pluma, TextEdit, etc (not Microsoft-Word or Libreoffice Write that are text processors) and try to repair it.

Another possibility is to use an on-line JSON validator like https://jsonformatter.org and try to repair it.

BORIS crashes when I load a video and does not generate any error message

Set the MPV player hardware video decoding option to No. See Project > Preferences

One or more widgets (ethogram, subject's list, event's list ...) are not visible during the observation

Right-click on the menu bar and reactivate the widget visualization.

if it does not work close BORIS and delete the BORIS configuration file.

After this you will have to reset all the parameters of Preferences (File > Preferences)

See the user guide for the name and location of the configuration file on your system.

My video does not play (well) with BORIS

To be used with BORIS your video must play well with mpv media player because BORIS used the MPV library. The mpv libary is embedded in BORIS executable versions (except for Linux, you will have to install the libmpv package).

If your video do not play with mpv, you can try to re-encode it.

You can use the embedded tool in BORIS. See Tools > Re-encode/resize video and the guide (http://www.boris.unito.it/user_guide/tools/#re-encoding-and-resizing-a-video-file)

For more parameters you can directly use the FFmpeg framework. Various graphic interfaces are available: QWinFF, HandBrake ...

If your video plays with mpv and not in BORIS you can contact me and send me your video.

I am using an old version of Windows and BORIS does not launch

If you are using an old version of Windows (<10) and have problem launching BORIS, you have to install the Update for Universal C Runtime in Windows See https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2999226

Can BORIS automatically track my animals/individuals/objects?

No. For this feature you have to use a video tracking software like Ethovision XT (R) from Noldus, Traktor, idtracker.ai ...

You can also check my new project at a very early stage of development DORIS.

Why this program is called BORIS?

It is a tribute to Boris Vian