How to Open BUP File on Windows 11, Mac & Online (DVD & McAfee)

What is a BUP file?

A BUP file is a backup copy of an IFO file on a DVD-Video disc. Every DVD stores its data in a folder named VIDEO_TS. The .IFO files there hold the control and playback information (titles, chapters, audio tracks, subtitles, menus), and each one has a twin with the same name and the .BUP extension, an exact copy kept as a spare in case the original can't be read. "BUP" simply stands for backup.

That's why people who try to open BUP files with a double-click get nowhere: the file is a table of contents, not a movie. A DVD folder has two kinds of BUP files:

• VIDEO_TS.BUP — the backup of the Video Manager file for the whole disc: the title list, the region code and the main menu.
• VTS_01_0.BUP, VTS_02_0.BUP… — backups of each Video Title Set's information file: the video format, audio languages, subtitles and chapters of the movie or extras stored in the matching VTS_01_1.VOB, VTS_01_2.VOB… files.

Two other things also use the extension: McAfee antivirus quarantine files (a suspicious file packed into a .bup container, see below) and assorted program backups that some apps name .bup. The real content decides what you have, and the reader above checks it for you: DVD backups start with the text DVDVIDEO-VMG or DVDVIDEO-VTS, McAfee files start with the OLE2 compound-file signature D0 CF 11 E0.

How to open a BUP file, step by step

Short answer: you don't open a DVD BUP file by itself, because it holds no picture or sound. Open the folder it lives in with a DVD-capable player. These steps work whenever you need to open BUP files copied from a DVD:

1. Check what it is. Drop the file into the BUP reader above. If it says "DVD-Video", continue; if it says "McAfee quarantine", jump to that section.
2. Keep the folder intact. The .bup must sit inside a VIDEO_TS folder together with its .IFO and .VOB files. The VOB files are the video.
3. Open the folder in VLC. Install the free VLC media player, choose Media > Open Folder, select the VIDEO_TS folder and click Select Folder.
4. Need a normal video file? Load the same folder into HandBrake and convert it to MP4 (how).

VIDEO_TS, IFO, BUP and VOB: how the files fit together

A DVD folder always has the same three file types, and the BUP is the smallest and least important for playback. The IFO files tell the player what is on the disc, the VOB files carry the actual MPEG-2 video, audio and subtitles, and the BUP files are spare copies of the IFOs.

A DVD can hold up to 99 titles and up to 99 chapters per title, with up to eight audio tracks and 32 subtitle tracks per video, which is exactly the kind of information the reader above pulls out of a BUP. To inspect the video files themselves, use our VOB file guide and stream inspector.

Play BUP and VIDEO_TS files on Windows 11 and 10

Windows 11 and 10 can't play a DVD folder out of the box, so double-clicking a BUP or IFO file only shows "How do you want to open this file?". Microsoft removed the DVD codecs from Windows Media Player in Windows 8, and its paid replacement, the Windows DVD Player app, reached end of support on December 31, 2024. To open BUP files from a DVD folder on Windows, use the free VLC media player, which handles VIDEO_TS folders directly:

1. Download and install VLC from the official VideoLAN website.
2. Open VLC and click Media in the top-left corner.
3. Click Open Folder.
4. Browse to the VIDEO_TS folder, select it and click Select Folder. Playback starts; use VLC's Playback menu to jump between titles and chapters.

You can also choose Media > Open Disc, pick DVD, and browse to the VIDEO_TS folder; tick No disc menus if the menu freezes. If the folder came as a single .iso image instead, Windows can mount it with a double-click — see how to open an ISO file.

Open BUP files on a Mac

To open BUP files on macOS, use Apple's DVD Player app, which plays a DVD folder straight from your drive. Find it with Spotlight, then:

1. Choose File > Open DVD Media.
2. Navigate to the VIDEO_TS folder that contains the BUP, IFO and VOB files.
3. Click Open.

VLC for Mac works too (drag the VIDEO_TS folder onto the VLC window). Apple notes that DVD Player doesn't play other media such as Blu-ray discs.

BUP files on iPhone, iPad and Android

No mobile app will open BUP files in a useful way, because phones and tablets have no use for DVD navigation data on its own. To watch the DVD's content on a phone, the practical routes are:

• Android: VLC for Android plays most local video files and DVD ISO images. Turn the disc into an ISO (or copy the VOB files) and open that in VLC.
• iPhone and iPad: convert the VIDEO_TS folder to MP4 on a computer (HandBrake steps below) and copy the MP4 to the device, for example with AirDrop or the Files app.

Restore a damaged IFO file from its BUP

If a DVD folder won't load or a player reports an IFO error, a healthy BUP can replace the broken IFO. The two files are meant to be identical, which is why they always have the same size. Open-source playback code such as libdvdread already does this automatically: it tries the IFO first and falls back to the BUP when the IFO can't be read. You can do the same by hand:

1. Compare first. Select both VTS_01_0.IFO and VTS_01_0.BUP in the reader above. It says whether they are identical and, if not, where they differ and which one has lost its DVD header.
2. Back up the folder. Copy the whole VIDEO_TS folder somewhere safe before changing anything.
3. Replace the bad file. If the IFO is the damaged one, delete it, copy the BUP and rename the copy to .IFO (the tool's "Download as .IFO" button produces the same copy). Keep the original BUP.
4. Test playback in VLC. If both files are damaged, the only fix is a fresh copy from the disc.

Turn on View > Show > File name extensions in Windows 11 File Explorer first, so you really rename VTS_01_0.BUP to VTS_01_0.IFO and not to VTS_01_0.IFO.BUP.

Can I delete BUP files?

You can, but there is almost nothing to gain. You never need to open BUP files to watch a DVD, so it's tempting to clear them out. On a copied DVD folder, players read the IFO files first and only use a BUP when an IFO fails, so a folder without BUP files usually still plays on a computer. The catch: BUP files are your only spare copy of the IFOs, they are tiny next to multi-gigabyte VOB files, and they are part of the standard DVD-Video file layout, so keep them if you ever plan to burn the folder back to a disc.

• Safe to delete: a whole leftover DVD folder you no longer need (delete the entire VIDEO_TS folder together).
• Better to keep: the BUP files of any DVD folder you still watch, archive or plan to burn.
• McAfee .bup files: deleting one permanently removes the quarantined file. That's fine for real malware; restore it first if it was a false positive.

Convert BUP to MP4 (convert the VIDEO_TS folder instead)

A BUP file can't be converted to MP4 because it contains no video. Any site or app that claims to open BUP files and turn them into MP4 is really converting the VOB files next to them. The free, open-source HandBrake (Windows, macOS, Linux) opens VIDEO_TS folders directly:

1. Install HandBrake from its official website and open it.
2. Click Open Source and choose the VIDEO_TS folder, or drag the folder onto HandBrake's main window. HandBrake reads the IFO files to find the titles.
3. In the Title drop-down, pick the main movie — usually the longest title (the reader on this page shows running times per title).
4. Keep the default Fast 1080p30 preset or pick another, set the file name in Save As, and click Start.

HandBrake does not defeat or circumvent copy protection of any kind. It works on home-made DVDs and on VIDEO_TS folders that are already unencrypted; commercial discs are usually encrypted. Only copy discs where the law where you live allows it.

McAfee BUP quarantine files

A McAfee BUP file is a quarantine container: when McAfee antivirus (best known from its business product, VirusScan Enterprise) detects a threat, it can move the file into a .bup so it can no longer run. Inside is an OLE2 compound file (the same container format as old Word .doc files) with a Details stream describing the detection and one or more File_0, File_1… streams holding the original file. Each stream is lightly obfuscated with XOR and the single-byte key 0x6A, so security tools can't trigger on it accidentally.

Don't try to open BUP files from a quarantine folder with a media player or text editor; the content is obfuscated and potentially harmful once decoded.

Restore it the safe way

If you're sure the detection was a false positive, open your McAfee app's Quarantined Items list, select the file and click Restore. It goes back to its original location. If the item isn't listed, ask whoever manages the antivirus on that PC.

Look inside without restoring

The reader above decodes the Details record in your browser and shows the detection name, the original path and the quarantine date, plus the SHA-256 hash of the decoded file, which you can search on a malware-scanning site. It deliberately never offers the quarantined program itself for download.

Manual extraction (for analysts)

Security analysts extract McAfee BUP files by opening the .bup in an archive tool that reads compound files, such as 7-Zip, extracting Details and File_0, and XOR-ing each byte with 0x6A. The open-source punbup Python script does all of this in one step. Only do it in an isolated virtual machine: the output is the file McAfee flagged as malicious.

Other BUP backup files

Because ".bup" is an obvious shorthand for "backup", a few programs use it for their own backup or settings files. These have nothing to do with DVDs or McAfee, and only the program that wrote them can open BUP files of this kind and restore them. Clues to look for:

• Readable text inside (open it in Notepad or TextEdit): settings files often name the program in the first lines. The reader on this page shows a text preview automatically.
• Another format underneath: some tools save a ZIP or SQLite file with a .bup name. The reader reports the real format from the file's signature, and our ZIP file guide or TMP file guide explain the next steps.
• Where it came from: the folder it sits in (an app's data folder, a backup drive) usually names the program.

Common BUP file problems and fixes

"How do you want to open this file?" when you open BUP files with a double-click

Windows has no app registered for .bup because the file isn't meant to be opened alone. Don't associate it with a media player; open the VIDEO_TS folder instead, as shown above.

VLC plays nothing or shows only a menu

Check that the VOB files are present and not 0 bytes. Try Media > Open Disc > DVD with No disc menus ticked, or open the largest VTS_xx_1.VOB directly.

"Cannot read IFO" or the DVD folder won't load

The IFO is corrupt. Compare it with its BUP in the reader and restore it from the backup.

The disc is region-locked

The VIDEO_TS.BUP stores the disc's region mask (Region 1 for the US and Canada, Region 2 for Europe and Japan, and so on), and the reader decodes it. A region-locked DVD drive or set-top player may refuse a disc whose region doesn't match; a region-free disc carries the value zero and plays everywhere.

Black screen or "could not read block" with a commercial DVD

The disc is encrypted. Copying a protected disc's VIDEO_TS folder needs special software, and HandBrake will not remove copy protection. Home-made DVDs are not affected.

Antivirus flags a .bup file

A DVD BUP contains only navigation tables and can't run. If the alert is about a McAfee .bup in a quarantine folder, that's the quarantined item itself; leave it alone or restore it from McAfee.

Related file extensions

These guides cover the other files you'll meet when you open BUP files from a disc or a disc image.

Sources and technical references

The DVD decoding in the reader follows the public IFO documentation and the open-source libdvdread library; our test IFO/BUP files were checked against libdvdread's own parser.

• DVD-Video information: IFO file layout — VMGI/VTSI headers, video, audio and subpicture attribute bits.
• DVD-Video information: system parameters — audio and subtitle language extension codes, region mask bits.
• libdvdread ifo_types.h and ifo_read.c — IFO structures and the IFO-then-BUP fallback.
• DVD-Video — Wikipedia — VIDEO_TS layout, BUP as IFO backup, title, chapter, audio and subtitle limits.
• DVD region code — Wikipedia — region list and how the region mask is stored.
• Windows DVD Player — Wikipedia — DVD codecs removed from Windows Media Player in Windows 8; end of support on December 31, 2024.
• Play a DVD or DVD movie file in DVD Player on Mac — Apple Support
• HandBrake documentation: supported source formats — VIDEO_TS folders; no circumvention of copy protection.
• VLC for Android — Google Play — plays local video files and DVD ISOs.
• punbup — McAfee .bup extractor — BUP as an OLE2 compound file; streams XOR 0x6A.
• McAfee quarantine files: automating BUP file analysis — 7-Zip extraction plus XOR 0x6A.
• Viewing files McAfee quarantined — example Details fields (DetectionName, OriginalName).

Frequently asked questions