Telegram bot media_group sending fails with InputMediaVideo

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1

I’m having trouble with my Telegram bot when I try to send videos using send_media_group. Every time I attempt to send a video file with a thumbnail image, I get this error message: Can't parse inputmedia: media not found

I’m working with Python 3.11.6 and using python-telegram-bot version 20.7. The weird thing is that my file paths are correct and the code seems to work up to a certain point.

Here’s what I’m trying to do:

file_data = InputFile(video_file_path)
thumb_data = InputFile(thumb_file_path) if thumb_file_path else None
print(thumb_file_path)
video_media = InputMediaVideo(media=file_data, thumbnail=thumb_data)
print("Checkpoint 1")
await bot.send_media_group(chat_id=target_chat_id, media=[video_media])
print("Checkpoint 2")

The console shows the correct thumbnail path and “Checkpoint 1” but then fails before reaching “Checkpoint 2”. Anyone know what might be causing this parsing error?

2

Had this exact problem a few months ago - drove me nuts. You’re probably handling InputFile objects wrong when passing them to InputMediaVideo. Telegram’s media group uploads have some weird quirks that aren’t obvious. Don’t pre-wrap your file paths in InputFile. Just pass the file paths straight to the media parameter and let the library handle everything. Also check if your video file’s corrupted or in a weird format - one of my test videos was throwing this same error because of encoding issues. Also make sure your file permissions are right and the bot can actually read both files when sending. Sometimes that error message is BS and it’s really just a file access problem, not parsing.

3

Been there with Telegram bot media uploads. It’s usually the file processing workflow that’s broken, not your code.

Skip wrestling with InputFile objects and debugging file paths. Just automate the whole media pipeline instead. Set up a workflow that validates video formats, generates thumbnails, handles conversions, and manages API calls with proper error handling.

I built something like this for our team’s content bot. The automation handles file validation through retry logic when uploads fail. No more debugging individual files or guessing if it’s a path or format problem.

The workflow can pre-process videos to meet Telegram’s requirements and auto-generate thumbnails in the right format. Way more reliable than catching errors manually.

4

This usually happens when file handling doesn’t match what Telegram’s API expects. I hit the same issue building a media bot last year. InputFile objects can be finicky with the media group endpoint, especially when you’re mixing video and thumbnail data.

Skip the InputFile wrappers and pass raw file objects straight to InputMediaVideo. Just open your files with standard Python - like open(video_file_path, 'rb') for the media field. This cuts out the InputFile layer that’s throwing your parsing error.

Also check your thumbnail dimensions. Telegram’s pretty strict about aspect ratios and file sizes for thumbnails in media groups.

5

This usually happens because python-telegram-bot 20.7 has compatibility issues with how it handles media objects. I ran into the same thing after upgrading - they changed how InputFile objects work in media groups around version 20.x. Try downgrading to 20.3 or 20.4 and see if that fixes it. If it’s still broken, ditch the thumbnail parameter and test with just the video first. The media group endpoint sometimes chokes when processing media and thumbnails together, especially with certain video codecs. Also check if your video file is too big - Telegram has size limits and the error message can be misleading when files are oversized.

6

check your file extentsions - make sure they’re valid video formats. I had a similar issue with .mp4 files being corrupted or using a wrong codec. also try sendin the video without the thumb parameter; sometimes it causes issues if the image format isn’t supported. let me know if that helps!