Found a box of tapes with white fuzz along the edges, a musty cellar smell, or one that squeals and feels tacky to the touch? The instinct is to assume they're ruined — but most surface mould and sticky shed are recoverable, if you go in the right order. Get that order wrong, though, and you can destroy a tape outright, or wreck the deck you play it in.

I've written up the whole rescue — how to tell mould from sticky shed (they're treated in opposite, and easily confused, ways), what to do with each, and the few things you should never do — here: https://digital-archivist.com/2026/06/06/mouldy-vhs-tape-sticky-shed/

So — what have you got, and what does it look like? White fuzz, a musty smell, squealing on play, brown residue on the heads? Describe it (a photo helps) and I'll help you work out which problem it is and the safest way to bring it back. A mouldy tape is a perfectly normal thing to be unsure about — no question's too basic here.