VLC won't play video from /tmp directory

I have a video located at /tmp/example.mp4. When I try to play it with VLC I get the following error:

Your input can't be opened: VLC is unable to open the MRL 'file:///tmp/example.mp4'. Check the log for details.

When I check the log it contains the following error-level entry:

filesystem error: cannot open file /tmp/example.mp4 (No such file or directory)

However that file does exist:

$ ls /tmp/example.mp4 
/tmp/example.mp4

Furthermore, when I copy that file to my home folder I can play it without any problems. Why can't VLC play the video from the /tmp folder?

• VLC version: 3.0.8
• OS version: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (4.4.0-173-generic)

Output from ffprobe:

Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'example.mp4':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : isom
    minor_version   : 512
    compatible_brands: isomiso2avc1mp41
    encoder         : Lavf56.40.101
  Duration: 00:00:10.00, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 37 kb/s
    Stream #0:0(und): Video: h264 (High) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 640x480, 36 kb/s, 4 fps, 4 tbr, 16384 tbn, 8 tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      handler_name    : VideoHandler

Solution 1:

GREAT the answer of user @user535733 and Raffa is correct and solve the problem!!!

Then: uninstall the snap version of VLC with

sudo snap remove vlc

and install the Debian (.deb) package from the Ubuntu official repository with

sudo apt-get install vlc