IMovie broke?

I was editing a film for school when iMovie suddenly closed. When I opened it again, it wouldn't play any projects and all the clips where grey. I deleted everything and tried to star over, but the screen won't play anything. It's all grey. The audio is the only thing that iMovie plays. When I put it on full screen it does seem to be working. It's like the screen broke. What happened and can I fix this?

Hi
Most probably - Corrupted iMovie pref file
Easiest way to find out if this is it - is by Creating a new User Account and log into this and see if iMovie behaves. If it does then 99.9% chance this is the problem.
Yours Bengt W

Similar Messages

New to iMovie: What can I expect questions

I recorded 2 days worth of a presentation for work. (About 6 hours) each day. I have imported the footage into iMovie. The Camera/iMovie broke it into about 52 minute clips. I'm currently working on day 2, it has 7 chips. I've figured out how to export the clips as one movie to the media browser. Here are my questions.
What are the recommendations for getting both days onto a DVD?
Can I get both days on a DVD or am I going to need to break it down into shorter segments?
My end users/viewer will probably be viewing this on their computers. And may want to use short clips in other powerpoint presentations. What export format would you recommend? (video size,compression,...) and other detailed recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
As I write this post. I started exporting one 52min clip via quicktime the progress bar started out with 5.5hours of time remaining. My questions is this reasonable?
Also, if there are websites that have these type of helpful insights/suggestions links to them would be appreciated.
I guess what I'm looking to do is to get the video that I shot onto a dvd disk in a format the my coworkers can view/use and minimize the time that it takes to get it there is my goal.
Thanks.

Paul Conaway wrote:
I recorded 2 days worth of a presentation for work. (About 6 hours) each day...
.. what I'm looking to do is to get the video that I shot onto a dvd disk in a format the my coworkers can view/use and minimize the time that it takes to get it there is my goal.
so, a videoDVD, as iDVD produces, is NOT your goal ( ? ) .. videoDVDs are final delivery, end-of-the-road, not meant for further processing..
but..
you ask for the 'universal' video format.. which is, anyone remembering the beta/vhs wars?, not invented yet..
you haven't told us the format of source.. ? miniDV/Standard.. ? HiDef? AVCHD? .. depending on that info, we can give advice for a 'faster' export.
and, you haven't told us, what format your co-workers can handle? video-format.. powerpoint is no video format, nor avi and mov are formats (these are containers...); we need dv, h264, mpeg4, .. something like that as answer ..
just to mention: 1 hour dv 'native' is ~13GBs data.. so, DVD is perhaps the wrong media.. using a 'better' compressor as h264 allows much more to fit on one dataDVD, but, as you noticed already, means hours or encoding.. (btw: your Mac needs 20-40GBs free internal to handle encoding.. going under means slowing down the process dramatically .... ).
do they need 'fullsized' or is e.g. 320x240 allowed (=reduces file size dramatically)
.. so, a few Qs, now it's your part to answer..

Import movie from DV camera

I want to import movies I made years ago on a DV camera. I edited them and then sent the footage back to the camera, as in those days it was the best way of keeping the full size video.
I tried to import them this morning but what iMovie has done is separate all the scenes into the days on which they were taken, so they're not in the order of the finished movies anymore.
In fact there is more than one movie I've imported, so the footage is a bit all over the place.
How can I view them in the original order that the video played it in?
Thanks

... or if you don't have iMovie HD, try "Vidi" - it's old (and free), but it saved me a ton of hassle when iMovie broke up footage on an old, worn tape into dozens of odd sized clips...

Upgrade to Lion broke iMovie 08 - iSight Camera - No camera connected - To import video, please connect a camera - error message

I recently upgraded to OSX Lion. My MackBoo Pro is fully patched and updated. I can launch iMovie 08 but when i try to record or import video from camera it get the error message. No Camera Connected - To import video, please connect a camera.
All my other applications work fine with iSight including iChat, Skype, PhotoBooth. So why would a specific upgrade to Lion break iMovie 08?
I looked at the other posts on this topic and no one has a really solid explination or fix.
help please!!

lonestarry wrote: ... There is no edit link for the MBP details (below my avatar image) I can edit all my other products, but the link for the MBP is missing...odd
That is odd. When logged into Discussions, the Profile tab on my personal Apple Support Communities > People page includes the following screen-shot from immediately below the big avatar picture:
Clicking on the "Edit" link opens the dialog window shown in this screen-shot:
The choices bar lets you correct your OS. Update saves the info.
If yours does not work this way, try a different browser. (These screen shots are made using Safari on my Mac.)
lonestarry wrote: ... Looks like I will have to dig out my ... iLife 08 ... I dont remember ever having an iLife disc, just the OSX disc.
If you want to fix your problem, it is time to reinstall and updated to the most current iMovie '08 version.
If you did not buy iLife '08 separately, perhaps it was included in the Software Applications disk(s) that came with your Mac.
lonestarry wrote: ... a colleague ... has the exact same issue...
Has your colleague reinstalled and updated iLife after upgrading to Lion?
I am using iMovie '11 (version 9.0.4), so I cannot test your specific version. iMovie 9.0.4 is properly working for me after I restarted it one time.
However, depending on individual system configurations, Lion compatibility may be version dependent. For example, this forum post contains reports of iLife '08 (and even older) working with Lion. Moreover, as shown in this screen-shot from the roaringapps listing, it is the newer versions that may have problems:
Your version 7.1.4 should work with no trouble if all your Apple software is up to date.
Message was edited by: EZ Jim
Mac OSX 10.7.4

IMovie 09 broke my Project.

When I upgraded to from iMovie 08 to 09 the projects had lost the video but kept the audio. Meanwhile all the video and audio was fine in my events section.

So I have a flip mino camera and I brought in ALL of the clips onto my desktop (they are .AVI) files -- and I JUST upgraded from iMovie 08 to 09 -- I have NEVER had a problem before doing it this way.
NOW, when I try to make the video, I imported them into a new event and when I try to create the video I can see the image of what the video is about, and then it says "source file is missing." It also won't let me import a .mov file in that I have used before in my iMovie '08.
I was really looking forward to this update, but this SURE doesn't help.
Any suggestions?

Recent Updates Broke iMovie

I have a number of newer Quad G5s in my facility that I keep updated. For some reason I can't get iMovie to run anymore. I get the unexpectedly quits error whenever I open it. I've narrowed down the cause to a recent batch of Software Updates. One of the following caused the problem:
Quicktime 7.2
iTunes 7.3.1
Security update 2007-006 1.0
Mac OS X Update 10.4.10
Security Update (Quictime 7.1.6) 1.0
I know this because it was working on my last computer until I ran the software update. No matter what I try, I cannot get iMovie to run.
I've tried trashing everything to do with iMovie and reinstalling the program, but no luck.
I've deleted preferences time and time again.
I've tried manually reinstalling Quicktime 7.2 and iMove 6.0.3. This problem has happend on all 4 of my G5s so its not a hardware problem. In a related issue iDVD does that same thing but continues running even though the error comes up. Please assist.

After some research I didn't get very far. The problem also affected iphoto as well, I didn't know this at first because I don't usually use iphoto. I went through the machine and deleted pretty much everything that had to do with the iLife Suite.
I deleted the receipts, preference, and the applications (iphoto, imovie, garageband, and iDVD). I reinstalled the iLife apps and then ran the updates again. They all seem to be working okay now, but I just don't know what caused the original problem.

Importing error - from iMovie to iMovie

I have two iMovie projects. I want to import one of 5 clips from Project One into Project Two. But I get an error when I try to import Clip 01:
"The file Clip 01 is the wrong video standard and cannot be imported in this project."
I can import the other 4 clips from the same file just fine. AND, I can import Clip 01 into a new project. But for some reason, I can't import it into the ONE project I want. The worst part? My DV camera just broke and I can't re-import from the tape. Thanks in advance!

Yeah, it's imported right from my DV camera. It should be NTS. I imported it into a new file, thinking that I would then import Project Two in the new file. But when I tried importing Project Two, I got the same "not a standard video format" error that I got in the first place. Something's not jibing.

Imovie won't open a specific movie

I have been working for 2 days on a project. I took audio that I recorded from Skype and brought it into imovie to edit because I want to add video but it kept crashing on me and I had problems opening it so I trashed what I had done and broke up the audio into 2 parts thinking it was too large a file (originally 40 minutes of audio but I have been editing a lot of it). Now I can't get either of the files I worked on to open and I don't want to start from scratch again.
I went and bought more memory (1g), cleaned everything off of my computer I didn't need, updated all the software, repaired disk permission, cleaned out the file from the library preferences (I've been trying to find the answer in discussion) and I still can't get either file to open. I have a lot of edits, yes, but one of the projects is edited down to 8 minutes and there are no special edits, just cuts. imovie will open if I don't open either of these 2 projects. When I try to open these the wheel will spin for awhile and then imovie just won't open and it closes itself, there is no error message.
I also tried to copy one of the projects and open it in another window but it said Quicktime can't parse it.
From my reading I figured out how to export as an aiff and hope to do that and then reinport it but the problem is I can't get to the movie to export it. Any help that you can give me would be greatly appreciated. I don't want to lose another day's worth of editing.
macbook Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Try sharing your movie as Full Quality Quicktime if you can't get the audio to export. You may need to put in at least one photo to have something in the video track.
Then, see if you can import that quicktime movie into a new iMovie project and have it open.
I also tried to copy one of the projects and open it in another window but it said Quicktime can't parse it.
You can't put one project into another project. You need to copy the clips from the timeline and paste that into a new project.

Help on purchasing a dvd camcorder to work with imovie

hello out there...was wondering which camcorder that has a dvd burner works best with imovie and osx...i want a sony, but i thought the small dvd's did not work on osx. presently, i have a digital8 and use a firewire connection to ingest video for editing with imovie. thanks for any help...

... boxes that holds DVD and hard drive recorders:
These files are intended for "one time" captures.
The file format is not intended for editing.
I totally agree with your recommendation: try to avoid DVD and harddisk camcorders at this point if you plan to edit on a Mac. Not only is software support seriously lacking, those Mini-DVDs don't even work with slot-loading drives that are common on Mac's.
But... there is nothing wrong with the MPEG-2 compression used on DVDs. Just look at HDV: It uses the same MPEG-2 compression to fit the the HD video into the space of a SD MiniDV tape. iMovie converts HDV video streams during capture into a format that is easier for editing - that's why the files on your harddisk are 4 times as big as the data on the tape. The quality of video captured by most consumer camcorders is more limited by the optics and the video sensor (in particular indoors, with less than perfect lighting), than the recording format and media. And yes, you can edit MPEG-2 just fine, it is just more challenging to get it working right.
I used to tell all my friends to stay away from DVD camcorders, too, but then broke down and very reluctantly bought a DVD camcorder recently. It's mainly used for recording music lessons, with instant and repeated replay. It took me some tinkering to work out a good workflow for editing with iMove. I did some side-by-side comparisons with a similarly priced MiniDV camcorder (Canon DC50 vs. Sony TRV-33). Overall, the video clips were almost identical from either camcorder, with the DVD camcorder producing slightly better video in some situations. But as I said in the beginning, that is probably mostly a result of the better video sensor and the optical image stabilization in this particular model.
So how does my workflow go:
- Use DVD-RWs, formatted in Video-VR mode, and prefinalized. This allows
you to pop out the DVD from the camcorder at any time and immediately
use it in your DVD player or computer without another time-consuming
finalization step.
- Find a Windows PC to copy the video files from the DVD to my Mac.
Mac OSX cannot read the filesystem used by Video-VR discs without
additional software like Roxio's Toast (which I don't have). Besides, all
my Macs are slot loading.
- Convert the clip with the Quicktime MPEG-2 plugin and MPEG Streamclip
to DV format.
- Finally, import the clips into iMovie.
Workable yes, but neither convenient nor esay. Stick with MiniDV.

I've kept the old version od imovie (6.0.4) through three migrations and now have it on a mac 10.6.8. i prefer it to the new one, but it has recently begun to give me serious problems. is it becoming obsolete?

i've always thought imovie 6.0.4 was the superior product. i've used it edit semi-profesional films. its easy and intuitive, and always gives you what you want, while looking profesional. i have final cut pro, which i use when i have more time or the project is of more importance, but i still love the ease and simplicity of the old imovie. i've migrated it over 4 computers and it has worked fine till about a week ago. it now takes up to 20 minutes to load, frequently drops out. leaves phantom and relic snipets of audio. is there any way i can fix this problem and keep my beloved imovie 6.0.4? can download it from a third party? are the issues because the .app is going obsolete or are there just new bugs on my computer? i've recently uninstalled all my adobe products and put them onto another computer, could that be it? help me obi won, you're my only hope!

klaus 1,
thanx for the reply. i'm on a 10.6.8 snow leopard.
yes, it did arrive via migration, but had been working well for over 2 years, and two years before that on a 10.5, where it had migrated from a mac book g4 where i used it regularly. through all that time and migration, not a single problem
i can't pinpoint the exact 'original' problem, because i'm currently working on two different editing jobs (one serious [a kickstarted campaign] the other, not so much, for my son's pre-school graduation, i was making the school a little video for their website). so during this time, i'm using a combo of; imovie, adobe premiere and final cut pro. and i've had so much pulsing through my computer (and external hard drives), literally hundreds of gigs of HD video, tons of tiff and jpeg files, and much mp4 and aif music files. i often had three or four major applications all open and running simultaneously, so who knows how this all started. but one day, i flipped open my mac, and just clicked on imovie, not a file mind you, but just the icon, and it took like 2 minutes to load (usually 5-10 seconds). i made sure all other apps and windows were closed and tried it again - now 3 minutes to load and it drops out mid edit. and it just kept getting worse.
AND THEN, AFTER IWROTE ABOVE 'I - ME' MADE THINGS, MUCH, MUCH WORSE.
i was aware that there is an old quicktime 7 that gets installed in a 10.6.8 to supplement the newer quicktime x and the various other programs, including imovie, that still use qt 7. i was a bit confused why there even is an icon for qt 7 in the utilities folder, since you never open it directly, it just works behind the scenes. but whatever.
after imovie started acting up, i looked up to see what programs that imovie uses, thinking the problem might be there and found an article that said there was actually an even earlier version of quicktime, (qt 7.0.3 i think) that was specifically made for imovie, but there hadn't been enough major changes in qt to bother imovie, but (there is always a but) there were changes coming that would begin to affect imovie. since the article (i wish i could link it here, sorry) was a year old, i thought maybe the damaging upgrade was already made. so i found this older version of quicktime (the 7.0.3 version) and tried to install it, thinking it would fix my issue, i'd finish the edit, then delete it. but when i tried to open it, it told me, a newer version of of qt was on my computer and i couldn't install it. so very impulsively and idiotically i uninstalled quicktime 7, thinking i would just reinstall it later. but that's when everything went wrong.
SO I MUST STRESS THIS TO EVERYONE! NEVER NEVER NEVER UNINSTALL QUICKTIME.
apparently quick time x is preinstalled into the 10.6.8, in such a way, that its interconnected with like 12 other programs, that will all begin to act erradictly after it is uninstalled. then those 12 programs will each affect 5 more and soon, your computer, then your hard-drive is blown. i tried reinstalling quicktime, but could not. i tried every conceivable way, but could not even find it in any folder. it was gone. and so was qt x.
so when i uninstalled quicktime 7, it affected quick time x in such a way that it stopped working, then could not be found. then all h**l broke loose. every program began to run slowly and started dropping out. functionally, the computer became so slow, it was useless. even typing became slow. i still did not know about the 'never uninstall quick time rule' yet, so i looked for the problem else where.
i opened up activity monitor, and there were no programs eating up cpu, nothing that suspicious. but when i switched activity monitor to show usage in a descending order, i saw kernel task was using between 500-700% cpu. my fans started running furiously and my battery life dropped in half. i would switch off the computer, start it with reset, things would go well for a half hour, then kernel would spike, the computer would get red hot and the fans would go as fast as propellers. since the kickstarter campaign i was working on was on deadline, i had to keep working. so i went out and bought a laptop stand that allows airflow under the computer and has its own fan to cool the computer, that worked for about a day. but since the fan on the stand ran on power from the usb of my computer, my battery life went from very good, to completely dead. nothing. accidentally unplug the cord for a millisecond second, and the computer turns off. when i restart, the time is set to the day and time i bought the computer, and would undo my internet, and i'd have to reset my whole connection.
i spent twelve straight hours, through the night, using recovery programs, like pacifist, stellar phoenix, and others, but could not get quick time back. finally (like 4 hours ago) i called apple, and although i have no warranty or apple care, they took my call and we tried some things, which didn't work.
i had already run disk utility and exhausted all other options. and i was told by apple that since my computer was preloaded (no discs) i could not, erase and reboot, which wasn't really an option anyway.
so apple being the best run company in the country, sends me a new down loadable version of imovie, quick time 7 and quick time ten.
it hasn't arrived yet, but how cool is that?
i have to say though, i'm a bit worried about reinstalling by disc and have no real guarantee that everything will return to normal.
not to mention my battery is dead and snow leopard gives you no way of getting to it. it has to be replaced at an official apple certified store.
so lesson here, never, ever, never, uninstall quicktime. i hope no one else makes this mistake.
thanx and good luck.

My experiences of importing different formats into IMovie...!!

I’ve been through a lot of pain with IMovie for the last 6 months, and cracked it a couple of days ago. I therefore feel the need to write about my experiences.
I have lots of old footage on:-
1. DV tape
2. HI8 tapes
3. Sony mini-DVDs
4. DVDs
5. Sony standard def hard disk camcorder files.
1. DV tape
This was a joy to import. OK, so I had to invest a small amount of cash to buy a new cheapie DV camcorder (as my old one broke years ago), but the import itself was easy. Just connect the camcorder, the import window appears, and away to go. Events are imported with the correct date and time, and it even creates a new event for different days imported.
2. HI8 tapes
As I’ve only got a few of these, I decided to ‘cheat’, so I’ve recorded them onto DVDs using my domestic DVD recorder sitting under my TV. So the problem is shifted from HI8 tapes onto DVDs.
3. Sony mini-DVDs
I’ve been trying to crack this issue for months. Clips are imported in random order, even though they are shown in the correct order in the preview. Hopefully it will get sorted. See the following thread:-
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9404421&tstart=0
4. DVDs
Haven’t tried this yet, until the mini-DVD issue is sorted. I might go down the road of converting the VIDEO_TS folders into DV files using MPEG Streamclip from squared5.com but I’d rather wait and import them ‘properly’ as the software intended.
5. Sony standard def hard disk camcorder files.
Now this is the biggie…..
I had about 1,000 MPEG2 files on my hard disk, that I’ve moved from my camcorder over the years. To my annoyance, when I switched from a PC to the Mac, I needed to buy the MPEG add-on to Quicktime. OK, so no big deal, but even then, all I could get was the video with no sound. After weeks of digging about, I found out that the reason there was no sound is because apparently Quicktime can’t handle MPEG files with AC3 dolby digital sound. As all of my files are recorded in this format, this was a major hurdle.
I then dug around and discovered that on the Sony CD that comes with the camcorder, there is a utility to down mix the AC3 audio to stereo. But it can only do one file at a time – no good for 1,000 files.
Even so, I tried a few files, and yes – they now played under Quicktime WITH audio.
But when doing an import into IMovie 09, the files are greyed out and cannot be selected. So back to the drawing board...
I then looked into various bits of software, finally deciding to get MPEG Streamclip, in order to convert the files in something more Apple friendly.
I did lots of experiments over many weeks in converting files to different formats for import into IMovie, and even though some of them looked excellent, when exporting to different sized export files (e.g. IPod, AppleTV), some of them had artifacts and shimmering all over the place.
Reluctantly I took the helpful advice of someone to convert them into DV files. I say ‘reluctantly’ because the files are HUGE. So much so, I then shelled out (even) more cash on a Drobo to store all the converted DV files.
Next problem...
Because MPEG Streamclip converts the files into DV files, the original date and time information is lost. This is a real pain and means IMovie thinks all the files are 2009.
I then purchased the excellent ‘A better finder renamer’ and ‘A better finder attributes’, to see if I could rename the files. Unfortunately there is no easy way to say ‘change the date/time on the new DV file to be the same as the old MPEG file’ a thousand times over.
I then approached a company about writing a bespoke automator script to do this for me. But it was going to be expensive.
I then set about manually changing some of the dates of the files.
Even then, IMovie was getting confused during the import, and putting some of the scenes in the wrong order. Looks like because MPEG Streamclip is so quick at doing the conversion to DV, that some of the files have the same time stamp, so IMovie gets confused.
I then looked into software to slow my Mac down, so that MPEG Streamclip would run slower (I wanted to guarantee that each file out of the thousand that it created was created in a different MINUTE to the last file). This was proving fruitless however.
I then had useful discussions with Appleman1958 - see thread -
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1979095&tstart=0
who suggested that I could rename the files with the IMovie notation, i.e.
clip-yyyy-mm-dd hh;mm;ss.ext
I even worked out how to do this automatically using ‘a better finder renamer’.
But there was still one more issue.
When the files were imported into IMovie, the thousand files would just come in as one event (unlike importing DV tape where it splits into days).
Being unhappy with this, I had a brain wave and decided to try something else. AppleMan1958 helpfully suggested putting the files into different folders “behind IMovie’s back”, something I was open to doing, but wanted to try something else first...
I resurrected my old camcorder from my attic, and filmed a few minutes of footage.
I then plugged the camcorder into my Mac. To my AMAZEMENT, the import window appeared in IMovie (just like it does for DV tapes), AND the audio played as well as the video. I was absolutely staggered.
I then noticed an ‘archive’ button within the import window, so decided to press it. It then copied the MPEG file from the camcorder onto the hard disk. But it did so in the structure of the original camcorder (i.e. it creates a series of specially named folders, just like on the camcorder).
I then decided to copy all 1,000 of my MPEG2 files into the new special structure that had just been created.
All 1,000 files were then accessible using the standard import function!!!!
(By the way – I’m sure people already know this information – and I’m in no way taking credit for any of it, as it’s probably been suggested by other people in the past).
I’ve now happily imported all of the files.
(Interestingly, a couple of times it said ‘Error!’ on importing some of the files. The third time I tried it, it worked. How random!!)
What amazes me is that now the Mac CAN seemingly handle MPEG video AND ac3 audio, whereas it can’t handle it by double-clicking the files in the finder. I can’t see why this should be the case. Also, it’s really annoying that when importing the files from hard disk, the files are totally greyed out – but it CAN import them by fooling IMovie into thinking it’s a camera archive.
Ofcourse now I’ve spent all this extra money, it’s time to dust off the old camcorder and use that for a few more years, until I pluck up the courage to go hi-def...
Hope you enjoyed reading – thought I’d share my experiences incase there are any newbies out there with similar issues. It’s annoying that Apple make it seem like childsplay to connect your new shiny camcorder to IMovie, but seem give little help in the more technical issues.
Now, if only they’ll fix the mini-DVD import bug too...!
Brad

Hi Brad,
when you use Streamclip to convert media, use the same name for the exported file (only with different extension). Then make a shell script calling
touch -r origFileName.mp2 newFileName.mov
This will copy the exact time and date from origFileName.mp2 to newFileName.mov
The script may look like this (save the file, give an exec permission to it and call it in the right directory):
#!/bin/bash
for i in `ls *.mp2`; do
NEWNAME=$(ls "$i" | sed -e 's/mp2/mov/')
touch -r $i $NEWNAME
done
You may need to adapt the extension names used (in the example above .mp2 is input file to get the date/time stamp from and .mov is the output file to stamp.
Have fun and cheers

The Jump from Snow Leopard to free Mavericks OS broke my iPhoto..

I updated my macbook pro today. I jumped straight from Snow Leopard to Mavericks. It was just like installing a really big app from the app store. However, it left iPhoto in the weeds of incompatibility. It was the latest version supported by Snow leopard and compatibilty instructions from Apple said I my computer met the requirements for the updated OS. Now my iPhoto has a big white circle with a line through it indicating that this version of iPhoto is not supported on the new OS. I cannot even view my pictures folder since it is in this broken iPhoto folder. Talked to Apple iPhoto specialist and he was super cool and checked with superviser but came to the conclusion that there is no conclusion at this moment. Day 1 downloaders should always consider this risk. I was just excited after seeing todays keynote and went for it on the macbook pro. This is what we both concluded..
The suite of apps in iLife and iWork were usually purchased via physical disk or preinstalled when purchasing a Mac a couple years ago. So there is no update for these in the app store (the new way of obtaining and updating software). This was a bit of an oversight in todays launch of new products. I was instructed to wait a few days and see if there is a "patch" for this error of compatibility. I can be patient and wait for this, but if there is no patch... Then I am in a great deal of trouble with my Wife! Lol seriously, she had a bunch of our wedding, honeymoon, and newborn daughter pics on this laptop and I foolishly updated without backing up. To my credit, I did my homework and learned that it "should" leave all my content as is. It is like the IOS updates that just overlay the software and replace only os stuff. This was true. Everything is exactly where it was before, only I cannot access the pictures, open iPhoto, update iMovie (it prompts that there is an update, but takes you to the app store updates page and it is not there). Basically at this point, I have to re-buy iLife and iWork because my versions are too old for the operating system released today. This would be fine if I was informed that my paid apps would need to be re-bought, but Apple stated that my device was compatible and this would be a simple update much like any other app. I also have extended apple care protection for our products, but the apple support guy said that store support will not have a fix at this time either. I suggested to take note of this particular issue because anyone who jumps from Snow Leopard to Mavericks may likely face this issue. I suggested that they offer a patch for the mistake or offer a free iphoto download (or other native app that broke in the process).
Other than my iLife and iWork apps not making a clean jump to the new OS, I really like the features and fluidity of the system. Apple makes high-quality products and innovates. I am not upset at all. Just a bit frightened because if I lost these photos and videos, you are reading a dead mans words.
Any thoughts or suggestions are much appreciated.

The same thing happened to me, since I have iPhoto 9.2.3
There is some kind of "direct access" to your original photos:
/Users/[your user name here]/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Masters
All pictures should be saved there, organized by year...
iPhoto will still not work but at least you can recover your photos.

I had iLife pre-installed on my aluminium Macbook 2009 with OSX Leopard on it. My hard drive broke but got most of the info off it and just installed snow Leopard on to a new drive and then downloaded and installed Mountain Lion over it. Now I don't have

I had iLife pre-installed on my aluminium Macbook 2009 with OSX Leopard on it. My hard drive broke but got most of the info off it and just installed snow Leopard on to a new drive and then downloaded and installed Mountain Lion over it. Now I don't have iLife anymore. How do I get it back?

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
Mac OS X doesn't come with iLife applications, so you have to install them manually after installing Mac OS X.
Insert the Applications disc or Mac OS X Install Disc 2 DVD and install iLfe applications. Then, open  > Software Update, and install the latest update. If you want, you can purchase iMovie, GarageBand and iPhoto in the App Store, so you will get the most recent version

Problem with opening iMovie 2 projects in iMovie 5I submitted this question

I submitted this question some time ago and had some interaction with Lennart Thelander but it was never resolved. I didn't explain my question in as much detail as perhaps necessary to understand what happened, so I will try again.
I was using iMovie 2 for years and created many projects consisting of portions of clips split and moved around, audio, titles, transitions, the works, all dragged into the timeline and saved. Earlier this year I got iMovie 5 HD. When I opened one of my iMovie 2 projects, this message appeared:
"The project “home again home again” was saved with an older version of iMovie. Opening it in this version will cause it to be upgraded, which will make it unreadable by older versions. Are you sure you want to open it?"
I assumed that this could only make for improvement of the project, so I hit OK. When the project opened, the clips were now all exactly "9:28" in length (i.e. 10 minutes), and all the original breakdown of components (above-mentioned) was lost. It seems that iMovie 5 simply flattened the iMovie 2 project and broke it into 10 minutes segments.
My main question is whether there is any way to restore the original movie in its previous fom, with all the component parts. If I want to use any of those video clips in another movie, I need the original clips, which iMovie 5 seems to have flattened and essentially destroyed.

Hi
There are two levels of problem here
A. How to Copy Event's and Project's to external hard disks
- CAN NOT BE DONE - via DeskTop/Finder - must be done within the iMovie application
- The external hard disk must be - Mac OS Extended (hfs) formatted - UNIX / DOS / FAT32 / Mac OS Exchange - do not work for Video
B. Regarding Audio and photos used in Movie Project's
- There is NO Copy of them (or video) in Your Project.
- The Project is no movie at all - it is just a small TEXT document pointing to where material is stored and howto it's supposed to be presented as the Movie You are making.
IF Audio and Photos are not copies over to the external hard disk - and in Your movie introduced from this new storage - the new Mac can not find and connect to this material. It just don't work.
To move
• iTunes
• GarageBand
• iPhoto
Libraries to the external hard disk - so that the New environment will find and connect to is - has never worked for me.
I maker a dedicated folder and put copies (of audio and photos etc.) into this - and when copied over to external hard disk - re-import them (one at a time) into my movie project. Now iMovie on second Mac will know what and where to look for it/them.
Yours Bengt W

IMovie '08 7.1.4 breaks Sony HDR-SR11 AVCHD Import

Back in August I upgraded to iMovie 7.1.4 and I can no longer import files from my Sony HDR-SR11 AHCHD. IMovie recognized the camera, opens the import window, begins the import but at the end of the import the following message appears in a dialog box "An Error Occurred During Import: There was a problem importing 1 of 1 clips from your camera. Please review the imported movies carefully." No movie loads. Has anyone else had and resolved this problem? Oddly, when I upgraded to Final Cut Express 4.01 the same problem occurred so I use FCE 4.0 instead. I am really interested in determining why these upgrades broke the import with my camera.

I was using Sony HRD-SR12E and facing same problem "An Error Occurred During Import" when importing long clips. Problem solved with directly connect the USB2 into my InterBased iMac. Thanks!
Please also visit this discussion...
Topic : "An Error Occurred During Import"
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8570298#8570298

IMovie broke?

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