IMovie error causes project to disappear

To anyone who's out there reading this:
I was working on a movie project in iMovie (which I spent weeks working on.) Randomly, iMovie gave me an error, and suddenly closed. Then, my project was gone forever! I tried all types of forums, and support communities. Nothing helped. Apple geeks, if you've encountered this error, please add some fix for this in the future. I am a HUGE Apple supporter. I've basically coerced all of my employees and friends to buy Apple products because this sort of "error" issue doesn't happen. Well, it did! And I feel pretty sheepish about all the money I've spent on reliable hardware and software. However, if anyone has any trick to recover my lost project, that would be helpful. Other than that, Apple, Inc. please help your loyal customers not lose faith in you! Windows 8 is sounding pretty good right now! Just saying. And I HATE Microsoft products.

Hi
No Computer is 100% secure - Apple/Mac HP IBM or Whatever !
There are things that one Can not do when using iMovie. (Very common origin to this trouble)
• DO NOT move or alter any folder named
- iMovie Event's
- iMovie Project's
(or resembling to this)
ON DESKTOP/FINDER
If You do - then iMovie get lost - as You then breaks the link back to it.
Medicine (that might help) : When iMovie is NOT RUNNING - Move them back to their original places.
This can work - if they was not moved out to an external hard disk - NOT FORMATTED as Mac OS Extended.
( formatted as: UNIX / DOS / FAT32 / Mac OS Exchange - can not be used for Video ! )
Else - there are zillions of things that can go wrong - see my long long list of notes:
When iMovie doesn't work as intended this can be due to a lot of reasons
• iMovie Pref files got corrupted - trash it/they and iMovie makes new and error free one's
• Creating a new User-Account and log into this - forces iMovie to create all pref. files new and error free
• Event or Project got corrupted - try to make a copy and repair
• a codec is used that doesn't work
• problem in iMovie Cache folder - trash Cache.mov and Cache.plist
• version miss match of QuickTime Player / iMovie / iDVD
• preferences are wrong - Repair Preferences
• other hard disk problem - Repair Hard Disk (Disk Util tool - but start Mac from ext HD or DVD)
• External hard disks - MUST BE - Mac OS Extended (hfs) formatted to work with Video
( UNIX/DOS/FAT32/Mac OS Exchange - works for most other things - but not for Video )
• USB-flash-memories do not work
• Net-work connected hard disks - do not work
• iPhoto Library got problems - let iPhoto select another one or repair it. Re-build this first then try to re-start iMovie.
This You do by
_ close iPhoto
_ on start up of iPhoto - Keep {cmd and alt-keys down}
_ now select all five options presented
_ WAIT a long long time
• free space on Start-Up (Mac OS) hard disk to low (<1Gb) - I never go under 25Gb free space for SD-Video (4-5 times more for HD)
• external devices interferes - turn off Mac - disconnect all of them and - Start up again and re-try
• GarageBand fix - start GB - play a few notes - Close it again and now try iMovie
• Screen must be set to million-colors
• Third-party plug-ins doesn't work OK
• Run "Cache Out X", clear out all caches and restarts the Mac
• Let Your Mac be turned on during one night. At about midnight there is a set of maintenance programs that runs and tidying up. This might help
• Turn off Your Mac - and disconnect Mains - for about 20-30 minutes - at least this resets the FireWire port.
• In QuickTime - DivX, 3ivx codec, Flip4Mac, Perian etc - might be problematic - temporarily move them out and re-try
(I deleted the file "3ivxVideoCodec.component" located in Mac HD/Library/Quicktime and this resolved my issue.)
buenrodri wrote
I solved the problem by removing the file: 3ivxVideoCodec.component. after that, up-dated iMovie runs ok.
Last resort: Trash all of iMovie and re-install it
Yours Bengt W

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Thanks for the details. We have a similar problem (see my post below) and are in the process of adding back each clip and then testing for export. My question is, once iMovie is unable to export the project, does it render the file "bad" and prevent exporting even if you remove the "poisned" clip(s)?
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Hello, We are having a similar problem running iMovie '09. We get the exact same error as you reported.
"Unable to prepare project for publishing" The project could not be prepared for publishing because an error occurred (-50)
We have a very similar situation were we have multiple repeated clips. However, our clips are 2.4 's. Like you, we took the finished project and started eliminating edits that we thought might be preventing it from exporting. The following actions still would not allow the project to export:
removing title pages
removing transitions
removing imported music from iTunes
removed another clip from another event
closed all other programs
closed iMovie, powered off computer, opened iMovie, tried to export
reconfirmed the last project exported would still export - it did without issueThe only difference between the project that will export and the one that does not are these short (2.4's) repeating clips
When we create the new project from the recorded event without making any edits (just as recorded), it exports without issue. We have started the arduous task of adding back in each edit and testing it for export until we determine which edit is causing it to "not export". This is a very inefficient way of troubleshooting.
This is a science project for my son and we need to be able to save it as a QT or mpeg4 movie so that he can submit it to his teacher for viewing and a grade!
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No, I did not.
Meanwhile I have found the reason for the projects disappear in my libraries! The problem is caused by using the dash "#" symbol in my project names.
I have created another project with a dash in the name and the project also disappeared in iMovie with the same effect that the underlying data was still in die library.
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Hi
Do You have a NEW Mac ?
Does it really have iDVD ? New ones Don't.
Please tell much more
• Mac used
• Program used (versions)
• Material used (Codecs, file formats etc)
Yours Bengt W

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Question, asked professionally
When will iMovie for Mac be able to open iMovie for iOS projects?
Question, asked snarkily
Any reasonable expectation that we will ever be able to edit projects--created in iMovie on our fancy new expensive phones--in iMovie on our fancy new expensive laptops?
Specs
iPhone 6 Plus (contract-free, 128 GB)
iOS 8.1.2
iMovie for IOS 2.1.1
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid-2014)
OS X Yosemite 10.10.1
iMovie for Mac 10.0.6
Error Messages
iMovie for Mac: "iMovie cannot open files in the "iMovie for iOS Project" format."
iMovie for iOS: "An error occurred during export."
Frustration
Manufacturer: Apple (a multibillion dollar company)
The year: 2015
Hours lost: Three Weeks
Total costs for both devices: $4,000
Background Details
I just wasted thousands of dollars on these two hardware devices by making the rookie mistake of assuming projects were compatible across iMovie applications. However, the exported .iMovieMobile project files are in an incompatible iMovie for iOS Project format that iMovie for Mac cannot import. So I am stuck with a 15 GB .iMovieMobile project file--for an hour-long+ video--that I created and I was editing on my iPhone for weeks that I can no longer edit on my iPhone due to an error, nor potentially rescue the lost hours on my Mac, the sole reason I purchased it one day ago. The reason I can no longer edit the project on the iPhone is because iMovie for iOS suddenly stopped displaying the video of the project in preview, external display, etc. The clip snapshots remain visible and the audio remains audible, but the video appears fully black. Any attempt to export the video at any resolution generates an error message. (This error applies only to this project; other projects export without issue.) I can save to and from iTunes or iCloud without issue, but import into iMovie for Mac is unavailable for this latest version. Deleting and reinstalling the app does not resolve the issue. Nothing has resolved this issue; so I purchased the Mac as a last attempt, and it appears that I will have to begin the meticulously painful process of recreating the video from scratch with all the titling, sound effects, precise edits, transitions, organization, etc. This video was to surprise my mother for her birthday with "this is your life" footage, including my late father. It may seem like a small first-world problem, but such things carry big emotional impacts. What began as such a wonderfully intuitive and joyful experience has descended into a soul-suffering nightmare of catastrophic proportions. This software grinch stole christmas.
Likely Suspect
I believe this originated from Apple's confusingly designed iTunes client that removed videos used by iMovie for IOS during a sync, which I successfully restored back to the iPhone. This apparently resulted in iOS seeking and then claiming to find all of the videos, but somehow a bug in the coding causes the audio to play but not display video, and no way to resolve the bug from an enduser standpoint. I was hoping that iMovie for Mac would allow me a workaround, but I'll never know because the iOS and Mac formats are currently and dishearteningly incompatible.
Suggestions
I never performed a full backup of the iPhone, but I don't believe any of the iCloud nor local backups actually backup iMovie projects themselves anyway. (That's a fail.) So one must back them up manually to iTunes or iCloud.
MANUALLY BACKUP YOUR PROJECTS DAILY, IF NOT HOURLY.
MANUALLY BACKUP YOUR PROJECTS BEFORE IMPORTING OR SYNCING FROM ITUNES.
MANUALLY BACKUP YOUR PROJECTS BEFORE IMPORTING VIDEO CREATED OUTSIDE OF YOUR IOS DEVICE.
Resolutions
Hope Apple fixes this problem soon? Perhaps.
Return the Mac to Apple, if they allow? Perhaps.
Someone in this community will provide a magical workaround--that I haven't already attempted? Perhaps.
As unlikely these options may be, I shudder to imagine that I may be forced to suffer no resolution and $3,000+ completely down the drain, because if iMovie for IOS worked as intended, I wouldn't have ever purchased the Mac as a last ditch effort to rescue the project. It meant that much to me to surprise my mother by attempting to retrieve this project file from oblivion--but to no avail.

I appreciate you taking the time to copy and paste boilerplate responses to increase your points in this forum, but I've already read all those support articles in depth; but you have barely read my post at all. Please don't guess a fix. Only someone with the latest versions of iMovie, iOS, iPhone, Yosemite, and MacBook Pro is qualified to troubleshoot this, because anyone would immediately see that the following option no longer exists:
Open iMovie on your Mac, and choose File > Import > iMovie for iOS Project.
Read my post before you reply: It clearly says in the title and within my post that I can neither export nor import through iTunes without receiving an error message. So your response neither solved my question nor helped me whatsoever.

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Let's back up a bit. There are some things here that sound very strange, including that the project contains no project file with a tilde in its name.
Were you ever able to save the project successfully? If so, iMovie should have created a tilde file as a backup to your project file "aaa.iMovieProj". If the tilde file doesn't exist, that suggests there's some underlying problem that's causing a failure to save the project to disk.
Let's set aside that project for a moment. Use iMovie to create a new project on the same disk. In the Finder, choose Show Package Contents. (There will be no tilde file in the package for the project hasn't yet been saved.)
Drag the file "aaa.iMovieProj" onto the TextEdit icon in the Dock. The first few lines should look like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
Is that what yours looks like?
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Did iMovie save okay? Did the tilde file appear?
Try adding images to this project, then save. Did it save okay?
Quit iMovie. Re-launch iMovie. Did the project open successfully?
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http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=1852869#1852869
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Hi,
I found same issue in a metalink thread which is addressed in Oracle 12.1 which doesn't help me now. I need to rewrite the below query. Does anyone have any suggestions how to go about it?
thanks,
April
working in Oracle 11.2.0.3.1, windows server, doing an upgrade from 10g to 11g. Piece of code is failing with following error via TOAD
Oracle Database Error Code ORA-22902 Description :
CURSOR expression not allowed
Error Cause:
CURSOR on a subquery is allowed only in the top-level SELECT list of a query.
The below code is returning a tree of data for projects, units within the buildings.
Code as follows:
SELECT LEVEL
, p.project_id
|| NVL (p.file_ref, ' ')
|| '] ['
|| NVL (p.project_ref, ' ')
|| '] '
|| p.project_name
|| ' ( '
|| (SELECT COUNT (*)
FROM PROJECT p1
WHERE p1.parent_project_id = p.project_id)
|| ' sub-projects, '
|| (SELECT COUNT (*)
FROM PROJECT_ELEMENT pe2
WHERE pe2.project_id = p.project_id)
|| ' elements)' AS project_description
CURSOR
(SELECT pe.element_id
|| pe.element_ref
|| '] '
|| pe.element_name
|| ' ('
|| pe.unit_count
|| ')' AS element_description
CURSOR
(SELECT hu.hu_id
|| hu.hu_ref
|| '] '
|| CASE
WHEN hu.bedroom_count IS NOT NULL
THEN ', Bedrooms: ' || hu.bedroom_count
ELSE NULL
END
|| CASE
WHEN hu.bedspace_count IS NOT NULL
THEN ', Bedspaces: ' || hu.bedspace_count
ELSE NULL
END AS hu_descripton
FROM HOUSING_UNIT hu
WHERE hu.element_id = pe.element_id
ORDER BY hu.hu_ref
) AS housing_units
FROM PROJECT_ELEMENT pe
WHERE pe.project_id = p.project_id
ORDER BY pe.element_ref, pe.element_name
) elements
FROM PROJECT p
START WITH p.project_id = l_root_project_id
CONNECT BY PRIOR p.project_id = p.parent_project_id -- connect by used with LEVEL keyword
ORDER SIBLINGS BY p.file_ref DESC
, p.project_ref DESC
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Interesting. I am getting even worse results on 11.2.0.1.0:
SQL> select * from v$version
2 /
BANNER
Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.1.0 - Production
PL/SQL Release 11.2.0.1.0 - Production
CORE    11.2.0.1.0      Production
TNS for 32-bit Windows: Version 11.2.0.1.0 - Production
NLSRTL Version 11.2.0.1.0 - Production
SQL> select dname,cursor(select ename from emp e where e.deptno = d.deptno) from dept d
2 /
select dname,cursor(select ename from emp e where e.deptno = d.deptno) from dept d
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00604: error occurred at recursive SQL level 1
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SQL> connect scott
Enter password: *****
Connected.
SQL> select * from v$version
2 /
BANNER
Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0.4.0 - Prod
PL/SQL Release 10.2.0.4.0 - Production
CORE    10.2.0.4.0      Production
TNS for 32-bit Windows: Version 10.2.0.4.0 - Production
NLSRTL Version 10.2.0.4.0 - Production
SQL> select dname,cursor(select ename from emp e where e.deptno = d.deptno) from dept d
2 /
DNAME          CURSOR(SELECTENAMEFR
ACCOUNTING     CURSOR STATEMENT : 2
CURSOR STATEMENT : 2
ENAME
CLARK
KING
MILLER
RESEARCH       CURSOR STATEMENT : 2
CURSOR STATEMENT : 2
ENAME
SMITH
JONES
SCOTT
ADAMS
FORD
SALES          CURSOR STATEMENT : 2
CURSOR STATEMENT : 2
ENAME
ALLEN
WARD
MARTIN
BLAKE
TURNER
JAMES
6 rows selected.
OPERATIONS     CURSOR STATEMENT : 2
CURSOR STATEMENT : 2
no rows selected
SQL> And double CURSOR also works fine in 10g:
SQL> select cursor(select dname,cursor(select ename from emp e where e.deptno = d.deptno) from dept d) from dual
2 /
CURSOR(SELECTDNAME,C
CURSOR STATEMENT : 1
CURSOR STATEMENT : 1
DNAME          CURSOR(SELECTENAMEFR
ACCOUNTING     CURSOR STATEMENT : 2
CURSOR STATEMENT : 2
ENAME
CLARK
KING
MILLER
RESEARCH       CURSOR STATEMENT : 2
CURSOR STATEMENT : 2
ENAME
SMITH
JONES
SCOTT
ADAMS
FORD
SALES          CURSOR STATEMENT : 2
CURSOR STATEMENT : 2
ENAME
ALLEN
WARD
MARTIN
BLAKE
TURNER
JAMES
6 rows selected.
OPERATIONS     CURSOR STATEMENT : 2
CURSOR STATEMENT : 2
no rows selectedSY.
Edited by: Solomon Yakobson on Jul 17, 2012 1:27 PM

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