IMovie lost my project

iMovie lost the project I had been working on for three days.  We have tried spotlight and other search methods but cannot find it.

ah! this solved it.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/23557918#23557918

Similar Messages

  • I exited iMovie and lost my project.  I am able to find it in Finder, under the Movies tab, but can not get it back to a project in iMovie.  Is there a way to restore it?

    Please help!  I exited iMovie and lost my project that I've been working on for days... I am able to find it in "Finder" under iMovie Projects... but I am unable to open it as a Project in iMovie.  I am using iMovie '11, with no time machine, and I'm on a MacBook Pro.

    I fully sympathise with you, as I recently experienced the same issue (as have many others).
    Projects always appear as normal in Finder in the Home folder Movies/iMovie Projects (or on an external disk at the top level in Movies/iMovie Projects). Nothing looks untoward there.
    However, when iMovie is opened again after an editing session, the most recent project worked on does not appear in the listing of projects in iMovie's Project Library - although it is still listed in the Finder folder . This happens for no apparent reason - no unexpected quits, freezes, or crashes, and nothing else out of the ordinary. iMovie is simply not recognizing the project. It can't even be opened by double-clicking on the project in Finder.
    Here are a number of links to other topics on this issue (there may be others I've missed):
    https://discussions.apple.com/message/21370074#21370074
    https://discussions.apple.com/message/21297057#21297057
    https://discussions.apple.com/message/21296973#21296973
    https://discussions.apple.com/message/21157327#21157327
    https://discussions.apple.com/message/21177008#21177008
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4748933?start=0&tstart=0
    https://discussions.apple.com/message/21157079#21157079
    Sorry to bombard you with all these links, but as you will see there are others here reporting the same problem. No solution has been forthcoming unfortunately.
    Be sure to provide feedback to Apple - in iMovie's menu click on iMovie > Provide iMovie Feedback, then complete the online form.
    John

  • Wife lost her project from iMovie

    she worked on this "movie" for days. kept coming back to it and working on it. it was always there. saved itself each session. this evening it is not there anywhere. we are very new to mac and I have no idea how to look for it or where. she is coming unhinged right about now. can anyone guide me here? Thanks in advance.

    I ran into this same problem, but my movie files were still in the directory Movies/iMovie Projects. Even though my projects were in there, iMovie wouldn't show them, and would freeze. I tried trashing the iMovie preferences, but that did not help. I was really unhappy! I thought I lost days of work.
    If your movies are still in that directory, I was able to recover by doing the following:
    - make sure you are not in iMovie.
    - first, make a copy of your iMovie Projects folder by selecting the folder and doing a "File-> Duplicate" from the Finder.
    - next, rename the original folder called iMovie Projects to something else (I simply appended the name "old" so it was iMovie Projects Old
    - start iMovie - it will create a new iMovie Projects folder
    - quit iMovie
    - drag your projects into the newly created iMovie folder (drag from either the duplicate or the iMovie Projects Old folder - make sure you keep a backup!)
    - start iMovie and voila! Your projects are back.
    I hope this works for you, too. It really saved me!

  • IMovie for Mac: "iMovie cannot open files in the "iMovie for iOS Project" format."

    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.

  • I've lost my project. Please help!!!

    I was working on my project, then Macbook restarted itself. After that, I re-opened iMovie again and lost my project. I really have no idea what's happening and this project is so important to me. Anyone knows how to bring back my project?
    P.S. I used the last update version of iMovie
    Thank you

    Hi
    More info please
    • Free space on - Start-Up (Mac OS) Hard Disk ? How much ?
    • Any other hard disks connected ? Formatted as ?
    Yours Bengt W

  • My external hard drive holding half my iMovie events and projects has crashed: how do I restore the events from another source?

    My external hard drive holding half my iMovie events and projects has become corrupted.  I have now downloaded all the same files (from a backup in the cloud) to another hard drive - but iMovie is not "seeing" those events or movies in that external hard drive.  Q1 Is there a way of rectifying that?  (I.e. telling iMovie to point to the relevant folders or files on the new external hard drive)
    Q2 I have a TimeMachine backup of the corrupted drive in another drive which i keep elsewhere.  Is it worth me attempting to restore from that backup? And if so where can I restore to (as the original external drive is corrupted) and how do i go about that restore process so that the events and projects re-appear?
    thanks in advance for your help.  (I thought i would check re Q2 before embarking on the wrong method!)

    When I right click on an image, then went to Go to Folder in Library, it pulls up the new external hard drive where I made the new link. When I try to work on the photos, the image still says file image is offline or missing. When I right click on the image to Show in Finder, it says the image could not be used because the original file could not be found. I eventually did click on their locate and found the image. When I linked those two together, a few minutes later ALL the "?" went missing and now IT WORKS!!!!
    That was weird!
    Hope this helps someone else in my predicament.

  • IMovie HD saved project in older version of iMovie.  Now can't open/find it

    Working on an iMovie HD slideshow. Saved it although had a warning that older versions could not open it. Since I only have iMovie HD, I assumed no problem. Now I cannot open the file. Received WARNING
    ' The project “___” 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. ' Seems like my project was moved to iMovie Trash.
    Questions:
    (1) Can I retreive my project? If yes, how?
    (2) What happened to my IMovie HD and how do I get it back?
    Appreciate your help.

    Sorry I misunderstood about there being a conversion, Steve.
    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?
    Close the TextEdit window containing the project file. Back in iMovie, save the project. Now a tilde file should appear inside the package.
    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?
    The only possible cause that occurs to me is that the disk the project resides on isn't formatted correctly. iMovie requires the Mac OS Extended disk format. If you are storing the project on an external disk make sure the disk has the proper format. More about that here:
    http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=1852869#1852869
    You might also try discarding the iMovie preference file "com.apple.iMovie.plist", located in the Username/Library/Preferences folder. Be sure to quit iMovie before trashing it.
    Karl

  • I want to back up2 hard drives with imovie events and projects as well as 2 desktops. Is TC the best way to do that

    I want to back up 2 hard drives with imovie events and projects as well as 2 desktops. Is TC the best way to do that? Also, I already have a wireless network. Does this create a 2nd one or is it possible to just use it for the backup function?

    Time Machine can do that, if your Time Capsule is large enough (see #1 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions).
    For backing-up multple HDs on a single Mac, see #32 in that same link.
    If by "2 desktops" you mean 2 separate user accounts on the same Mac, see #26 there.   If you mean 2 Macs, see #33.
    You might also want to review the Time Machine Tutorial.

  • Copy iMovie events and projects to SD card

    I have my iMovie events and projects folders on and SD card, and I can copy it to the Movies folder, but I can't copy iMovie events and projects to the SD card, it just shows a white cross:
    Is there any way to copy those folders to the SD card?

    Hi
    a. NEVER do this via DeskTop - Has to be done in iMovie'08 or 09
    b. external hard disk - HAS TO BE Mac OS Extended formatted
    UNIX/DOS/FAT32/Mac OS Exchange - WILL NOT WORK
    (FireWire - is of *Great Value* - though USB/USB2 performs badly)
    c. In iMovie'09 You can movie iMovie Projects and iMovie Events
    (in iMovie'08 only iMovie Events - most important - takes most space)
    d. In Events window in iMovie - top right hand corner - Here You see a small
    sign eg a hard disk.
    By clicking on this - material in window will change from Year view to hard disk
    view
    Now drag one folder eg 2010 to the other hard disk
    iMovie will now ask You if You want a Copy or a full Move
    e. In iMovie'09 - same logic goes for moving of Projects
    Yours Bengt W

  • Backing up iMovie Events and Projects As Opposed to Moving Them

    Hi all. I'd like to make some backups of my iMovie events and projects. I read on the Apple site that the best way to do this is through iMovie itself and not the Finder. I should drag events to an external hard drive inside the iMovie window. When I do this, does it copy the event to the drive, or does it move it to the drive. I'd rather have a copy since I'm trying to make a backup. Also, how would I do this for projects to make a backup?
    2) If I already copied my Events and Projects folder to an external drive, would I be able to use these in the future? Would I just place them inside my Movies folder under user and launch iMovie. These just seems easier in the event that everything crashed. Am I missing something here? It seems like it would be easier just to copy these two folders everytime, and save them in case of a hard drive crash.
    Thanks.

    If you drag your Projects folder over to the external drive icon in the Project Library, a pop-up window will give you the option of just duplicating the Project or getting the Project + associated Events too. I suggest going with the copy of Projects + Events to get a real duplicate backup of your iMovie project. By default iMovie assumes you want a copy.
    If you want to move a Project/Events combo, you would hold down the ⌘ Command key and drag the project to the external drive icon in the Project Library.
    Any time you want a backup, just drag that project folder to the external drive icon, but just make sure you do it regularly. Otherwise you'll end up with an older incomplete previous version of the project because the backup is based on an action you have to remember to do.
    If you already dragged those folders over outside of iMovie, it's unlikely iMovie will be able to see or find those files. You would have to drag them back to the iMovies folders inside your Movies folder. So there's an extra step involved. And if you do that regularly, and don't mind dragging files back into the iMovies folders, that will work too. On the Mac, there's always more than one way to do things, so do what makes sense to you.

  • How can I import iMovie HD 6 project files into Final Cut Express HD3?

    Trying to import iMovie HD 6 projects into FCE HD 3 but 2 windows appear:
    Importing XML data
    and below it a
    SAVE window
    If I click SAVE, both windows disappear, a file with nothing in it appears in browser and when try to play it in the viewer, there is just black....
    Is this all because FCE HD 3 won't support iMove HD 6? so I will need to upgrade to FCE HD 4?

    Use File>Import>Files.
    iMovie Projects as a whole do not Import correctly whereas individual clips do but will need the audio rendering to play correctly.
    Al

  • Opening iMove 1 & 2 projects with iMovie HD

    I can't open projects from previous versions. i thought this was just "normal" but someone recently told me i should be able to.
    any auggestions at ?? i know this is vague, but i simply can't open older projects. in fact, the icons look different - they are not the standard clap-board thingy, or whatever you want to call it.
    thanks.
    SJM

    Hi Scott
    I don't think that iMovie 1 & 2 projects opens in iMovie HD 5.
    Best strategy and quality is to locate Your original tapes and re do.
    If You have a Mac that runns iMovie 1 or 2 then You could export as
    QT.mov by Export or Share function and then import this into iM5.
    Streaming DV would be my choise of QT quality.
    Any one else in this forum with better approaches ??
    Yours Bengt W

  • Merging iMovie 10 events, projects and library...

    I had my prior version iMovie events and projects on a nonstartup internal drive (in folders "iMovie Events" and "iMovie Projects").  I hadn't used iMovie in a while, and iMovie had updated itself to version 10.0.5.  Last night I opened it up and used it, and now have an "iMovie Events," "iMovie Projects," and "iMovie Library" file in ~/Documents/Movies
    I'd like to move the contents of the new Events and Projects folder to the nonstartup internal drive location with all the projects and events (old and new) in those folders on the nonstartup drive.  From what I've read, that is supposed to be done within iMovie, but I don't see how to do that.  The drive does NOT show up anywhere within iMovie!
    Secondly, I only seem to have one iMovie Library file, and it is in ~/Documents/Movies, but when iMovie 10 opened, there were no events or projects listed.  How do persuade iMovie 10 to load the old projects and events?  If I open up iMovie 9.0.9, it shows the projects and events that were created under 9.0.9 but does NOT show the 10.0.5 projects and events.  Is the 9.0.0 iMovie Library file in a different location, and if so, is there a way to merge the contents of these libraries?

    Basically no.  Projects are now part of events and not separate from them.
    Geoff.

  • Lost ALL projects when upgrading

    We have a lot of iMovie projects built in iLife '08 -- after running the iLife '09 installer and launching iMovie '09 -- these projects won't appear in iMovie.
    The projects still exist in the /Movies/iMovies Projects/ folder -- but they do not appear in iMovie.
    We tried double-clicking on these project files -- and they opened iMovie '09 -- but still did not appear in the project list.
    Do they need to be imported? Upgraded?
    Thoughts anyone?
    Message was edited by: C. Scott Gilbert

    Here is a bit more. I noticed that when I upgraded it didn't "find" all of my projects as I had archived quite a few on an external hard drive; that in fact wasn't formatted for Mac (DOS). Even when I moved them to an internal drive (I have 4) it still didn't find them; I couldn't even double click to load them.
    I believe that in order for iMovie to find your projects they have to be in a folder called "iMovie Projects" but at the minimum - if you don't have them there you will want to trash your iMovie preferences and rebuild the library file. When I trashed my preferences it found them all.

  • I can't load 1 Imovie project. Imovie shows 5 projects but only 4 icons show of those. 1 projects symbol won't come up so I can't click on it to work on or play. Please help me as there's lots of work on this project I don't want to lose.

    I can't load 1 Imovie project. Imovie shows 5 projects but only 4 icons show of those. 1 projects symbol won't come up so I can't click on it to work on or play. Please help me as there's lots of work on this project I don't want to lose.

    The performance fixes is a biggy for me, though the other missing
    stuff I use makes me have to use both versions for various things:
    "but they seem to be committed to another release/version."
    Well ... now that's the rub. I would actually welcome this intermediate version to play with (even with the cost of upgrading) if I could rely on it to be finalized into 6.0, full featured, without it taking as long as it has to Upgrade from AA3.0. I would say it was a VERY smart move to give us a preview of 6.0, if I felt in, say, six months they would provide us the fully functional update. But, HOW many years has it been. I felt screwed over while they played around with Sound Booth.
    I was with you for a minute in most of what you said, until your credibility went down a couple notches with me on the statement trivializing midi functionality. I though that was a very clueless statement:
    "but I have no need for a midi controller and if I want a drummer to keep perfect time I'll get a drum machine."
    It does make some of your other statements suspect, tho I won't take it as far as therealdobro's "what's your stake" question.

Maybe you are looking for