Is a "missing camera" video gone for good?

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Level 1

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Is a "missing camera" video gone for good?

I am almost sick. I had uploaded from a Sony cam corder months ago my Christmas clips. I was out of room on the camera so I deleted the files. Of course I felt safe because I had already transferred them to the computer. Now when I go back into iMovie, one of my clips says "missing camera." When it plays, it acts like it is going and knows how long the clip should be but you see nothing. I cannot re-import because the file was deleted from the camera. All the rest of the files are there but the one. This was 15 minutes of my little girls Christmas. If I cannot depend on uploaded files to be on the computer, how can I ever delete them from the camera? So irritated and sick that I have lost something I am afraid I cannot get back. Any hope? Any possibility of recovering the file? I deleted it from photo because I didn't want it to be there twice. I get the feeling from looking at other forum posts that iMovie is not a very good product and I probably should not depend on it.

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on Aug 16, 2015 2:28 PM

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Answer 1

GeeD

Level 6

9,173 points

Aug 17, 2015 3:53 AM in response to OhioMommy2

The "missing camera" message indicates that iMovie was working direct from the camera and the clip had never been transferred to the computer. However you later say: " I deleted it from photo because I didn't want it to be there twice. "

Do you mean you had the missing clip in your Photos application? If you use a clip from iPhoto or Photos libraries, iMovie simply links to the copy in the iPhoto or Photos library and does not create a duplicate copy.

Are you using Time machine? It's really important to have some sort of backup. I no longer re-use SD cards but use them as offline backups - they are so cheap nowadays.

Geoff.

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Answer 2

OhioMommy2 Author

Level 1

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Aug 17, 2015 1:31 PM in response to GeeD

When I did the import, it imported it to photo. Then, I imported it to iMovie. I went back and deleted it from Photo so it would not have a duplicate copy. It came from a Sony camera and I never used it it Photo it just imported there when I did import all. I am using Time Machine backup but have not checked there. I know I deleted it on the camera itself because it was on the hard drive and it was full (unfortunately not on an SD card). Which is why I moved everything to the Mac. I can try to search the Time Machine on the off chance it hit there before it went to "missing camera". I guess I just expect Apple products to work and not have bugs so I trusted the import was fine. Guess that was a bad idea.

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Answer 3

GeeD

Level 6

9,173 points

Aug 17, 2015 1:57 PM in response to OhioMommy2

Since it appears never to have actually been imported into iMovie, it could only be in the Time machine backup of your Photos library -but chances are not good if you left it in the Photos library only for a short time (by default I believe Time machine updates its backups every hour).

It does mean that if you have an internal hard disk the file (or more likely partly overwritten remnants of it) may still be on the drive. You would have to try using some third party recovery software http://www.wikihow.com/Recover-Accidentally-Deleted-Files-in-OS-X gives some more information. I can't help on this never having had to do this but it is not easy and the longer you go on using your computer the more likely it will be that the file will be (or will be more) overwritten. Frankly I don't think it is worth trying.

Geoff.

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