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Level 1

0 points

Steady Stream of "Searching for movie data in the file..." Error Messages

My iMovie has been crippled by error messages that pop up whenever I try to accomplish anything in iMovie. I always see "Searching for movie data in the file 'healyintro.mov'" for a few minutes, then "The movie file 'healyintro.mov' cannot be found. Without this file, the movie cannot play properly." I cannot actually use iMovie because of these errors.

I've tried everything from reinstalling iMovie to removing application support files to removing my iMovie Events and iMovie Projects folders to creating a .mov file, calling it healyintro.mov and seeing if that'll shut iMovie up – nothing works.

Once in a while, iMovie will ask for a different movie file, with the same problem.

Any ideas?

iMac 26" and Late 2009 MBP, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Mar 8, 2010 8:19 AM

24 replies

Jan 21, 2011 9:19 PM in response to nckswtc1

Yes I movie had real trouble . and it need to be addressed by the pros from APPLE

I have the same trouble with But i think its also to do with Quick time as Some clips from 7d come up with the same massage .

I just cannot use I Movie . i have been in Forums and Been to two mack shops and spent a hole day . and then get home and it all starts again. What the **** is it with this. This only started after up dates .

Please MAC sort it out . Im losing time and money trying to sort this problem out.
Oh AndI not when playing on another mac from external hard drive the same thing happens . We have taken out the I movie and its file , re installed and still the same. i have deleted Quick time and installed from the web , it come up ( need to down load from mac up dates ) I used the one from OSX Leopard. Come to think of it this has been going on ever since i loaded Leopard . help!

saint597

Level 1

0 points

Feb 8, 2011 2:13 PM in response to Codlin

I am also trapped in the "searching for movie in data file" loop. Doesn't matter if the movie is on my external hard drive or if it is turned off and only the mac is running. Sure hope Apple comes up with a fix.

ldalep

Level 1

5 points

Feb 11, 2011 6:03 AM in response to nckswtc1

Hi all this seemed to work for me ....

Go to All movies in the finder - delete cache for movies ( I did all of mine but not sure if this is safe). Then go to the imovie.plist and delete all of these files - bing buda bing no more Searching for movie data in file on launching imovie

Mar 5, 2011 6:42 PM in response to nckswtc1

I WAS having the same problem for 2 weeks, I almost gave up then... Either I got lucky, or not, but this is how my problem got solved. I openend FINDER then in the search section on the top right of my window I typed in the name it was giving me (in my case HDV_0030) I selected it to search "THIS MAC" and it found the file in the (iMovie Events/Christmas/iMovie Thumbnails/HDV_0030) folder. I know that these names are related to my computer, but it worked.

Then I opened iMovie waited till the "Searching for movie data in the file..." came up and pressed 'search' then followed the path I just mentioned, and.......ooohhh yea, IT WORKED!