How can I open old iMovie projects with the newest version of iMovie?

Hi,

What version of iMovie and what operating system do you have on your computer?

First, you need to find out what you've got in these folders. Do a Control-Click/Get Info on them and see if they have significant data content, and what app is mentioned in the "open with" box, including those listed in the drop-down when you click on the down arrow.

Then, for each folder, do a Control-Click/Show Package Contents. What is displayed when you do that?

If these folders were created in 2011 they would be iMovie '11 (iMovie 9) folders. However, they look like iMovie 10 folders, with the exception of the iMovie Projects.localized folder. Could these movies have been done in 2013 rather than 2011? That would make them iMovie 10 folders.

Try double clicking on each folder to see what happens.

With the Theater folder, when you do a Control-click/Show Package Contents you might see a list of archived movies. If so, you can press down the Option Key and, while holding it down, drag out the movies to your desk top. They are independent movies that you should be able to play by clicking on them.

With the Library folder, if it opens in iMovie 10 (assuming that you have that version on your computer) then you probably can access your projects, play them, or share them out as independent movies. This assumes that the media for the projects are contained in the library.

The iMovie Projects.localized folder might be an iMovie 9 folder. I doubt if you will find anything playable in it.

If you aren't able to access any of your older movies after doing the above, report back with your findings.

-- Rich

Corrections: I made some mistakes. Had to be:

1. In "iMovie Projects.localized" folder in the system with iMovie 9 find the project in question which is a file named just like that project with the extension ".rcproject". Put that file to the newly created folder "iMovie Projects.localized" in the "Movies" folder of the system with iMovie 10.
2. In "iMovie Events.localized" folder in the system with iMovie 9 find the event in question which is a subfolder named just like that event. Put that file to the newly created folder "iMovie Events.localized" in the "Movies" folder of the system with iMovie 10.

Put it simpler.

• "iMovie Library.imovielibrary" is the iMovie 10 library file-package. It contains every used media across Events and every Project lumped up together under the single roof. It's similar to Library.photolibrary file-package created and used by iPhoto and now Photos.app. Apple extended this methodology to iMovie as well with the release of iMovie 10 in the late 2013.
• "iMovie Theater.theater" is exactly what its name explicitly bears: "iMovie Theater" environment now abandoned by Apple, probably for Apple TV and iCloud Drive so completely irrelevant.
• "iMovie Projects.localized" is the name of the folder used by the old iMovie 9 (or iMovie '11 standing for "iMovie, 2011 release" coincided with v9 of the app). It contains all the projects that you've made in that old trusty iMovie 9 aka iMovie '11.

As to the "iMovie Projects.localized" folder I have to note that the old iMovie 9 used to look to another 2 folders accordingly named "iMovie Events.localized" (contained Events where you'd find imported source media for your Projects, going to "iMovie Projects.localized" folder, together with other supplemental data files, caches, Render Files etc.) and "iMovie Original Movies.localized" containing just media files (videos).

In my experience as long as you have these 3 folders in your "Movies" folder you can successfully update your projects and events to iMovie 10 projects and events: launch iMovie 10 and click on "Update Projects and Events", the rest is taken care of by iMovie itself.

I'd go even further to state that if you have iMovie 9 in your system or even on another computer, or on another partition with another macOS version, you can use both versions concurrently and import projects and events from the old iMovie to the new iMovie. To do this:

If you have both iMovies in the same system do nothing: continue to use iMovie 9 and click on "Update Projects and Events" when you launch iMovie 10. If you have both iMovies in different systems do the following:

If in the system with iMovie 10 you don't have those 3 folders mentioned above create them in "Movies" folder with those exact names each name appended with ".localized". Afterwards:

1. In "iMovie Projects.localized" folder in the system with iMovie 9 find the project in question which is a subfolder named just like that project. Put that folder to the newly created folder "iMovie Projects.localized" in the "Movies" folder of the system with iMovie 10.
2. In "iMovie Events.localized" folder in the system with iMovie 9 find the event in question which is a file named just like that event with the ".rcproject" extension . Put that file to the newly created folder "iMovie Events.localized" in the "Movies" folder of the system with iMovie 10.
3. In "iMovie Original Movies.localized" in the system with iMovie 9 find a subfolder named just like the target event. Put that subfolder to the newly created folder "iMovie Original Movies.localized" in the "Movies" folder of the system with iMovie 10.

That's it. Launch iMovie 10 and update your projects and events in an ordinary way. A word of warning: if iMovie 10 will fail to update your projects and events then the cure is very easy and streamlined: quit iMovie 10 and in each of the folders "iMovie Projects.localized" and "iMovie Events.localized" find a file named "Updated to iMovie10" and delete it. Open iMovie 10 and then it will import your old iMovie 9 projects and events, just bear in mind that you'll have to delete the "Updated to iMovie10" file every time you want to import you projects and events from iMovie 9 to iMovie 10.