You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!
When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.
When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.
I’ve been editing a video in iMovie and finally finished. When I played it through, suddenly both video and audio clips were missing from my timeline! Some audio files were mixed in at random places. I’ve had to spend hours re-editing, but it has done it again.
I’m using a 2019 27-inch iMac, all systems up-to-date.
Is there any way to solve this? Can the old work be recovered?
Hi,
You might be able to retrieve your past work from the iMovie Backups folder on your Mac. To get there, follow this file path from the Finder menu:
Go/Home/Library/Containers/com.apple.iMovieApp/Data/Library/Caches/iMovieBackups
When you get there you will see a list of previous backups of your iMovie library. Click on one that is dated before you had the random deletions issue. iMovie will open in that library. Navigate to your project and see if it is intact without deletions.
Another thing you can try is to use your Time Machine backup to restore your iMovie library to an earlier time before the deletions started to manifest. Restore it to a different location so that you don't overwrite your old library. The restored library would not contain any work that you may have done subsequent to the date of the restored library.
Hopefully you will be able to recover your past work. However, you need to address the issue of random deletions because it might occur again even if you have recovered your past work. Possibly there is some corruption that is confined to just this one
project. You could try placing your media into a newly created project and see if the random deletions stop occurring. Or maybe you have some corruption in your library, in which case you can try opening iMovie in a new library and see if you can create a successful project there. Or, you could try opening iMovie while holding down the Option and Command keys and selecting to delete preferences in the box that appears. iMovie will open in a new library. Reopen your old library to
get back to your projects. Now see if the random deletions are cured.
If the problem keeps occurring, you might consider contacting Apple Support. They are savvy and have testing equipment where they can access your computer, with your permission. To contact Support click on the Contact Support item in the upper right hand corner of this forum's screen. Navigate to a telephone number where you can call Support.
-- Rich
Hi,
You might be able to retrieve your past work from the iMovie Backups folder on your Mac. To get there, follow this file path from the Finder menu:
Go/Home/Library/Containers/com.apple.iMovieApp/Data/Library/Caches/iMovieBackups
When you get there you will see a list of previous backups of your iMovie library. Click on one that is dated before you had the random deletions issue. iMovie will open in that library. Navigate to your project and see if it is intact without deletions.
Another thing you can try is to use your Time Machine backup to restore your iMovie library to an earlier time before the deletions started to manifest. Restore it to a different location so that you don't overwrite your old library. The restored library would not contain any work that you may have done subsequent to the date of the restored library.
Hopefully you will be able to recover your past work. However, you need to address the issue of random deletions because it might occur again even if you have recovered your past work. Possibly there is some corruption that is confined to just this one
project. You could try placing your media into a newly created project and see if the random deletions stop occurring. Or maybe you have some corruption in your library, in which case you can try opening iMovie in a new library and see if you can create a successful project there. Or, you could try opening iMovie while holding down the Option and Command keys and selecting to delete preferences in the box that appears. iMovie will open in a new library. Reopen your old library to
get back to your projects. Now see if the random deletions are cured.
If the problem keeps occurring, you might consider contacting Apple Support. They are savvy and have testing equipment where they can access your computer, with your permission. To contact Support click on the Contact Support item in the upper right hand corner of this forum's screen. Navigate to a telephone number where you can call Support.
-- Rich
Hi Rich,
This has worked so far. A note for anyone else:
Open Finder, press 'command+G' and then type '~/Library'. You should then be able to follow the rest of the above file path.
Thanks so much!
You are welcome. Glad that it worked. :)
-- Rich
iMovie randomly deleting files
