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.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

User profile for user: jhyieslame
jhyieslame Author
User level: Level 1
22 points

Help recovering movie project from iMovie

As my kids graduated from HS, I created an open House video for each of them in iMovie. I was going thru today and just clearing excess files out of my Documents and downloads folder and ran into MP4 files for two of them, but can't find the third. I know I didn't delete it, because I was doing it by date and this was my youngest and hadn't gotten to that date yet. Anyway, I decided to just go back to iMovie and pull it from there, but I don't see it when I open iMovie.


However, if I go to my Movies -> iMovie Library.imovielibrary there is a folder there that supposedly has his open house video. However, I can't see that when I open iMovie. I created this several versions of iMovie back... Anyway I can recover this?


Currently running Big Sur on my 2017 iMac.


Thanx...

VMware, macOS 10.14

Posted on Jul 14, 2021 7:22 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply
User profile for user: Rich839
Rich839
User level: Level 8
47,670 points

Posted on Jul 14, 2021 11:27 PM

As I understand it, some time back you shared out an Mp4 movie from what appears to be an earlier version of iMovie 10 (based on the library's title). But now you cannot find the movie on your Mac, nor can you find the project in the iMovie app so that you can share it out again although there is a folder in the iMovie library that has the video. Is that correct?


If so, try doing a Spotlight search for the movie. It might be located somewhere else on your Mac. Also, Possibly the movie was saved on an an external drive, so you should look there as well.


Go to the Movies folder on your Mac, or wherever the iMovie library that you looked at is stored, and double click on the library's icon. That will open iMovie and all the projects in the library should be displayed in the projects browser of the iMovie app. See if the project you want is displayed in the projects browser.


If no luck, you might be able to use your Time Machine backup, if you have one, to restore the iMovie app to an earlier point in time when the project existed. Restore it to a different location so as not to overwrite your current version. First, however, make sure that you have looked in the correct library from your iMovie app. In the projects browser, at the top middle, click on the Project button and verify what library the app is displaying.



The library displayed should be the one in which the project was created.


-- Rich




View in context

Similar questions

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply
User profile for user: Rich839
Rich839
User level: Level 8
47,670 points

Jul 14, 2021 11:27 PM in response to jhyieslame

As I understand it, some time back you shared out an Mp4 movie from what appears to be an earlier version of iMovie 10 (based on the library's title). But now you cannot find the movie on your Mac, nor can you find the project in the iMovie app so that you can share it out again although there is a folder in the iMovie library that has the video. Is that correct?


If so, try doing a Spotlight search for the movie. It might be located somewhere else on your Mac. Also, Possibly the movie was saved on an an external drive, so you should look there as well.


Go to the Movies folder on your Mac, or wherever the iMovie library that you looked at is stored, and double click on the library's icon. That will open iMovie and all the projects in the library should be displayed in the projects browser of the iMovie app. See if the project you want is displayed in the projects browser.


If no luck, you might be able to use your Time Machine backup, if you have one, to restore the iMovie app to an earlier point in time when the project existed. Restore it to a different location so as not to overwrite your current version. First, however, make sure that you have looked in the correct library from your iMovie app. In the projects browser, at the top middle, click on the Project button and verify what library the app is displaying.



The library displayed should be the one in which the project was created.


-- Rich




Reply
User profile for user: jhyieslame
jhyieslame Author
User level: Level 1
22 points

Jul 16, 2021 7:52 AM in response to Rich839

Thanx so much. Most of what you had suggested I'd already tried. However, when I got to the last part about the projects button... I'd also already tried that, but it showed me something called my movie and I didn't change it. However, since you brought it up, this time I typed in the name of my son, which would have been in the movie title and voila!!! there it was.


Thanx...

Reply

Help recovering movie project from iMovie

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.
Learn more Sign up