My iMovie projects are on an external drive. They contain the usual resources: a "Project" file, a "Movies" folder, a "Proxies" folder, a "QuickLook" folder and "Still Image" folder. I am running OS 13.01 on an M1 iMac. Projects did not update when I set up the new computer and won't update manually. Any ideas on how to get iMovie to recognize my old projects and update them into the new format?
iMac 27″ 5K
An iMovie 9 project can be updated by opening iMovie 10 and clicking on File/Update Projects and Events. I assume that you are doing that and getting a message that there are no files to update. However, if you are using Catalina or later, that are 64 bit operating systems, I am not sure whether it will update the 32 bit iMovie 9 app.
Also, what is being updated are the files in the iMovie 9 Events folder and iMovie 9 Projects folder. The two folders must exist together. If they are located on an external drive, they must be located at the root level of the drive, i.e, not in any other folder, or iMovie won't be able to find them. Usually those folders are stored in the Movies folder of your internal drive, but they can be moved elsewhere such as on an external drive.
Possibly the iMovie 9 projects were already updated, in which case you would get the "no files to update message". Look in the iMovie Projects folder and iMovie Events folder and see if you see a marker in there that says "UpdatedToiMovie10". That would indicate that the folders had already been updated.
-- Rich
An iMovie 9 project can be updated by opening iMovie 10 and clicking on File/Update Projects and Events. I assume that you are doing that and getting a message that there are no files to update. However, if you are using Catalina or later, that are 64 bit operating systems, I am not sure whether it will update the 32 bit iMovie 9 app.
Also, what is being updated are the files in the iMovie 9 Events folder and iMovie 9 Projects folder. The two folders must exist together. If they are located on an external drive, they must be located at the root level of the drive, i.e, not in any other folder, or iMovie won't be able to find them. Usually those folders are stored in the Movies folder of your internal drive, but they can be moved elsewhere such as on an external drive.
Possibly the iMovie 9 projects were already updated, in which case you would get the "no files to update message". Look in the iMovie Projects folder and iMovie Events folder and see if you see a marker in there that says "UpdatedToiMovie10". That would indicate that the folders had already been updated.
-- Rich
I don't recognize the subfolder titles that you mention as being related to a project file. What version of iMovie did you use to create the older projects? Can you send a screen shot of what you are seeing?
-- Rich
Probably done in the previous versions of iMovie, 9.0.4. Here is a screenshot of one of my movie folders. They all follow this format and are located in the USER folder under MOVIES.
Older iMovie projects won't update in iMovie 10.3.5
