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User profile for user: sarah-janeb
sarah-janeb Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

iMovie project timeline missing

Hello, I have lost my edited movie when my hard drive became full last night. Only the current project I was working on is missing. In the iMovie Library under "show package contents" I can see an iMovie back up file which won't open with the iMovie app. As well as damaged & current version files. All the original media files are there - just the edited timeline is gone :(


I have seen in another thread to go to the caches in Go/Home/Library... but I don't have a Library after Home nor do I have a Movie section there... It looks like two or three folders are missing there (as there are two gaps - space for a folder)


What can I do to recover this project?

Thank you!!



MacBook Air 13″, macOS 13.0

Posted on Dec 14, 2022 7:32 PM

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User profile for user: Rich839
Rich839
User level: Level 8
47,838 points

Posted on Dec 16, 2022 7:54 AM

Have you scrolled carefully in the Home/Library/Containers file to see if you might have overlooked the com.apple.iMovieApp folder? Sometimes it can be easily overlooked.



If it's really not there, then possibly when you ran Clean My Mac the folder was deleted.


In the future, you might consider keeping a Time Machine backup on a separate external drive. That way you could restore your iMovie library to a point in time preceding the problem. Here's a link for more information about how to set up a Time Machine backup:


Back up your Mac with Time Machine - Apple Support


Otherwise, you are probably at the place now where you would need to find some restoration software.


Probably rebuilding your project is your most feasible option at this point.


-- Rich




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User profile for user: Rich839
Rich839
User level: Level 8
47,838 points

Dec 16, 2022 7:54 AM in response to sarah-janeb

Have you scrolled carefully in the Home/Library/Containers file to see if you might have overlooked the com.apple.iMovieApp folder? Sometimes it can be easily overlooked.



If it's really not there, then possibly when you ran Clean My Mac the folder was deleted.


In the future, you might consider keeping a Time Machine backup on a separate external drive. That way you could restore your iMovie library to a point in time preceding the problem. Here's a link for more information about how to set up a Time Machine backup:


Back up your Mac with Time Machine - Apple Support


Otherwise, you are probably at the place now where you would need to find some restoration software.


Probably rebuilding your project is your most feasible option at this point.


-- Rich




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User profile for user: Rich839
Rich839
User level: Level 8
47,838 points

Dec 15, 2022 8:56 AM in response to sarah-janeb

Hi, sarah-janeb,


In the Go/Home folder pane, click on the Action button (the one that looks like a little gear) at the top of the Home window. In the drop down menu that appears, click on Show Library Folder. That will make the Library item appear in the Home pane.



Then go to the iMovie backups folder via the following:


To get to the iMovie Backups folder, 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 dated just before your issue started.  iMovie will open in that library.   Navigate to your projects browser (where your projects are displayed as icons) and see if your projects are intact.

-- Rich

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User profile for user: sarah-janeb
sarah-janeb Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

Dec 16, 2022 12:51 AM in response to Rich839

Hi Rich!


Thank you so much for your reply! I followed your instructions and found how to Show Library Folder under View (as I didn't have the action button), but unfortunately when I got to Containers there was no iMovie in the list of com.apple. folders.


I can think of two things, I downloaded and ran Clean My Mac X app a few days earlier and it said it was going to clear out some caches. I don't know if this could be the cause (I have just contacted them to see if they have an activity file within the app - to see what was deleted), yet iPhoto folders are still there. The other thing that happened around the time that the project disappeared (other than the hard drive becoming full) is I got a notification about iCloud being full. I don't know if that is related.


Thank you so much for your help. Hoping you have the answer, so I don't have to re-edit, as I was almost finished! If not, do you know how to avoid this problem in the future? Is there a way to back up?


Thank you!

Sarah



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User profile for user: sarah-janeb
sarah-janeb Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

Dec 17, 2022 4:25 AM in response to Rich839

Hi Rich,


I checked again in the .com.apple section & couldn't find it.


But then went back again & found it under

Go/Home/Library/Containers/iMovie/Data/Library/Caches/iMovie Backups/iMovie Library


The earliest file is after it happened though :(


I didnt realised when I used Clean My Mac X that it was itemised (you had to click into to it to see) and you could select what to delete or not delete. I've done this now to see what it deletes for iMovie & it has 2 items/folders for com.apple.com.iMovieApp (font file & librarycache.archive)& a folder for iMovie Backups.localised


I'm guessing it'll be the last one even though it says .localised at the end


I tried a recovery tool - a free trial that didn't seem to find it


So annoying that these two events happened to coincide, but I think I've exhausted all possibilities now & have started re-editing!


Thanks for your help! I'll know where to look should something similar ever happen again!


Sarah


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iMovie project timeline missing

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