Recovering old iMovie projects

If you created your old movies in iMovie versions 5 thru 9 the movies would not appear in your iMovie 10 library.

Look in your Movies folder and see if there two folders: one named iMovie Projects and the other named iMovie Events. Those would be iMovie 9 folders. The would contain your iMovie 9 projects. If you have them, then you can update the projects that they contain into iMovie 10 by opening iMovie 10 and doing a File/Update Projects and Events. That would put copies of your older projects into the iMovie 10 library.

Another thing you can do is to look in your iMovie 10 backups folder to see if there is an earlier backup of your iMovie 10 library that contains your old projects.

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.

You can also look in your Time Machine backup, if you have one, to see if you have backups of past iMovie libraries that you can restore.

All of the above failing, you probably are out of luck unless you have some other iMovie libraries stored somewhere other than your Movies folder.

-- Rich

Could you explain in more detail exactly what is your situation? Were the old movies produced in iMovie 10 or some other version? In what versions were they produced? Are they in finalized form or still in editable form? How is it that the old movies are not in your current library? Where are they now?

— Rich

It appears that your old projects were created in a library other than your current library. They wouldn't be in your current library unless you moved them there.

Go to your Movies folder (Go/Home/Movies from the Finder menu) and see how many libraries that you have in the Movies folder. Close iMovie and then double click on one of the library's icon and it will open in iMovie. Then go to the Projects browser screen in iMovie and see if your older projects are there. Do that with each library that you have. Then post back with your findings.

-- Rich

-- Rich

Hmmm. I don't know why the iMovie Backups file path is not on either of your computers. It should exist there unless you used some sort of "Mac Cleaner" to eliminate files.

To access editable iMovie projects from your Time Machine backup you would need to restore the entire library. Restore it to a different location than your current iMovie library so as not to overwrite it. So, for example, you wouldn't restore it to your Movies folder if that's where you store your current library.

If by "finished" projects you mean the movies exported from iMovie, then you can drag those into a new iMovie project and so some limited editing there. If the movies are stored in You Tube, you would need first to download them to your Mac and then into iMovie. I realize that you said that you tried importing one of the movies into iMovie, but that you lost your "image settings" and start and end movement. That shouldn't happen. Whatever the movie contains should import into iMovie. If it doesn't import those areas, then you probably could add them back in.

Also, I am unclear re your statement that you "have all of the movies and projects in an iCloud file." iMovie libraries and the projects themselves cannot be stored in the cloud. Movies exported from iMovie can be stored in the cloud.

In any event, you are right that the good news is that you have all of your exported iMovie movies intact. I think that if you experiment a little you will be able to get them into iMovie and edit them to some extent.

-- Rich