recovering old iMovie files

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Level 1

4 points

recovering old iMovie files

I have a bunch of movie files and projects created in an old version of iMovie that version 10 does not recognise. I have tried the "update projects and events" option but I get the message "iMovie could not find any projects or events to update". I can see all of the files in finder but when I click on the individual clips I get the message "This file contains some media that isn’t compatible with QuickTime Player."

Any suggestions as to how I can get all of these back into I movie and open them again would be very gratefully received. Thanks in advance.

Posted on May 3, 2023 3:32 PM

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Answer 1

GardenFlyer Author

Level 1

4 points

May 4, 2023 4:12 AM in response to Rich839

no. In my iMovie Projects folder under each of the individual project folders there is just a file called "project" and the icon is just a blank page.

I have some iMovie Events that are .mov files and have the "QuickTime" icon. When I try and open them I get a n error message "This file contains some media that isn’t compatible with QuickTime Player" when I do open the files they only play sound, no picture

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Answer 2

GardenFlyer Author

Level 1

4 points

May 4, 2023 1:49 PM in response to Rich839

Thanks Rich,

This particular Project file size is 13KB the others I have are all same magnitude

So this is clearly not a file that my Mac is recognising, there is no "Show Package Contents" option on the drop down menu;

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Answer 3

May 5, 2023 11:51 AM in response to GardenFlyer

The media within the iMovie Events ( e.g. Brecon Beacons Feb 2012 ) which is not compatible with QTP may be able to be used ( imported ) into iMovie 10 without conversion.

So , in iMovie 10, import some of these clips and see if iMovie 10 can handle them.

It would mean starting the projects from scratch, but better than nothing.

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Answer 4

Rich839

Level 8

47,850 points

May 4, 2023 7:57 AM in response to GardenFlyer

Control-click on the Project file that is located in your Projects folder. Then click on Get Info from the dropdown menu. What file size does it show? Also from the dropdown menu, click on Show Package Contents. Post a screen shot of the Show Package Contents folder. Does it have any content?

-- Rich

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Answer 5

Rich839

Level 8

47,850 points

May 4, 2023 6:56 PM in response to GardenFlyer

The project file is not a playable file. It basically has no content. When activated by the iMovie 9 app, it will refer to the project's media in the Event folder. However, you will need the iMovie 9 app to play the project.

The .mov files in the Event folder are not compatible with QuickTimePlayer because they likely contain legacy media that has codecs no longer supported by iMovie or QuickTimePlayer.

I suspect that if you copy (copy, not move) the .mov files to your desk top and use the free download Handbrake to convert them to Mp4/AAC files, they will then play.

You can get Handbrake here:

https://handbrake.fr/

A simple way to do it is to open Handbrake and do a File/Open Source. Navigate to your video and choose it as the source from the resulting screen. Then do File/Start Encoding. Wait a couple of minutes for the conversion to

complete. Then save and import the converted clip into iMovie.

-- Rich

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Answer 6

GardenFlyer Author

Level 1

4 points

May 5, 2023 12:21 AM in response to Rich839

Many thanks Rich.

thar sounds like I need to convert each clip separately which to do my entire library will take forever.

if clips and projects created in iMovie9 and lower do t work in iMovie 10 all apple users must have this problem? Didn’t apple provide a way to convert them? I am really rather angry, I thought iMovie was a safe long term repository of my home videos. Now it seems they are lost without a painstaking conversion process. Unbelievable!

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Answer 7

Rich839

Level 8

47,850 points

May 5, 2023 1:59 AM in response to GardenFlyer

The procedure is to open iMovie 10 and do a File/Update Projects and Events. Make sure that your Projects folder and Events folder are stored at the root level on your external drive (that is, not located in any other folder). Otherwise iMovie will not be able to find them.

As for converting the .mov files, I believe that Handbrake will convert them as a batch if you add the movies to a list. You only need to convert the ones that you want to play.

— Rich