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My iMovie was stuck on a spinning wheel. I found information that said to delete preferences but it would not affect my library. Everything is gone. Any idea where it is so I can get it back?
MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 13.4
Deleting preferences does not cause loss of data. So if your library is gone it was not caused by deleting preferences.
When preferences are deleted iMovie will open in a new blank library. Close iMovie and go to your Movie folder (Go/Home/Movies) and find your old library. Double click on it and iMovie will open in it. If you are storing your iMovie library in a place other than the Movies folder, than navigate to where you store it and double click on it there.
If your library really is gone, and cannot be found with a spotlight search, then you will need to restore it from a Time Machine backup if you keep one.
-- Rich
Deleting preferences does not cause loss of data. So if your library is gone it was not caused by deleting preferences.
When preferences are deleted iMovie will open in a new blank library. Close iMovie and go to your Movie folder (Go/Home/Movies) and find your old library. Double click on it and iMovie will open in it. If you are storing your iMovie library in a place other than the Movies folder, than navigate to where you store it and double click on it there.
If your library really is gone, and cannot be found with a spotlight search, then you will need to restore it from a Time Machine backup if you keep one.
-- Rich
Might be that the library has become corrupted. Try looking in the iMovie backups folder for a previously saved version of your library and see if that one will open.
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
NOTE: If running Ventura, in the above file path substitute iMovie for com.apple.iMovieApp. So, for Ventura,
the file path would read:
Go/Home/Library/Containers/iMovie/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. See if iMovie will open in that library. If so, navigate to your projects browser (where your projects are displayed as icons) and see if your projects are intact.
-- Rich
Thank you. I "think" I found it but can't get it to open. All I get is the spinning wheel.
iMovie spinning wheel then lost library
