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How to recover files from iMovie Trash?

Unwittingly I have transfered a full movie (179 clips) to iMovie Trash and the clips appear there in totally jumbled disorder.
How can I reverse what has happened and get the movie back into the Clip Viewer and with the clips in the correct order?

Kiwi buff
New Zealand

Mac mini 1.42GHz SuperDrive Mac OS X (10.3.4)

Posted on Jan 7, 2006 7:51 PM

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5 replies

Jan 7, 2006 11:30 PM in response to Murray E

If you have not SAVED the project you can use UNDO edit.

If the files are in the iMovie trash can - open trash, select one clip, then SELECT ALL and drag all your clips to the clips pane. they will be in clip numerical order unfortunately, which means you can rescue the clips, but you'll have to manually put the puzzle back together.

maybe someone else knows how?

Jan 8, 2006 9:51 AM in response to Murray E

If you have saved the project just one time since moving clips to the Trash, there may be a way that lets you revert. If you haven't yet saved, quit iMovie without saving and everything should revert when you next open the project.

If you've saved, there still may be a way to rescue the project.

iMovie HD stores two project files inside your project. One describes the current state of the project -- your last save. The second is a copy of the PREVIOUSLY-saved version of the project. You might try opening the project with the second project file. Here's how:

• If your project is open, Quit iMovie without saving.

• Control-click on the project icon. Choose "Show Package Contents" from the popUp menu that appears.

• You'll see two project files loose in the window that opens, one named "Sample Project Name.iMovieProj", the other named "Sample Project Name.~iMovieProj". (Note the tilde.)

• Double-click on the project file containing the tilde. If the project opens showing the clips back on the timeline, you're in luck. Quit iMovie without saving, then:

• Back in the Finder window, rename the "wrong" project file to "anything else.iMovieProj", then remove the tilde character from the name of the tilde file. Then double-click on the tilde file. If everything looks good, save (which creates a new tilde file.)

• You've dodged a bullet. I suggest making a backup of a project as you work on it. (We all make mistakes we can't recover from.) In the Finder, click on the project icon and choose File > Duplicate.

Karl

Jan 9, 2006 3:40 AM in response to Karl Petersen

Thankyou Slygirl and Karl P for your advice. I can export the movie back from 'iMovie Trash' to the (blank) Project Time Line by just dragging it from 'iMovie Trash' BUT the clips then appearing in the Time Line are in the same jumbled order as they were in Trash and I dont know how to get them into their proper sequence! (A couple of days ago I DID achieve the correct sequence but lost it when trying to change the Project Title and have not been able to correct it since.)
Any suggestions please?

(Following your advice Karl I got as far as "Show package contents" which produced three icons----Cache,Media and Shared Movies ie different from what you predicted.)

Kiwi Buff


Mac mini 1.42GHz SuperDrive Mac OS X (10.3.4)

Mac mini 1.42GHz SuperDrive Mac OS X (10.3.4)

Mac mini 1.42GHz SuperDrive Mac OS X (10.3.4)

Jan 9, 2006 8:47 AM in response to Murray E

(Following your advice Karl I got as far as "Show
package contents" which produced three
icons----Cache,Media and Shared Movies ie different
from what you predicted.)


Yes, you should see several folders. (It wasn't my intention to list everything inside the project package.)

You should also see two project files loose inside the package -- not inside any other folder. If you don't see at least one, something is very, very strange. The project file ends with the extension ".iMovieProj".

Karl

How to recover files from iMovie Trash?

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