iMovie source clip (sound files in iLife media .aif) "missing" in Lion - solution

Hi,

there seems to have been a change sometime (10.6 od 10.7 or when?) in the sound clip format of iMovie / iLife.

They used to be .aif, now they are .caf.

So in my iMovie projects these sound clips were suddenly "missing" (yellow triangle), with no obvious way of "reconnecting them".

Here is the best info on this topic that I have found, thank you very much:

http://www.wellys.com/movies/iMovie%2009%20Source%20clip%20is%20missing.pdf

It is a PDF that describes exactly how to open the project file (package), and edit the project xml file within to include the correct paths to the missing sounds.

Actually, the location of the iLife sounds have not changed, just the ending of the files.

The trickiest bit is to understand that the original imovie project xml file ist actually in binary format.

Using PList editor, this is not obvious, it lets you edit the files with no problem, so I endet up having an unrecognisable iMovie project.

It is important to first convert the file into xml, edit it with an editor, and then reconvert it to binary.

Otherwise iMovie does not recognise it anymore.

All the best

Martin