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roshjobinson Author

Level 1

8 points

All my mvi/avi files have converted to jpg...

I realize this topic has been previously discussed, but I could not find anything that has been helpful.

I have old videos from Europe that are backed up on an external hard drive multiple times.

I have one laptop using snow leopard, one iMac using Lion.

I had upgraded iPhoto stupidly and can no longer access the mvi files as they have switched to .jpg.

I've tried importing library.iPhoto6 files to lion and that came up short, though I may have done it incorrectly, as the files acted as if they were there, but gave me the error "!" within a triangle sign.

I've also tried retreiving the files through the "Original" folder and nothing there either. I even changed the file type manually and it just plays a one second clip of a still...

I'm at a loss of what to do and I know this has happened to many people so please help. I also know there was a virus years ago doing this affecting PCs as well. Any relation?

I will be indebted to you forever if someone can please help me. I've spent hours trying to resurrect these as I don't know when I'll be back to Europe and I accidently wiped the SD cards as well...

Thanks!

iPhoto '11, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Jan 10, 2012 5:25 PM

24 replies

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,344 points

Jun 20, 2013 12:19 PM in response to Brad Crews

How do you reckon it's badly designed?

Jun 20, 2013 8:12 PM in response to Yer_Man

Hi Terence,

It may not be that badly designed in a general programming architectural sense. I don't particularly like the interface and it's always been quite slow for me, whereas other programs like iMovie, garageband, etc. function quite quickly. Maybe it's just my frustration about the lost video files speaking, but it seems to me that there's a serious design flaw in a program if you can use it in the simplest way possible — open, import, view, quit — and somehow manage to lose all of the original video files that were in it. It may be a wondefully designed program in every other respect, but if normal, intended use of the program somehow leads to the loss of my files, to me that means there's a serious problem with its design.

Sep 4, 2013 4:05 PM in response to roshjobinson

You can repair avi files by using “Remo avi repair”. As I used this application to fix Avi files on mac OS and it worked as per my satisfaction. You can also try it.

Sep 9, 2013 4:46 AM in response to roshjobinson

Hi, I don't suppose you ever found a way to resurrent your video files once iPhoto turned them into jpegs? I can't even move those files from iPhoto now.

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,344 points

Sep 9, 2013 4:54 AM in response to LadyMorgahnna

iPhoto doesn't turn videos to jpegs.

iPhoto creates a thumbnail for the video when it is imported. That's the jpeg. It's in addition to the movie.

There is no way to recover a movie from a jpeg. Restore from your back up.

Sep 10, 2013 4:15 AM in response to Brad Crews

Hi Brad,

did you ever find a solution? the same thing has happened to me. thanks for your time.

hnthomps

Level 1

11 points

Jan 31, 2014 4:14 PM in response to LadyMorgahnna

I know this thread is old. I've had the same thing happen -- dozens of videos are gone. I have never done anything that could have caused this, I generally like iPhoto but this is awful. I have time machine backups, but this could have happened weeks ago and I don't know what backup to look at or if the backups go back far enough. The only ones that still exist were ones saved to albums that sync to my phone.

So, did anyone ever find a solution? Or just patronizing responses from people who assume we are idiots?

Jul 11, 2014 7:09 PM in response to LadyMorgahnna

Sorry for the late response, but I haven't checked this site in a while. Unfortunately I have yet to solve this issue. Or rather, I went for the nuclear solution — I've stopped using iphoto altogether and have slowly started going through and moving everything I put into it back to a safe place where I know it won't be corrupted.

Djella41

Level 1

0 points

Jan 13, 2016 2:13 PM in response to Brad Crews

Looks like I'm not the only person this has happened to. Did anyone find a solution or is it just cut your losses type of thing? 😟

All my mvi/avi files have converted to jpg...