"Source clip is missing" - how do i relink iMovie to clips new location?

Hi

iMovie is not that intelligent - You have to go back and re-do it the right way - Sorry

A. Move all back in iMovie Event's and iMovie Project's folders and at their original site ON Start-Up (Mac OS) Hard Disk !

B. If they have not broken - BE VERY HAPPY

C. Now move Event's and Project's WITHIN iMovie Application - NOT on DeskTop/Finder - That doesn't work for 99.9% of us (only people that are very very skilled and have eventually created iMovie can do it elsewhere)

D. THE External Hard Disk - MUST BE - Mac OS Extended (hfs) formatted - UNIX/DOS/FAT32/Mac OS Exchange works for most other things BUT NOT FOR VIDEO - it breaks the raw material files most often beyond repair ! ! ! (Short/small files might survive)

Yours Bengt W

jimowen800 - just a quick addition, if you put your cursor over the yellow triangle (in the edit window) and wait for a minute, it will show you the path the source file iMovie is looking for. This is a great way to make sure the source file is in the right place.

Hi My source files are in the right place yet it still says source clip is missing. I can see and edit the clips in the event library but in the project library the yellow triangles appear. Any help?

I had the same problem (iMovie '09). I was able to locate the original assets by hovering over the yellow alert triangle as mentioned above to get the file name and then doing a spotlight search while all my external hard drives were connected. When I moved them into the "iMovie Events" folder within my user directory, they still did not link up despite that this was a method that apparently worked for others. To resolve this you can simply create a new event (or use an existing), then re-import your source files. Then drag and drop each newly added source from the Event Browser over the old source in the Project Storyboard where you've got the yellow alert triangles. A pop up appears where you can then choose "Replace." Don't choose "Replace from Start/End." In my case, the odd thing then was that even after replacing the the old source files with the new ones, the yellow alert triangles STILL were present. So, I renamed the source files at the Finder level and then imported them once again and repeated the drag and drop replace process as I've already described.

Hiya, please could you explain what you mean by 'move events and projects within application' - I have managed to repair a 35min movie - my first, by moving files back into the project and event - but now I need to get it all across to external storage - my mac is only 64gb and so my movie wont finalise - it keeps saying 'start up disc almost full' - can you breaks the steps down if it is not too much trouble :-) Thanks you

Moving Event's and Project's

Connection - Either connect one Mac in Target mode to the other via FireWire. Or use an external hard disk !

(Target-Mode - Start one Mac e.g. laptop - BUT keep T-key down during full up-start - Now a FW-symbol is jumping around the screen and it will work as an external hard disk when connected to the other Mac)

A. The External Hard Disk - MUST BE - Mac OS Extended (hfs) formatted to work for Video. UNIX/DOS/FAT32/Mac OS Exchange works for most other things but not for Video whatever program is used (iMovie or FinalCut)

B. Should be a FireWire one as USB/USB2 performs badly to me and especially when filling up

C. Do never Move or Alter any folder named

• iMovie Event's - or -

• iMovie Project's

on DeskTop/Finder - as this will result in iMovie losing connections to them and repair can be anything from hard to impossibly

D. Moving and Copying must be done within iMovie application and Events to Events - and - Project's to Project's.

E. Moving Project's to Event's - Do not work for me - I have to export project as a QuickTime movie then Import this into Events.

Event's window can show two faces

Like this

or like this

from one hard disk Event - You can move it to the other hard disk

You can not (at least not me) move Event to Project or other way around only

Event to Event and Project to Project

Yours Bengt W

Thank you :-)!!!

Bengt, I wonder if you saw my other ask about how to change the font on all the sub-titles already added inside a movie project, at once...

No I must have blinked 😉

But that's in vain any how - As I don't know. Whish I did.

Yours Bengt E

Oh and BTW, you don't have to move ANYTHING anywhere to get the dreaded "Source Clips Missing" error!!! [And this has apparently been a known problem with iMovie for many generations of the software.]

I've had two iMovie '11 projects go south on me this past week, I moved NO files anywhere, and the original clips are still clearly showing in their correct "events" folder, but now lacking the cute orange stripe that indicates they've been incorporated into a project.

Shame, shame, Apple. Just 'cause this software is free is no excuse.

I just spent many hours (again) on a two-hour-plus project to get all the parts back together again. Not a big fan of Apple right now, and for sure NOT a fan at all of iMovie.

I had this same problem. It is really bizarre. I come from being a FCP7 user, but have a client who has done roughcuts in iMovie, so I made her a harddrive with all the projects and events on it. I find the way it handles clips very odd and inscrutable. But in searching these forums I did find the answer to dealing with this issue. It involves using a text editor (I use textwrangler) to correct the paths inside of the project file. So some of you may be "daunted", but honestly, it only took a few minutes. Once you fix one project, the others fall into place. It is from user Jim2006 at https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1908460?start=0&tstart=0

Jim2006