iMovie on iPad fails on start

Did you try quitting the app completely and then restart the iPad?

Go to the home screen first by tapping the home button. Double tap the home button and the task bar will appear with all of your recent/open apps displayed at the bottom. Tap and hold down on any app icon until it begins to wiggle. Tap the minus ➖ sign in the upper left corner of the app that you want to close. Tap the home button or anywhere above the task bar. Restart the iPad.

Restart the iPad by holding down on the sleep button until the red slider appears and then slide to shut off. To power up hold the sleep button until the Apple logo appears and let go of the button.

Launch iMovie again and see what happens. BTW ... If you have that much time invested in iMovie projects - are you not backing up the iPad - that is where your app data is stored - in the backup.

Check your iTunes Library and click on Apps, music, etc. to see your back-up.

This is what iTunes will back up.

• Contacts* and Contact Favorites (regularly sync contacts to a computer or cloud service such as iCloud to back them up).
• App Store Application data including in-app purchases (except the Application itself, its tmp and Caches folder).
• Application settings, preferences, and data, including documents.
• Autofill for webpages.
• CalDAV and subscribed calendar accounts.
• Calendar accounts.
• Calendar events.
• Call history.
• Camera Roll (Photos, screenshots, images saved, and videos taken. Videos greater than 2 GB are backed up with iOS 4.0 and later.)
  Note: For devices without a camera, Camera Roll is called Saved Photos.
• Game Center account.
• Home screen arrangement.
• In-app purchases.
• Keychain (this includes email account passwords, Wi-Fi passwords, and passwords you enter into websites and some other applications. If you encrypt the backup with iOS 4 and later, you can transfer the keychain information to the new device. With an unencrypted backup, you can restore the keychain only to the same iOS device. If you are restoring to a new device with an unencrypted backup, you will need to enter these passwords again.)
• List of External Sync Sources (Mobile Me, Exchange ActiveSync).
• Location service preferences for apps and websites you have allowed to use your location.
• Mail accounts (mail messages are not backed up).
• Managed Configurations/Profiles. When restoring a backup to a different device, all settings related to the configuration profiles will not be restored (accounts, restrictions, or anything else that can be specified through a configuration profile). Note that accounts and settings that are not associated with a configuration profile will still be restored.
• Map bookmarks, recent searches, and the current location displayed in Maps.
• Microsoft Exchange account configurations.
• Network settings (saved Wi-Fi hotspots, VPN settings, network preferences).
• Nike + iPod saved workouts and settings.
• Notes.
• Offline web application cache/database.
• Paired Bluetooth devices (which can only be used if restored to the same phone that did the backup).
• Safari bookmarks, cookies, history, offline data, and currently open pages.
• Saved suggestion corrections (these are saved automatically as you reject suggested corrections).
• Messages (iMessage and carrier SMS or MMS pictures and videos).
• Trusted hosts that have certificates that cannot be verified.
• Voice memos.
• Voicemail token. (This is not the voicemail password, but is used for validation when connecting. This is only restored to a phone with the same phone number on the SIM card).
• Wallpapers.
• Web clips.
• YouTube bookmarks and history.

* Your contacts are part of the backup to preserve recent calls and favorites lists. Back up your contacts to a supported personal information manager (PIM), iCloud, or another cloud-based service to avoid any potential contact data loss.

I copied the information from here.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4946

Bob Christensen wrote:

Both these suggestions are helpful, but neither location, "iTunes Library" or the location path in the KB article, "library/application support/mobile sync" get me to a data file that I can recognize as a backup file.

And they will not get you to a recognizable file that you can selectively download or restore to the iPad. When you restore from a backup, you restore everything that is in that backup. Right now that is the way it works and it's the way that it has always worked in iOS. I posted this so that you can see that the files will be backed up - but so is all of this other stuff that you see.

You should consider using iOS file sharing with iMovie. You can send your iMove projects to iTunes and you can even drag them or save them to your Mac. You can read this for the "how to" on that subject.

IMovie '11: How to import a project created on the iPad.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4792

I don't know if you have seen this, but it may be helpful as well.

http://help.apple.com/imovie/ipad/1.3/index.html

You're quite welcome. Good luck in your endeavors.