Media clips "Missing" after upgrade to iMovie 10.0.1

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488 points

Media clips "Missing" after upgrade to iMovie 10.0.1

I upgraded from iMovie 9 to 10.0.1 yesterday. After the upgrade, I got a message saying "Some of your projects refer to media that is not available." Those projects with missing media show "ghost clips" on the timeline with transitions, titles, etc., but no actual video. Only about 10% of all my projects have this problem. The video clips exist in the iMovie 9 library and still works fine when launched in iMovie 9. Oddly, the clips also exist in the upgraded iMovie 10 library and are stored in the correct project folder within the "Original Media" folder.

When I click on the "Ghost Clip" in the timeline, there is a message in the viewer that says "Missing File.... FILENAME is missing. Try Reimporting the original source media." I tried to re-import the clips, but it apparently did nothing. I deleted the new iMovie 10 library, then upgraded to iMovie 10 a second time, but the same projects still had the problem. Another person in the forum had a similar problem but found that his "missing" media did not have a valid file extension. He corrected his problem by adding the extension (my extensions are OK). Others had a similar issue because their media was stored in iPhoto (mine isn't).

My current "solution" is to keep iMovie 9 running and have dual libraries, but I fear the day when iMovie 9 no longer functions with a new Mac OS update. Does anyone have suggestions how to "reconnect" my media to the projects?

Thanks,

Dave

Posted on Nov 24, 2013 7:33 AM

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Answer 1

Nov 27, 2013 9:46 PM in response to David Strait

Same exact problem. So annoying. With 9, you could click the little yellow error triangle and reconnect it at least. Now I can't even click that thing, let alone reconnect it.

Also, in the older version of iMovie, this sometimes happened if you moved the editing location of the files somewhere else, but all you had to do was put them back and re-launch and you were good to go. Now I can't do that either.

WHAT DO WE DO APPLE????

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Answer 2

Fuffkin

Level 1

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Nov 29, 2013 1:53 PM in response to kriskress

Ditto.

On upgrade half the clips are missing. I can still use the old version of iMovie but under Mavericks it appears unstable and is now always crashing.

This ungrade debaacvle is very un-Apple.

WHAT DO WE DO APPLE??

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Answer 3

Nov 30, 2013 3:02 AM in response to David Strait

Have the same issue, others as well. See discussion here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5554244?answerId=23789019022#23789019022

Seems to be related to Media on external drives.

I'm lucky I can still use iMovie 9.

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Answer 4

David Strait Author

Level 2

488 points

Nov 30, 2013 6:57 AM in response to CoreForce

CoreForce,

My media was all on my boot drive, so doesn't appear to be related to having media on an external drive(at least in my case). I have deleted my iMovie 10 library and resorted to only using iMovie 9. Hopefully this will be fixed before an OS X update renders iMovie 9 inoperable.

I recently got caught with a even more severe iTunes bug that deleted old podcasts when syncing with iOS devices. Unlike the iMovie media, years of podcasts were GONE (not just put in the trash gone... but vaporized). , I Fortunately, I had a Time Machine backup and recovered the podcasts (after I turned off the podcast sync option). Apparently, many more people were hit with that bug than this iMovie problem (considering the number of complaints anyway).

I have used a Mac since the first 128 kb version in 1984 and these are the wosrt (near) data losses I have had in nearly 30 years. It seems Apple is off their game.

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Answer 5

Fuffkin

Level 1

0 points

Nov 30, 2013 7:03 AM in response to CoreForce

CoreForce,

Thanks for the link, but all my files are local, there are no external drives.

I'm between a rock and a hard place: iMovie 9 seems unstable under Mavericks and iMovie 10 has lost half the files. Short of rolling back from Mavericks I'm stuffed - and I desparately need to finish this project.

This is the very type of problem I switched to Apple to avoid. They've upgraded their own software and OS and left a lot of people hanging out to dry. It's the sort of thing I expect in the Windows / Microsoft world. Not Apple.

WHAT DO WE DO APPLE??

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Answer 6

David Strait Author

Level 2

488 points

Nov 30, 2013 7:27 AM in response to Fuffkin

One thing I would suggest is to launch iMovie 10, then go to File --> Provide Feedback, then tell Apple what the problem is. Don't expect them to read the forum discussions.

Dave

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Answer 7

David Strait Author

Level 2

488 points

Dec 5, 2013 5:15 PM in response to David Strait

I sent this problem in as "Feedback" to Apple and they got back to me by email today to research the problem. They said:

"Can you check the iMovie 9.0.9 and see if the project clip has a yellow exclamation badge in the bottom left hand side of the clip? The Engineers think it might be an issue form iMovie 9.0.9 that is being carried over to 10.0.1."

I checked and found that the clips did have did have the yellow badge in iMovie 9.0.9. I replied to Apple with the following info:

"If I right-click on a clip in the event window, I can "Reveal in Finder." However, If I do the same in the project window (on the same clip - but with a yellow badge), it gives me no option to "Reveal in Finder." Another project with no yellow badges allows me to "Reveal in Finder." It appears that the engineer was correct when he said it originated with a problem in 9.0.9, although it all appears to work OK there. Can you provide any guidance how I can fix the problem in 9.0.9. I searched the discussion forums and there was suggestion to delete the "com.apple.iMovieApp.plist " preference file. I did this, but it didn't help."

I haven't heard back yet, but others with this problem may check to see if there is the "yellow exclamation badge" on your clips. I will add more when (or if) I hear back from Apple.

Dave

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Answer 8

David Strait Author

Level 2

488 points

Dec 5, 2013 6:08 PM in response to David Strait

Apple got back to me with the following:

"So what that means is that somehow the files are “misconnected” and they need to be reconnected by importing the clips again. The nice thing is that you don’t need to re-edit, because the main cuts are there, just you may need to do some matching of clips (may take some additional time to do). In iMovie 10.0.1, you should be able to reimport these clips from the Events folder of iMovie 9.0.9."

I tried this on one project to see if it would work.... basically I simply selected one clip at a time from the Events Window and placed it next to the "same" clip in the project, which I then deleted. It seemed to work OK. I am confident that when I finish all the projects it will then upgrade to iMovie 10.0.1 with no problem (I'll report back here if I still have problems.

This seems to be a workable (but not ideal) solution. I don't have too many projects with this problem so not too onerous of a task. However, those of you with many projects may not like this fairly tedious solution.

Dave

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Answer 9

Phil1111

Level 1

0 points

Jan 27, 2014 1:04 PM in response to David Strait

Hello,

I experience the same issue, although previous version of imovie is able to locate clip in finder. I would expect an easier fix from apple than having to redo all links of my on-going projects. My current workaround is to carry on using previous version for on going projects and to start new projects in the new version of iMovie.

Best Regards,

Philippe

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Answer 10

Oct 29, 2014 12:29 PM in response to David Strait

The latest update to iMovie seems to partially resolve the upgrade problem. With versions 10.0.6, all events seem to be imported, but some are not shown with the correct date and time. Further, the import seems to pull in some of the iMovie 9.0.9 data files as if they were event clips (that iMovie 10.0.6 does not understand.)

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