iMovie for iOS: "An error occurred during export."

Question

iMovie for iOS: "An error occurred during export."

Question, asked professionally

When will iMovie for Mac be able to open iMovie for iOS projects?

Question, asked snarkily

Any reasonableexpectation that we will ever be able to edit projects--created in iMovie on our fancy new expensive phones--in iMovie on our fancy new expensive laptops?

Specs

iPhone 6 Plus (contract-free, 128 GB)

iOS 8.1.2

iMovie for IOS 2.1.1

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid-2014)

OS X Yosemite 10.10.1

iMovie for Mac 10.0.6

Error Messages

iMovie for Mac: "iMovie cannot open files in the "iMovie for iOS Project" format."

iMovie for iOS: "An error occurred during export."

Frustration

Manufacturer: Apple (a multibillion dollar company)

The year: 2015

Hours lost: Three Weeks

Total costs for both devices: $4,000

Background Details

I just wasted thousands of dollars on these two hardware devices by making the rookie mistake of assuming projects were compatible across iMovie applications. However, the exported .iMovieMobile project files are in an incompatible iMovie for iOS Project format that iMovie for Mac cannot import. So I am stuck with a 15 GB .iMovieMobile project file--for an hour-long+ video--that I created and I was editing on my iPhone for weeks that I can no longer edit on my iPhone due to an error, nor potentially rescue the lost hours on my Mac, the sole reason I purchased it one day ago. The reason I can no longer edit the project on the iPhone is because iMovie for iOS suddenly stopped displaying the video of the project in preview, external display, etc. The clip snapshots remain visible and the audio remains audible, but the video appears fully black. Any attempt to export the video at any resolution generates an error message. (This error applies only to this project; other projects export without issue.) I can save to and from iTunes or iCloud without issue, but import into iMovie for Mac is unavailable for this latest version. Deleting and reinstalling the app does not resolve the issue. Nothing has resolved this issue; so I purchased the Mac as a last attempt, and it appears that I will have to begin the meticulously painful process of recreating the video from scratch with all the titling, sound effects, precise edits, transitions, organization, etc. This video was to surprise my mother for her birthday with "this is your life" footage, including my late father. It may seem like a small first-world problem, but such things carry big emotional impacts. What began as such a wonderfully intuitive and joyful experience has descended into a soul-suffering nightmare of catastrophic proportions. This software grinch stole christmas.

Likely Suspect

I believe this originated from Apple's confusingly designed iTunes client that removed videos used by iMovie for IOS during a sync, which I successfully restored back to the iPhone. This apparently resulted in iOS seeking and then claiming to find all of the videos, but somehow a bug in the coding causes the audio to play but not display video, and no way to resolve the bug from an enduser standpoint. I was hoping that iMovie for Mac would allow me a workaround, but I'll never know because the iOS and Mac formats are currently and dishearteningly incompatible.

Suggestions

I never performed a full backup of the iPhone, but I don't believe any of the iCloud nor local backups actually backup iMovie projects themselves anyway. (That's a fail.) So one must back them up manually to iTunes or iCloud.

MANUALLY BACKUP YOUR PROJECTS DAILY, IF NOT HOURLY.

MANUALLY BACKUP YOUR PROJECTS BEFORE IMPORTING OR SYNCING FROM ITUNES.

MANUALLY BACKUP YOUR PROJECTS BEFORE IMPORTING VIDEO CREATED OUTSIDE OF YOUR IOS DEVICE.

Resolutions

Hope Apple fixes this problem soon? Perhaps.

Return the Mac to Apple, if they allow? Perhaps.

Someone in this community will provide a magical workaround--that I haven't already attempted? Perhaps.

As unlikely these options may be, I shudder to imagine that I may be forced to suffer no resolution and $3,000+ completely down the drain, because if iMovie for IOS worked as intended, I wouldn't have ever purchased the Mac as a last ditch effort to rescue the project. It meant that much to me to surprise my mother by attempting to retrieve this project file from oblivion--but to no avail.

iMovie (iOS), iOS 8.1.2, null

Posted on Jan 3, 2015 12:29 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Brett L

Community Specialist

Jan 5, 2015 6:14 AM in response to curtiscee.apple

Hi HT201827,

It sounds as if you are attempting to import an iMovie project from your iPhone to your MacBook Pro in order to work on it there. I can understand your frustration with this process, but I hope we can get you back up and running quickly.

This article has a process you should use to move your project -

iMovie '11: How to import a project created with iMovie on iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch - Apple Support

Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.

Best,

Brett L

Reply

Answer 2

Jan 5, 2015 7:50 AM in response to Brett L

I appreciate you taking the time to copy and paste boilerplate responses to increase your points in this forum, but I've already read all those support articles in depth; but you have barely read my post at all. Please don't guess a fix. Only someone with the latest versions of iMovie, iOS, iPhone, Yosemite, and MacBook Pro is qualified to troubleshoot this, because anyone would immediately see that the following option no longer exists:

Open iMovie on your Mac, and choose File > Import > iMovie for iOS Project.

Read my post before you reply: It clearly says in the title and within my post that I can neither export nor import through iTunes without receiving an error message. So your response neither solved my question nor helped me whatsoever.

Reply

Answer 3

Brett L

Community Specialist

Jan 5, 2015 9:43 AM in response to curtiscee.apple

Hi curtiscee.apple,

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities. Due to the nature of the issue you described you may find more information by using another one of Apple's support resources - https://getsupport.apple.com/GetproductgroupList.action.

Brett L

Reply

Answer 4

Jan 5, 2015 5:27 PM in response to Brett L

Wow! I wish I thought of that: Contact Apple!

You're amazingly unhelpful. Please don't waste people's time by replying to a post with links to general Apple support options--especially since it's obvious you're not even reading questions: Your initial copy-and-paste referred to me as "Hi HT201827". When you don't have an actual answer to a question, it's better to not say anything--even better than admitting that you don't know--rather than responding to your random links. Pretending to be helpful in the absence of knowledge only makes frustrating experiences even more frustrating. You're ill-equipped to resolve this yourself; Apple must do so; so thank you for NOT further responding.

Reply

Answer 5

Jul 24, 2015 10:28 PM in response to curtiscee.apple

Hi Curtiscee,

Have you found a solution to your problem? I just got on a 70 minute apple phone support and got passed from a Naev to a Mirasol and, finally, to an Isaac who told me that it was not possible to transfer an iMovieMobile extension format to our iMovie 10.0.9.

Anyone here with a solution?

Cheers!

frustrated Macfriend

Reply

Answer 6

Jul 28, 2015 9:41 AM in response to curtiscee.apple

Add me to the list, just bought the new iPod touch 128GB to shoot/edit on the go thinking it would be the easiest to get shoots/edits into iMovie/FCP on Mac...I have to use the old fashion way, shoot video with the camera app then attach the iPod with A CABLE to the mac to import the movie in Photo, then I have to select it and use File/Export in Photo to export the movie (cannot drag to finder, iMovie or FCP) which I then can drag in IMovie/FCP.....Apple lost it.....

Reply

Answer 7

Oct 21, 2016 9:49 PM in response to ramolif2000

I contacted Apple via an online petition, and so they finally resolved this, quietly and without any fanfare, as of October 2015. Let me know if you're still experiencing any problems. I can't link to external sites with additional details.

Reply