Old iMovie

These are iMovie project files from iMovie version 8 or 9. I can not see in your screen shot what folder they are in, but it should be 'iMovie Projects' and should be in your movies folder. If that is the file structure then in iMovie 10.1.6 go to the file menu and select update projects and events. iMovie will create an iMovie library which you can open and see the projects. If you don't have that file structure you need to create it.These files have no media so you need to find the iMovie events that contain the media used in the projects. They should also be in your movies folder in a folder titled 'iMovie Events'. If necessary create this file structure as before. Again in iMovie you update to an iMovie library using the file command as before. If you have both the iMovie projects and iMovie event files in your movies folder then choosing the update command from the file menu will update both.

Hi,

Try dragging your iMovie Project folder and iMovie Events folder to the root level (that is, not in any folder) of your external drive and then see if iMovie can find them there. Back them up before moving them.

-- Rich

"Root Level" means not in any folder or subfolder. iMovie may look on your external drive, but it won't go poking into any folders.

However, try moving your iMovie Projects folder and iMovie Events folder into the Movies folder on your Mac. When updating projects and events, iMovie will look there.

Your external drive is formatted for Windows. For iMovie It should have been formatted for Apple: Mac OS Extended (journaled). That might be what is causing the problem. Some files may have become corrupted or unreadable. That used to happen with the old iMovie 6. However, don't reformat the drive now or you will lose all your data that is on it.

It looks like you have the structure of the projects, but there might not be any media in them. In your iMovie Projects folder, when you Control-Get Info on one of the project folders, does it show any file size of significance? Not just kilobytes, but a size appropriate to the project in Megabytes or Gigabytes. If not, there is no media in there and there is nowhere to go from there unless you have a Time Machine backup that goes back to 2007.

At this point I have no further ideas on how to solve this, if it is solvable. Perhaps another forum participant will chime in with some comment.

-- Rich

What happens when you try to open the projects?

When you open your iMovie Projects folder and iMovie Events folder, to you find any media content in there?

-- Rich