How do I get an iMovie project off my external hard drive?

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Level 1

8 points

How do I get an iMovie project off my external hard drive?

Hi there,

Recently, my MacBook Pro underwent some bad water damage. It was not worth the cost of repairing so I ended up buying a new MacBook instead and had the data from my old MacBook copied onto an external hard drive (there was not enough room for it on my new computer).

Because I hadn't done any proper backups or anything the repairman basically just copied everything off my old hard drive as it was. I had a couple of iMovie projects going, and I have found them on the external hard drive, but have no way of accessing them or opening them up in iMovie on my new computer. A lot of the files are text editor documents and other weird file types. I can find a folder full of my actual raw video footage, but all the project folders (which were my edited projects) are just weird.

Any idea where I can find my edited projects and how I can open them up on my new MacBook Pro?

MacBook Pro, macOS Sierra (10.12.5)

Posted on Nov 16, 2017 2:13 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Rich839

Level 8

47,226 points

Nov 16, 2017 8:04 AM in response to SofiaChara

Hi, Sofia,

If the repairman transferred all of the data then he may have transferred the iMovie backups folder as well. See if your projects are in there.

To get to the backups folder, go to Go/Home//Library/Containers/com.apple.iMovieApp/Data/Library/Caches/iMovie Backups. You will see in there a list of previously backed up libraries. Click on the most recently dated one and iMovie will open and hopefully all of your projects will be intact.

Hope this works for you.

-- Rich

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Answer 2

SofiaChara Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 17, 2017 5:26 PM in response to Rich839

Unfortunately I can't seem to find the "Containers" in "Library". I searched the library for "com.apple.iMovieApp" and could only find "com.apple.pkg.iMovie_AppStore.bom" and "com.apple.pkg.iMovie_AppStore.plist". I searched my whole computer for "iMovie Backups" but nothing came up.

Sofia

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Answer 3

SofiaChara Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 17, 2017 5:11 PM in response to Rich839

Hi Rich,

Can I do that with my external hard drive? That's where he transferred everything, not onto my computer.

Sofia

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Answer 4

Rich839

Level 8

47,226 points

Nov 17, 2017 5:15 PM in response to SofiaChara

As long as your iMovie app is on your computer, it should still work. Give it a try.

-- Rich

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Answer 5

Rich839

Level 8

47,226 points

Nov 17, 2017 10:07 PM in response to SofiaChara

Try selecting Go and then, while holding down the Option key, select the Library option that appears in the menu. Then follow the file path I outlined previously.

-- Rich

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