recover corrupted iMovie project?

[Knockask]

Does anyone know whether it is possible to recover a corrupted iMovie project?

I was finalising a iMovie project (after several weeks work) when it became corrupted.

Unfortunately as I am a new MAC user, I was not using the time machine or any other back-up method - in hindsight very foolish. I had however exported the movie to show people draft versions. I have tried and failed to edit the exported movie, which I imported back into iMovie.

I showed 400 people an older version, which they loved. However it had some silly errors in it that would be fantastic to edit out.

[ICutWithMacs]

mabye you should check out final cut express

[WayneH1]

Originally Posted by Knockask

Does anyone know whether it is possible to recover a corrupted iMovie project?

I was finalising a iMovie project (after several weeks work) when it became corrupted.

Unfortunately as I am a new MAC user, I was not using the time machine or any other back-up method - in hindsight very foolish.

How "corrupted" is it? Can you open it at all? I had some success using copy and paste to rescue all my edits from a damaged project into a new blank project. Other tricks have been used by other folks. Sorry I don't recall those. The sad truth is that you may be out of luck.

[Knockask]

Originally Posted by WayneH1

How "corrupted" is it? Can you open it at all? I had some success using copy and paste to rescue all my edits from a damaged project into a new blank project. Other tricks have been used by other folks. Sorry I don't recall those. The sad truth is that you may be out of luck.

Thanks for your suggestion.

When the corrupt project is within iMove projects folder, functionality of iMovie is extremely minimal. It is possible to select the corrupt project file, but it is not possible to edit it - therefore it is not possible to copy and paste the contents into a blank project file.

If I remove the corrupt project from iMove projects folder, full functionality immediately turns.

The corrupt file is currently located on the desktop. I have tried to copy this file and rename it. Then I inserted it into the iMove projects folder, but no success at all.

Do you have any other suggestions, that I could try?

[WayneH1]

Originally Posted by Knockask

Do you have any other suggestions, that I could try?

I don't. When my project was corrupted, I did a fair amount of searching around for help. The copy-paste trick was the only thing that came close to saving me any time. I was hoping there was a database "restore" or repair tool, but I never found one.

[mstriker]

I also corrupted my project. It started acting while I was pasting in some clips from another project. Last time I closed the project I could not longer open it. I could play it in the preview but that was pretty much all. No edit, duplicate or re-publish. What did save me is my time-machine. I restored the project to 2 hours earlier. Vuola! Thank God for the back-up.

[AdamLondon]

I have a clever makeshift 'solution' if you need to get that vital project out...

My project got corrupted and made iMovie crash when I tried to play fullscreen or export the video.

SOLUTION: Make the video viewing pane as large as possible and then use 'ScreenFlow'* software to capture it whilst you preview it. You won't recover HD quality, but at least you can get a perfect 480i copy for YouTube.

Here is my real example which I rescued using the above method so you can see for yourself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXbq38RG8qk

* obviously you can use any software that will do video capture of your screen.. if you're mega-desperate, you could point a video camera at your screen.. if you're mega-mega-desperate you could point a mirror at your screen and use photobooth!! perfect for that lo-fi style

[jimraff]

I had the same issue .. could not edit a project I had a lot of time invested in. I realized that the last clip I had used was grayed out in the event thumbnails (when I scrubbed over it, it was fine). I closed iMovie, opened Finder and deleted the thumbnails for that event. When iMovie was launched again it regenerated the thumbnails and my project was available. I hope this is helpful ... that's a scary moment when you think you've lost all those hours of work.