NOOOOOOO!!!! "A Project File is Missing"

[cio2011]

Please help me!

I have literally spent a measurable portion of my life on earth working on a video.

I saved it (obsessively). I closed iMovie HD.

Now I open it and I get the message that "A project file is missing"

In fact there are probably 20 missing files.

I want to cry. Scream. I am at the end of my rope!

Please help me. Any suggestions would be deeply appreciated.

Thanks you

 

[wonderspark]

Does it tell you what file is missing? Search for the file with Finder, relink it, and rejoice!

(I've not used iMovie, so maybe this isn't possible. In that case, use your backup to restore the project. You said you saved it obsessively, so you must have a backup, right?)

The point is, don't panic. If you made some mistake that has ruined it forever, you'll have to suck it up and rebuild the project anyway. The bright side is, you'll be able to do it faster and better, since you've already done it once. Now's the chance to make little improvements!

 

[cio2011]

I appreciate the positive stoke- man, I really need it!

Here's what I found: for some reason, iMovie decided to put about 30 audio and video clips from the "saved" iMovie into the Finder trash.

Why?, you may be saying to yourself. Me too. I have no clue.

I dragged all of them back into the media folder in the Package Contents of the project. I got scared initially, because I got a message saying that some of the files were duplicated and did I want to replace them.

This prompted several minutes of teeth-gnashing. Eventually, I copied all of the spontaneously "trashed" (for lack of a better description) clips into another folder, in case all hell broke loose.

Then I pulled the trigger and dragged them all back into the media folder.

The heavens parted, the project magically reappeared, as if nothing had happened.

Next step: Export project. Take xanax. Go to sleep.

Thanks again for the positive mojo.

 

[wonderspark]

Good news! For future reference, you could have selected "put back" from the trash, and it would just put the selected files back where they came from, instead of guessing where they belong. Works great!