You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

export from imovie - is it gone in imovie

I created an event in iMovie. Exported to my computer in my videos file. Is it now gone from iMovie? And I can't import it back onto iMovie. I need to make a change to it or am I out of luck and have to do it all over?? I can't find the original editing/creation on my iMovie anymore. HELP! I have a newer 24" MAC and am running Monterey 12.6


iMac 27″, OS X 10.10

Posted on Sep 18, 2022 10:22 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 18, 2022 11:24 AM

You can edit and export (share out) an iMovie project to a movie as many times as you want. Of course, if you have deleted the project that feature would not be available. In that case you could still import the exported movie back into a newly created iMovie project and edit it to a limited extent, such as splitting in segments, deleting segments, adding titles, adding effects, adding or deleting music, importing new clips, etc. You just couldn't undo any embedded edits that were done previously in iMovie.


I can't think of any reason why you could not find your original project unless you deleted it. It should be located in the projects browser (where your projects are displayed as icons). But, in any event, you can retrieve your project from the iMovie Backups folder. To get to the iMovie Backups folder, follow this file path from the Finder menu:


Go/Home/Library/Containers/com.apple.iMovieApp/Data/Library/Caches/iMovieBackups


When you get there you will see a list of previous backups of your iMovie library.  Click on one dated just before your issue started.  iMovie will open in that library.   Navigate to your projects browser (where your projects are displayed as icons) and see if your projects are intact.


Another way would be to go to your Time Machine backup, if you have one, and restore your library to a point in time before it disappeared.


-- Rich

Similar questions

1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 18, 2022 11:24 AM in response to sillygram

You can edit and export (share out) an iMovie project to a movie as many times as you want. Of course, if you have deleted the project that feature would not be available. In that case you could still import the exported movie back into a newly created iMovie project and edit it to a limited extent, such as splitting in segments, deleting segments, adding titles, adding effects, adding or deleting music, importing new clips, etc. You just couldn't undo any embedded edits that were done previously in iMovie.


I can't think of any reason why you could not find your original project unless you deleted it. It should be located in the projects browser (where your projects are displayed as icons). But, in any event, you can retrieve your project from the iMovie Backups folder. To get to the iMovie Backups folder, follow this file path from the Finder menu:


Go/Home/Library/Containers/com.apple.iMovieApp/Data/Library/Caches/iMovieBackups


When you get there you will see a list of previous backups of your iMovie library.  Click on one dated just before your issue started.  iMovie will open in that library.   Navigate to your projects browser (where your projects are displayed as icons) and see if your projects are intact.


Another way would be to go to your Time Machine backup, if you have one, and restore your library to a point in time before it disappeared.


-- Rich

export from imovie - is it gone in imovie

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.