iMovie: "Your project is unreadable" Message

If an iMovie project file becomes unusable, you may see a message that says "Your project is unreadable."

Products Affected

iMovie

Symptom

When you try to open a project, this message appears: "Your project is unreadable."

Solution

If the project file is unreadable, you may be able to recover it using the methods below.

Method 1 (for all versions of iMovie)


  1. Create a new project in iMovie.
  2. Drag the contents of the Media folder of the original project folder into the shelf of the new project.
  3. Re-assemble the project by dragging clips from the shelf to the timeline.


Method 2 (for iMovie 3 or higher)

  1. Open the iMovie project folder in the Finder and locate the reference .mov file at the root level of the project folder.
  2. Create a new project in iMovie.
  3. Drag the .mov file from the original project folder into the new iMovie project timeline to import the original project contents as a single clip.


Warning: If you use this method to recover your project, do not delete the original project folder or the items in it. The reference movie relies on these files.

Related documents:

93296: iMovie: How to Save Projects to Another Hard Disk
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