Help!: iMovieProject File-Conversion Incident!

To satisfy Youtube's requirements while trying to upload a project to the site, I did the ''commoner's mistake'' of changing the iMovie 09's custom extension [.rcproject] to .mov, one of the accepted file types for youtube that I thought would solve my problem, after repeated failures for three days at trying to upload the original project in a variety of ways. I then quickly tried to change BACK to the initial extension, but magic didn't happen for me there.


My Question is;how can I convert this little jumble of files back to the iMovie Project? How do I undo the action and take back the former format?


I really do appreciate the help, and I'll give more information as you need it,
I'd really like to understand this.. & not loose my morale to make more video presentations for my channel with this application, because I really did have a lot of fun learning in the creation of my fina product. I'm a Junior is high school, so I'm pretty tech-savvy and logical in my approaches but... there was no success.

If you renamed the extension in Finder you may not have "Actually" changed it.

Do a Finder > File > Get Info on the File, then check the Name and Extension:

What you needed to do was Export the File in the right format and upload that. Only iMovie reads iMovie Files.

Alright, thank you, I'm following your directions (-:
Under general information I see that it credits my file as an iMoive Project, set to open with iMovie, but the size is only 61KB. So there's no way this can be my complete project file back in its original state. It's the size of a standard text-file now, and indeed, when I try to open it nothing truly comes out of it other than it directing me to iMovie and the list of folders under the project file that I pasted above in my first post. Extension is .rcproject (what I looked up and saw was apparently the regular ex. to the version of iMovie I was working with). I created a new project to double-check this and the extension was that, so I'm confident it's the appropriate one.
So what do you think I should do now?

The iMovie Project File is a Package, that is, it is a Folder made to look like a single File. Within the Package is a Structure with a file call Project as the index.

Have you renamed the wrong file? You should be renaming the "Folder" that contains all those files to the Name.rcproject

If any of those subfiles or folders are now changed then the project may be irretrievably damaged.

Well, I converted the folder and got a hopeful-looking format (because my folder was indeed still set with extension .mov)

It deems it a 1GB file. Oh my. Well, I suppose it's irredeemable after all.
It's a pity.. but, I'm over it, only my first project, you know? About 3 minutes long. No big deal.

So again, from now on, you suggest I export the file.. to get it in the right format? ..And should I ever duplicate the project first for safety?

If it's still in the iMovie Projects folder, open iMovie see if it's all there?

No there's no need to duplicate the Project.

You do the Export from within iMovie! From the Share menu choose YouTube

I open it from the folder, where it is, and when I open it in there nothing appears
It's like a blank project, no visible contents, but still somehow a whole Gigabyte thick.. weeeeird huh?
You've been sweet in helping out. Although there's another problem... I could never export a video because iMovie would decide to quit. You know, that common problem? Sometimes when I would just be editing little things too. I've made so much room on my computer lately, hundreds of Megabytes, so hopefully it will run smoother now.. but what if it doesn't and continues to quit (not completing the uploads I try?)

The index file must be called Project with NO file extension, is that the file you were renaming? its normally about 100K. If iMovie can't find that then you won't see anything, the worry is now it may have made a new one, so if it has, move it out of the Folder and rename the old one.

If your Software Updates are all done, you have plenty of Harddrive space and a good internet connection then No, iMovie should not be crashing! Nothing on your Mac should be crashing, this an't Windows. If somethings crashing then it means somethings wrong and needs to be fixed.

SO how is it possible that a person can erase something completely and wholly, forever, if they just change the format of something. Why can't such things be reversible, or ever-changeable? Why aren't macs more cautious for beginners, weary of these accidents? I believe the project I made is irretrievable. How can it be?...

Its all just digital information on a disk, there nothing stopping you from messing things up so bad that the Mac can't understand what you've done.

The Mac would have asked you, Are you sure you want to change the File Extension? it always does, and you said Ok. So you took responsibility for making changes the Mac couldn't understand. Then you tried to put things back but got it wrong, I can't see how any computer could have protected you from that.

If you go messing with the Document Folder structure of the Applications like iPhoto, iMovie, Pages, Numbers and many more, without in-depth knowledge of what you're doing you can break them. But to do that you have to change their extension (or show their hidden Package contents), you have to choose to do something the Mac will warn you about.

The Share Menu... so the Mac gave you a very accessible and easy to find and use method to do what you wanted. You choose to go the damaging route.