Hoping someone on here is able to help me.
I have taken video today and when I tried to open said video in iMovie to edit it, I got a message saying that iMovie was unable to open the mov file.
I have downloaded a trial version of a WinX convertor and it appears to have worked but the full version of the convertor software is $50, and the trial version only works for a limited file space.
can anyone tell me what I am doing/have done wrong as I can’t believe that I am unable to edit .mov files on my MacBook ??
Running Big Sur if that makes any difference ?
Thanks for taking the tie to read this.
Rob
I’d down load handbrake and see if you can convert the file to another video format that iMovie will accept? If that doesn’t work - your file may be corrupted.
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Did you drag it straight from the drone or use the SD card in a reader?
I think I did the same with my first video.
Put the SD back in the drone and try dragging it from there.
Sounds like it hasn’t been ´finished’ … put it back in the drone , turn the drone on … give it a few seconds and then turn the drone off then remove the card …it will process now…
I use a Mac and no issues with the drone formats unless you pull the card out before the recording is finished…
This, although I wouldn’t go down the route of converting just yet.
Try opening the file in quicktime (should be the default viewer for .mov files) see how that handles it.
If you want to upload a video file, I’m sure one of us OSX users can take a look see if it plays for us.
Google drive or wesendit is as good as anywhere
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Thanks everyone for responding.
I knew that I would be able to get some advice here.
Really helpful, thanks, will try all the suggestions above. 
I also have problems with iMovie, it stutters, jumps and freezes. I find QuickTime a better option.
How old is the Mac?
It’s fine on a. 2019 MbPro even the 4K footage … as @milkmanchris how old is your Mac?
In the past people have had this issue where they accidentally didn’t stop recording before powering off their drone.
Each time the solution has been to :
- put the card back into the drone
- power up
- download the full-res version of the video to their phone/tablet
- transfer the file from their phone/tablet to their computer.
Thanks @OzoneVibe
The video was definitely completed as I took several photos post the video in question
I also took two more short (grass cutter) videos afterwards and they too have the same issues when I try to open them with iMovie.
When I get some time later I will try and open them with QuickTime and see if that works.
I was wondering if it was something in the movie settings on the drone that I have set incorrectly ??
Thanks again for taking the time to respond.
I really appreciate all the help that people are offering.
Rob
It still may be your route since, as @Gkinghrn said above …
… so the same solution may work.
Nothing to lose and you may end up with a working version of the original file. 
No the Mac should read it straight off the card, factory settings blah blah.
Hi @OzoneVibe / @milkmanchris
Just tried it again, and the original file opens fine in Quicktime, but when I try and open the original file with iMovie I still get the following error message :-
The application “iMovie” cannot open the specified document or URL.
I haven’t tried the other suggestions above yet with “re-finalising” the file on the drone, however, one bit of info I neglected (sorry) to tell you is that I fly with an iPad mini (4) on the controller, so I opened the photos/videos straight into the Photos app on the iPad and so they were picked up straight away on the MacBook.
I did not take the files from the SD card…
I don’t know if this makes any difference.
Rob
Did you download the ful-res version of the video from your drone to your iPad first?
The videos it caches to your iPad during flight are not the full-res versions (they’re lower res and lower bit rate) … so, for that reason alone, it’s probably worth trying direct from the SD card first, or the route I suggested above that has a track record of repairing this (or very similar) issue.
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Second what Dave says , the cached files could be any format (I myself uploaded some here the other day that few could open)
Plug the SD into your Mac and open iMovie and click import , they *will open/import fine (he said)
Thanks guys
Will definitely give that a try later when I get some spare time.
Thanks again for your help & advice
Rob
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Also put the raw video online somewhere and we can download and look at it …
I’ve done that, switched the drone off then realised it was still recording. This procedure seems to work!
It’s 2014 running the latest version of Mac OS High Sierra