Opening a Movie Maker .wlmp file on a Mac

A .wlmp is not a video. It is the project file from Windows Live Movie Maker 2011 or 2012: a list of the photos, video clips and music a movie used, and what to do with each one. A Mac has nothing that plays it, because there is no movie inside to play.

Why QuickTime and iMovie will not open it

Movie Maker only ever ran on Windows, and no Mac program reads its projects. Renaming the file to .mp4 or .mov does not help. Open it with TextEdit and you can see why: it is text, and each photo or clip is listed by where it was on the Windows computer that made it, something like C:\Users\Ana\Pictures\Trip\IMG_0412.JPG.

What you need besides the .wlmp

The photos, clips and music themselves. If someone sent you only the .wlmp, those are still on their computer. There are two ways forward:

• Ask them for the finished video. If Movie Maker still runs on their PC, Save movie turns the project into a video file they can send.
• Ask them for the folder of photos and clips the movie used, on a USB stick or a shared folder, and rebuild it yourself as below.

Rebuilding the movie on a Mac

With the .wlmp and its files on your Mac, open the WLMP to MP4 page, drop the .wlmp on it and choose the folder that holds the files. The page finds each one by name, so the Windows paths do not matter, then rebuilds the movie with its trims, transitions, titles and music and plays it in the page. Checking the project and the preview are free, and saving the MP4 is a one-time US$19. Nothing is uploaded.

Use Chrome or Edge if the movie has video clips; they read more video formats than Safari. Photos and MP4 or MOV clips are fine. Clips in WMV or AVI, which older Windows cameras and phones made, have to be converted to MP4 first with a free converter such as HandBrake, then chosen in place of the original.

If the file ends in .wp3 instead

That is a Photo Story 3 project, and it is the opposite case: the photos and narration are inside it. Opening a Photo Story 3 project on a Mac covers it.