Convert a WLMP file to MP4 without Movie Maker
A .wlmp file is a project from Windows Live Movie Maker 2011 or 2012. It holds no pictures, video or music, only where they were on the computer that made it, plus every trim, transition, title and song. Open it here, show the page the folder your files are in now, and it rebuilds the movie and saves it as an MP4.
Drop a .wlmp file hereOpen a .wlmp project
Nothing is uploaded. The project and your files stay on this device.
Find the files
A Movie Maker project holds no pictures, video or music of its own, only where they were on the computer that made it. Choose the folder that holds them now. A parent folder is fine; the folders inside it are searched too. Files are matched by name, so a new drive letter or user name does not matter, and nothing is uploaded.
Missing
Found
Save as MP4
Coming shortlyThis browser has the MP4 export. Thank you.
Bought it already? Restore it in this browser.
This browser has no video encoder the page can use. The check and the preview still work. For the MP4, use a current Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari.
What comes back
The page reads the project the way Movie Maker saved it: the photos and video clips in order, each trimmed where you trimmed it and played at the speed you set, the transitions between them, pan and zoom, the visual effects, the title cards and captions in their font, colour and place, the music and narration, and each clip's own sound at the volume you gave it. You can watch the whole movie in the page before paying anything.
Most of Movie Maker's transitions have a matching version here: crossfade, blur, fade through black, the wipes and slides, circle, diamond, eye and rectangle, bars, checkerboard, wheel, flip and pixelate. A few, like shatter, stars and page curl, are drawn as something simpler, and the page lists those as soon as you open the project. Black and white, sepia, cyan, brightness, blur, mirror and the fades to and from black come through; edge detection, warp and the cinematic overlays are left off.
What it needs from you
The files themselves. Choose the folder that holds them (a parent folder is fine) and the page matches every file by name, so a new drive letter, user name or folder layout does not matter. If a video was converted since, say from .MOV to .mp4, a file with the same name and a different extension counts too. Anything still missing can be chosen by hand, one file at a time, and whatever stays missing is listed before you export.
Video clips have to be in a format the browser can read. MP4, MOV, M4V, 3GP, WebM and MKV work in current Chrome and Edge, and camcorder MTS files usually do. WMV, AVI and MOD clips do not; convert those to MP4 with any free converter, then choose the converted file. Photos in JPEG, PNG, BMP, GIF and WebP work, and music in MP3, WAV, M4A and WMA.
What it costs
Opening the project, finding the files and the preview are free. Saving the MP4 is the same one-time US$19 licence as the Photo Story export: one purchase covers both kinds of project, as many as you like, in this browser. The pricing page has the details and the refund.
"Movie Maker says media is missing"
Movie Maker looks for each file at the exact path it was added from, such as C:\Users\Ana\Pictures\Trip\IMG_0412.JPG. A new computer, a different user name, a renamed folder or an external drive with a new letter all break that path. The files themselves are usually fine. There is a page about that warning with the ways to fix it, in Movie Maker or here.
If Movie Maker 2012 still runs on your PC
It can save the project itself: open the .wlmp, put back any missing items, then choose Save movie. This page is for when it no longer runs, or when the project has ended up on a Mac or a Chromebook.
What is inside a .wlmp
The file is XML. A MediaItems list names every source file with its full path, its type (video, photo or audio) and its length. The Extents section holds the clips: an ImageClip shows a photo for a set number of seconds, a VideoClip plays part of a video from inTime to outTime at a speed, an AudioClip places music, and a TitleClip is either a coloured title card or a caption with its text, font, size, position and animation. Four tracks tie them together: the main video track, the soundtrack, narration and the captions, each clip placed a gapBefore after the one before it. Transitions and effects hang off each clip by name, such as CrossfadeTransitionTemplate or PanAndZoomEffectZoomInFullToCenterTemplate.