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Q: Images/stills turn black in iMovie since El Capitan upgrade

Dear all,

 

Since I've upgraded to El Capitan, I'm having issues with images/stills in iMovie. While they do show up correctly as thumbnails in the project overview, they can't be previewed or rendered, turning up completely black instead. Audio/text overlays are all OK, the images are just black, all of them.

 

I've tried various image format (PNG, JPG, TIFF). I've also tried renaming images to some unique name (as suggested somewhere).

 

Older iMovie projects which I made before El Capitan, that used to be OK, now have the same problem. I can't include any stills.

 

The issue also occurs when creating a freeze frame ("Add Freeze Frame"): the freeze frame also becomes black when previewing / exporting.

 

My platforms:

 

OS X: El Capitan 10.11

iMovie: 8.0.6. (821)

 

Any help would be appreciated!

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11), iMovie 8.0.6

Posted on Oct 9, 2015 3:04 AM

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Q: Images/stills turn black in iMovie since El Capitan upgrade

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  • by scottfrommelbourne,

    scottfrommelbourne scottfrommelbourne Jan 5, 2016 12:59 PM in response to scottfrommelbourne
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 5, 2016 12:59 PM in response to scottfrommelbourne

    So, as of 2 days ago, under the guidance of Apple Support I backed up my iMac once last time, erased my hard drive and re-installed OS-X from scratch.

    The theory being that since we had never ever done this in the 8 years we've owned the machine, it would help eliminate any 'gremlins' that may be contributing to the issue.

    Once the erase and re-install was finished we downloaded a fresh copy of the latest iMovie.

    Before attempting to migrate any user data and whilst the machine was 'fresh' we then uploaded some photo's from our Canon EOS40D camera in 2 ways.

    (1) Uploaded via the Photos application

    (2) Uploaded directly into iMovie media

     

    We then created a simple movie using a dozen or so of these photo's.

    Unfortunately the outcome was exactly the same as has been witnessed separately by a number of people on this forum.

     

    So, now that a 'clean slate' proved to be useless as a remedy, the Apple Support guy is now sending it off to their engineers as he was finally convinced its not just my machine or circumstances that are at fault.

    He said it may take a couple of weeks to get a reply from them. Hopefully they'll find the issue and create a patch to fix it permanently so people don't need to use workarounds.....

    Keep you posted.

  • by GeeD,

    GeeD GeeD Jan 5, 2016 2:33 PM in response to Rich Rydalch
    Level 5 (7,676 points)
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    Jan 5, 2016 2:33 PM in response to Rich Rydalch

    Rich,

    Your photo works fine on my 2013 Mac Pro but shows black in the viewer and after sharing on my old MacBook Pro (thumbnail is OK).  I may try it on my mac Mini tomorrow.

     

    So there must be both photo format and computer hardware aspects to the problem

     

    It seems that yours needs more resources to work in iMovie.  The image metadata shows that yours has a compression ratio of 10:1 compared to 8:1 for mine though I would not think that would be significant.  We both have Sony cameras of comparable age.

     

    Geoff.

  • by GeeD,

    GeeD GeeD Jan 5, 2016 2:48 PM in response to scottfrommelbourne
    Level 5 (7,676 points)
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    Jan 5, 2016 2:48 PM in response to scottfrommelbourne

    Scott - why not try the photo I put in dropbox  - link in my earlier post.  From Rich's reply I think you may find it works OK for you as well.  This could be useful information to pass on to Apple support.  I would be happy to test one of yours since I have 3 different macs all with El Capitan and iMovie 10.1 that range form the oldest that runs El Capitan to one of the most powerful.

     

    Geoff.

  • by Lkout,

    Lkout Lkout Jan 5, 2016 5:16 PM in response to d_bar
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 5, 2016 5:16 PM in response to d_bar

    Before I upgraded to El Capitan I partitioned my hard drive with Mavericks and El Capitan on separate partitions.

    I have found that iMovie 09 (8.0.6) operates ok in El Capitan when using iMovie Projects providing they contain only 'movies'. I encountered the same problem with black images of still photos in El Capitan.

    My solution was to open iMovie in Mavericks (on the separate partition) and export the 'black image' Projects (which still operate normally in Mavericks) as a 'm4v' file and saved the export as a new event in iMovie Events. (My iMovie Projects and Events are stored on an external hard drive and are accessible from both Mavericks and El Capitan).

    I then opened iMovie in El Capitan and created a new Project using the full clip from the recently created Event. Everything now seems to work fine.

    I suspect that the problem with the black images is caused by some back-of-computer link to the original iPhoto/Aperture library being lost as the El Capitan Photo app changes the old iPhoto library when the new Photo app in El Capitan is activated.

    The procedure above gets around this problem. As a precaution, before activating Photo in El Capitan I also duplicated my Mavericks iPhoto library which then became my default library in Mavericks iPhoto.

  • by GeeD,

    GeeD GeeD Jan 6, 2016 2:30 AM in response to Lkout
    Level 5 (7,676 points)
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    Jan 6, 2016 2:30 AM in response to Lkout

    OK, you have got around the problem by converting the still into a movie file.  The problem only occurs with stills.  You suggest:

     

    "I suspect that the problem with the black images is caused by some back-of-computer link to the original iPhoto/Aperture library being lost"

     

    but if this was the cause the problem would never appear for photos that are not from iPhoto or Aperture libraries and iMovie would not be able to create any thumbnails.   It can actually occur for photos dragged and dropped directly into a project as I found on my old MacBook Pro with the photo linked by Rich Rydalch. 

     

    Geoff.

  • by Maschbaer,

    Maschbaer Maschbaer Jan 6, 2016 7:55 AM in response to GeeD
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 6, 2016 7:55 AM in response to GeeD

    Hello,

     

    the same here (in Germany) using iMovie 10.1, images with high resolution (4000x2664) are displayed in workspace, but appear black on the preview and on the final movie.

    After setting up a new library I was able to import 2 high resolution pictures which worked. However, on the third the same issued appeared.


    Pictures taken with my iPhone 5s at 3264x2448 work fine.

     

    I just restored a copy of iMovie 10.0.9 from my time capsule  and tried with the pictures mentioned above. Everything works fine.

     

     

    regards,

    Jan

     

    P.s. I am using a MacBook Pro Early 2011 with 16Gb ram and a FusionDrive

  • by GeeD,

    GeeD GeeD Jan 6, 2016 8:27 AM in response to Maschbaer
    Level 5 (7,676 points)
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    Jan 6, 2016 8:27 AM in response to Maschbaer

    "After setting up a new library I was able to import 2 high resolution pictures which worked. However, on the third the same issued appeared."

     

    Were these all from the same camera at the same format/resolution settings? 

    Have you tried my 4912 x 2760pixel jpeg posted on Dropbox at: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8o68tbz0ywumu73/DSC05874.JPG?dl=0  ?

    I think you will find it works even though it is higher resolution - it seems that the detailed jpeg format plays a role and not just the number of pixels.

     

    [It happens to be of a location in Germany taken on holiday this summer - do you recognise where?]

     

    Geoff.

  • by Maschbaer,

    Maschbaer Maschbaer Jan 6, 2016 1:15 PM in response to GeeD
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 6, 2016 1:15 PM in response to GeeD

    Hello Geoff,

     

    actually, I have no idea where this picture was shot. Was it at the Krombach dam? But I hope you had a good time at Germany.

     

    I tried your picture with a new library on iMovie 10.1 and it works. I added it three times and there is no black preview. In addition, I added some picture taken with my Sony NEX-6 at 4912 x 3264pixel jpeg.

    However, the two I tired also previously do not work. These were taken with a Canon PowerShot S110 at 4000x2664 pixel jpeg.

     

    regards,

    Jan

  • by GeeD,

    GeeD GeeD Jan 6, 2016 2:03 PM in response to Maschbaer
    Level 5 (7,676 points)
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    Jan 6, 2016 2:03 PM in response to Maschbaer

    It seems that the Sony NEX cameras produce iMovie-friendy jpegs (Mine is a NEX-5N).   iMovie also accepts my 4912 x 3264pixel RAW files.  According to Wikipedia there are a number of variants of jpeg formats and I think that this must be the reason for some working and others not, even when they have a lower resolution.  This is also consistent with the observation that changing the format (eg. to .png) can avoid the problem.  If you like to link to one of your Canon S110 photos I will try it on my Mac Pro 2013 - I have yet to find a photo it can't handle.   This suggests that (not surprisingly) video card type and VRAM amount also play a role.

     

    Obviously only Apple can resolve the problem  but this sort of information might be useful to them.  In another thread they got someone with the problem to reinstall the operating system but to no avail.  I think OS configuration or interaction with 3 rd party apps and 'hacks' which they were probably suspecting can be ruled out. 

     

    Photo is of the Urfttalsperre in the Eifel National Park - had a very enjoyable week walking in the area.

     

    Geoff.

  • by GeeD,

    GeeD GeeD Jan 6, 2016 3:06 PM in response to GeeD
    Level 5 (7,676 points)
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    Jan 6, 2016 3:06 PM in response to GeeD

    I tested with my Mac Mini (4,1).  It behaves just the same as my MacBook Pro.  I also made .png, .tif and .pdf versions of Rich's photo.  Only the .pdf version works.  All versions work fine on my 2013 Mac Pro.

     

    I then tried them on my Mac Mini with FCP X.   Here the .jpg showed black, the .tif showed black, the .png was OK and the .pdf was taken to be the same as he .pdf and did not produce an additional thumbnail in the event.   What was really weird though was that the slightest adjustment to the .pdf or .tif - scale changed to 101% pr 99%; rotation by 0.1 degree; position changed by 1 pixel - caused the clip to appear and work normally.  Put all the settings back to normal and the clip blacked out!  FCP X uses some of the same low-level frameworks as iMovie so I am not surprised that the same problem can occur - in fact there were a few reports of such problems in the FCP X community.  All versions work fine in FCP X on my Mac Pro.

     

    Geoff.

  • by Maschbaer,

    Maschbaer Maschbaer Jan 6, 2016 3:55 PM in response to GeeD
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 6, 2016 3:55 PM in response to GeeD

    I linked a picture at 4000x2664 from the Canon S110:

     

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/msg1weadidd02ka/IMG_2142.JPG?dl=0

     

    Good luck.

     

    Jan

  • by Rich Rydalch,

    Rich Rydalch Rich Rydalch Jan 6, 2016 4:34 PM in response to GeeD
    Level 2 (304 points)
    Jan 6, 2016 4:34 PM in response to GeeD

    GeeD:

    I got a little lost in your last post. When you said you rotated the photo by .1degree, what app did you do that in? I tried it on Maschbaer's photo using Photoshop and had no luck.


    Maschbaer:

    I tried your photo and it does not work on my system.


    Interesting sideline:

    I was importing video from my Sony Camera Backups and working fine. I had one clip with a warning that it did not import correctly. Then all of a sudden iMovie went into severe depression. Slowed down the whole computer (all operations) to a crawl. Unable to switch between apps for about 4 minutes. Once it would switch, Quicktime would leave a faint window of the open file over anything behind it. And one small info window from iMovie was stuck over any other app I could switch to. And the input of video switched from a list view to a clips view with question marks.

    This leads me to think the problem is definitely something to do with the graphics of the computer. I think that is why some computers work okay concerning the black image and some do not.

  • by Maschbaer,

    Maschbaer Maschbaer Jan 7, 2016 2:33 AM in response to Rich Rydalch
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 7, 2016 2:33 AM in response to Rich Rydalch

    Rich,

     

    this is what we wanted to double check. The picture from the Cannon S110 does not work on my machine, too.

     

    see you

    Jan

  • by GeeD,

    GeeD GeeD Jan 7, 2016 2:53 AM in response to Rich Rydalch
    Level 5 (7,676 points)
    Video
    Jan 7, 2016 2:53 AM in response to Rich Rydalch

    Rich:

    "When you said you rotated the photo by .1degree, what app did you do that in?"

    This was in FCP X on my Mac Mini.  The tiniest of adjustments caused the photo to appear.  I assume this causes FCP to reprocess the image into a format that the graphics card can display.  Such adjustments are not possible in iMovie.  I agree that the problem appears to be the graphics.  Your "interesting sideline" is clearly something going wrong in the graphics department.

     

    Jan:

    On my 2007 MacBook Pro (3,1) your photo shows black. .png and .tiff versions also show black but a .pdf works OK.   For some time I got a very delayed and jerky cursor movement suggesting a 'graphics bottleneck'  On my 2013 Mac Pro there are no problems.  I notice that your photo has a high compression ratio of 12:1 (compared to 10:1 for Rich's and 8:1 for mine) that might just possibly be significant.

     

    I think it's a waste of time playing with this any more.  The problem is clearly graphics - related.  I have read that a lot of attention has been paid to improving graphics performance in El Capitan but it seems that it is not fully supporting all older hardware.  In the meantime, converting stills to .pdfs seems to be one of the best workarounds since it does not require degrading resolution.

     

    Geoff.

  • by otsoliloste,

    otsoliloste otsoliloste Jan 7, 2016 8:49 PM in response to Rich Rydalch
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 7, 2016 8:49 PM in response to Rich Rydalch

    I'm going to your posted photos and try resizing mine. Then I tell you what.

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