Multiple Crashes, Gray Thumbnails

I had the same problem today too but I have the solution. Quit iMovie 08 first. Then, you need to go to the iMovie Events folder and delete the thumbnail folders of the offending clips. Restart iMovie and it will rebuild the thumbnails again. It takes a while if you have some large files. The problem should be resolved. I know, Apple really should fix this problem in the next update.

Thanks Patty Patty! That did the trick for me! Found this thread after hours of searching the forums and trying things to stop iMovie from crashing. Didn't think it was thumbnail related but tried your suggestion without much hope. Now I was able to complete a project and iMovie is rock solid!

Thanks for posting!

Yes, but why does it keep crashing in the first place?

I am not sure why it crashed in the first place. I remember I tried to import some video clips. When I switched between the projects and doing other things, I think iMovie crashed. Then, when I returned to the application, most of the previously imported clips turned gray. iMovie tried to re-create those thumbnails without any success. Finally, it crashed again - over and over again. The movie clips themselves were fine when I viewed the original .dv clips in their folders. I think the thumbnails were corrupted and iMovie went into an endless loop and decided to crash. This is a major bug in the software and it has happened to be rather frequently. I think I have the solution but hopefully Apple will fix that in future updates.

The solution also worked for me. I was having the same problem with grey thumbnails in iMovie, typically happening after iMovie crashed.

Perhaps the same problem. After a crash and movie recovery, some thumbnails (clips) remain gray, and none of the clips will respond to any commands- can't move to timeline, can't copy and paste, etc. This movie is for my son's school project, and he is frantic. Has put a lot of time into it.

I don't know where the iMovie event folder resides, so can't try the posted solution. Can someone help?

Thanks so much.

The iMovie event folder normally locates in your Movies folder unless you have selected a different one. Then, in the iMovie event folder, you will see the thumbnails folder where you can find the defective thumbnails. Hope that will work.

Thanks for the reply. There is nothing in the movie folder except the movie and a back up copy of the movie. Could this be part of the problem?

Thanks Patty Patty - this worked for me after iMovie '08 (or 7.?!?) crashed and the sound was gone and the clips were grayed out.

Patty Patty - you ROCK!!! Deleting the thumbnails fixed my problem. After 2 days on this forum and talking to Apple Care for over an hour with no solution, this finally worked. I had multiple gray thumbnails and thumbnails with the wrong video clip and then after a day of this I couldn't even start iMovie, it would crash as soon as I started it up.

Apple really needs to fix this. Thank you PattyPatty!!!

Thanks for the tip Patty - this worked for me too. Grayed out or corrupted thumbnails was crashing I-Movie '08.

Thanks Patty Patty - you saved another IMac saved from being thrown across the room! 2 monthes later and this is still not fixed or even answered!

Thanks, Patty! I was hating iMovie 08 a lot when it first came out because it's really a completely new program. But I'm beginning to like to the way it does things. This corrupt thumbnail issue was one of my last big gripes. Thanks to you....I can get moving on some edits. Kudos!

Fantastic solution. I had the greyed out thumbnails/funky sound problem and deleting the thumbnails fixed my issue completely. Now the clip that had the problem (about 40 minutes long) has no issues and I can scroll the clip flawlessly! Thanks, Patty Patty!

Hi Patty Patty - Thanks for your fix, it worked for me as well!