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iMovie '09 will not run

Never had a major problem with iMovie since iMovie 2 until this update.

iMovie '09 crashes upon launch. I switch to my daughter's account and iMovie '09 opens cleanly. I think ok, corrupted plist file in my Home Library folder. No success going that route. However, I have the feeling my crashing problem is related to "iPhoto Videos" because that is what is selected when I try to launch on my account from the last time I had used it.

So I move my iPhoto Library to a Shared folder, log in to my daughter's account and point her iPhoto to that library. Launch iMovie under her account. Everything seems ok until I choose iPhoto Videos and then it crashes under her account now, too.

I've deleted every sort of plist that sounded plausible; iLifeMediaBrowser.plist, iLife09.plist, iMovie8.plist, etc.

Anyone have a suggestion?

Our Digital Camera that we take video with is a Kodak DX7630. I will note that in the previous version of iMovie the videos taken with our camera did not show up at all. In this version they seem to be showing up but it keeps crashing now. Deleting the movies out of iPhoto is not an option.

Computer is 24" iMac running 10.5.6 with all software updates.

24" iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Jan 29, 2009 6:59 PM

22 replies

Jan 31, 2009 8:33 PM in response to Eric Barbosa

So I took my computer to the Apple Store and hooked up iMovie '09 on one of their machines with my main iPhoto Library and their's did not hang. So apparently it's not my iPhoto Library alone causing it.

So to recap...
1. Hooking up my main iPhoto Library to iMovie on another account does cause it to crash.
2. Using iMovie from a whole different computer hooked up to my main iPhoto Library does not cause it to crash.

I did try deleting those iMovie Thumbnails and iMovie Cache in the iMovie Events you mentioned. Still hangs. However I noticed that when iMovie is first launched it goes through "Creating iPhotos Video Event" and I can not find those Thumbnail and Cache files anywhere. The ones present in iMovie Events were just Events from a few previous iMovie's I'd made. If I could find where the iPhoto Videos Event Thumbnails and Cache file is maybe that's the answer.

If it's not my iPhoto Library apparently it's some kind of shared resource between my main account and my daughter's account that relates to the main iPhoto Library. I've screwed around with things in the Main Library to no avail.

Any more ideas with that info?

Feb 1, 2009 6:21 AM in response to Prolepse

Same problem on my computer with iMovie 8.0 (iLife 09) and the older iMovie 7.0. It hangs on startup on my main account (standard account) and starts normally on my second account (admin account). So far all the solutions I found on forums didn't solve this issue.

Feb 1, 2009 9:01 AM in response to Hubert Carvallo

At the suggestion of a friend I deleted the ByHost folder in the ~Preferences but no cigar. Also, ran Applejack with no change.

Just putting out there what I've tried.

Feb 2, 2009 9:16 AM in response to Anthony Moore4

My iMovie 09 (version 8.0) would take 30 minutes to startup. I moved my iMovie Events library folder to my desktop, then it started up ok. I imported 5 gigs of video, and then proceeded to edit the video. iMovie 09 crashes upon clicking in the event library window.

One post said it might be a corrupted thumbnail in a project. Other said he had Perian installed which I do as well. I've moved the pref pane for Perian to the desktop, am gonna restart and see. Just a couple thoughts.

Feb 2, 2009 12:43 PM in response to Anthony Moore4

I'm curious, what version of Perian are you running?
For that matter what other 3rd Party codecs are you running & version #'s?

This may help others identify your issue.

Here's an old but interesting thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=7377779#7377779

Feb 2, 2009 8:21 PM in response to iphonejunky

That thread you linked finally solved the problem!

While I had uninstalled DivX, Perian, Flip4Mac I was not aware of the components in the Main Library Quicktime folder mentioned in that thread. A problem in the Main Library was my suspect since it affected both accounts when connected to my main iPhoto Library.

In that folder was a couple DivX components, Flip4Mac components and EyeTV component. I deleted them all except the 2 Apple ones. A restart was required as it still hung without the restart. But after the restart it was fixed. Not sure which of those was the culprit and will reinstall the latest and see what happens one at a time.

It was a hollow victory at first as the iLife Media Browser was still messed up. Music would not show up in iPhoto or iMovie to choose from. I re-ran the iLife '09 installer with no success. Then I found an iLife Media Browser Update released 1-26-09 via Google on Apple's website. Downloaded and installed and Music was all accessible again.

So I think it's all good now. Hope this thread helps others. Was driving my nuts. Thanks again for the link.

P.S. Actually just noticed that it was your post in that thread that solved my dilemma. Thank you.

Message was edited by: Anthony Moore4

JFallon

Level 1

4 points

Mar 24, 2009 10:35 AM in response to Anthony Moore4

I am having a similar issue, I got a new iMac and opened iMovie for the first time last night. Earlier I transferred my iPhoto library from my old machine which included almost 600 movies in .MOV format. So after iMovie processed the thumbnails for my iPhoto movies, I got the beachball after clicking on a thumb. Several force quits later, no dice, beachball every time (including lengthy delay every time just to load the thumbs). I am able to do anything else, like scroll the thumbs using the scrollbar and click into menus, but as soon as i click a thumb it hangs and the CPU spikes to 100%. Tried all the suggested fixes, such as removing Flip4mac plugins, deleting prefs, reinstalling iMovie, etc, no dice.

So has anyone successfully got iMovie to work with a large library of iPhoto movies, like 500+? Trying to figure out if thats the core issue here, or if I have some corrupt .MOV files or something else.

Thanks for any help.

iMovie '09 will not run