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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

Reply
22 replies

Jan 29, 2009 8:26 PM in response to Jim2006

There is nothing in the Crashlog Reporter. It's technically listed as a hang. I, also, noticed that the processor shoots up to 100% in iMovie when it hangs. This is what's listed in All Messages with the word "iMovie" in it. Let me know if you're looking for something else. I have to go to bed soon (EST) but I'll hang out for a bit and wait for replies...

1/28/09 6:06:34 PM com.apple.launchd[106] ([0x0-0x3f03f].com.apple.iMovie8[561]) Exited: Terminated
1/28/09 6:06:44 PM SubmitReport[2499] Submitted compressed hang report for iMovie
1/28/09 6:11:17 PM com.apple.launchd[106] ([0x0-0xef0ef].com.apple.iMovie8[2519]) Exited: Terminated
1/28/09 6:11:30 PM SubmitReport[2535] Submitted compressed hang report for iMovie
1/28/09 6:16:37 PM com.apple.launchd[86] ([0x0-0x1e01e].com.apple.iMovie8[186]) Exited: Terminated
1/28/09 6:18:58 PM com.apple.launchd[86] ([0x0-0x23023].com.apple.iMovie8[199]) Exited: Terminated
1/28/09 6:19:08 PM SubmitReport[218] Submitted compressed hang report for iMovie
1/28/09 6:28:18 PM /Applications/iMovie.app/Contents/MacOS/iMovie[188] _RemoveTimeTask(), the current time manager task 0x1c38d69c being removed is also currently executing its tmAddr routine, so unexpected things may result ( Radar #4555679 ).
1/28/09 6:31:40 PM com.apple.launchd[98] ([0x0-0x20020].com.apple.iMovie8[188]) Exited: Terminated
1/28/09 6:31:49 PM SubmitReport[205] Submitted compressed hang report for iMovie
1/28/09 6:33:31 PM com.apple.launchd[98] ([0x0-0x24024].com.apple.iMovie8[209]) Exited: Terminated
1/28/09 6:33:42 PM SubmitReport[221] Submitted compressed hang report for iMovie
1/28/09 7:02:19 PM com.apple.launchd[103] ([0x0-0x1f01f].com.apple.iMovie8[197]) Exited: Terminated
1/28/09 7:04:01 PM SubmitReport[217] Submitted compressed hang report for iMovie
1/29/09 8:47:02 PM com.apple.launchd[103] ([0x0-0xde0de].com.apple.iMovie8[4028]) Exited: Terminated
1/29/09 8:47:11 PM SubmitReport[4045] Submitted compressed hang report for iMovie
1/29/09 8:52:40 PM com.apple.launchd[103] ([0x0-0xe50e5].com.apple.iMovie8[4060]) Exited: Terminated
1/29/09 9:21:24 PM SubmitReport[4304] Submitted compressed hang report for iMovie
1/29/09 9:35:47 PM com.apple.launchd[80] ([0x0-0x1a01a].com.apple.iMovie8[182]) Exited: Terminated
1/29/09 9:36:00 PM SubmitReport[196] Submitted compressed hang report for iMovie
1/29/09 9:46:59 PM com.apple.launchd[80] ([0x0-0x22022].com.apple.iMovie8[231]) Exited: Terminated
1/29/09 9:47:08 PM SubmitReport[248] Submitted compressed hang report for iMovie
1/29/09 10:48:59 PM com.apple.launchd[80] ([0x0-0x4d04d].com.apple.iMovie8[512]) Exited: Terminated
1/29/09 10:49:05 PM SubmitReport[620] Submitted compressed hang report for iMovie
1/29/09 10:52:12 PM Installer[645] Upgrade: "iMovie"
1/29/09 10:52:55 PM Installer[645] run preflight script for iMovie
1/29/09 10:52:56 PM Installer[645] run preflight script for iMovie
1/29/09 10:56:28 PM Installer[645] Processing iMovie:
1/29/09 10:57:04 PM Installer[645] Processing iMovie:
1/29/09 11:03:37 PM Installer[645] run postflight script for iMovie
1/29/09 11:03:37 PM Installer[645] run postflight script for iMovie
1/29/09 11:14:44 PM com.apple.launchd[111] ([0x0-0x20020].com.apple.iMovie8[219]) Exited: Terminated
1/29/09 11:14:54 PM SubmitReport[238] Submitted compressed hang report for iMovie

Jan 29, 2009 8:31 PM in response to Anthony Moore4

I made a Smart Album of the videos. 481 of them. I noticed that the first 15 or so show 0:00 for time even though they obviously are not 0:00.

I can move a video out to a folder. But deleting them from iPhoto is a greyed out option in this view. I tried several different options but deleting from a smart album does not appear to be possible. What's a practical way to delete them?

Jan 29, 2009 8:52 PM in response to Anthony Moore4

Since I wasn't sure of a practical way to delete the videos from iPhoto I copied a couple in to my daughter's iPhoto Library in her account including one of the ones listed with a time of 0:00. They both show up fine in iMovie in her account and no hang.

I wonder if iMovie is just choking under the 481 videos in iPhoto? I have to go to bed but I'll set my normal iPhoto to rebuild the Thumbnails overnight and I'll take this up tomorrow and see if that helps.

Message was edited by: Anthony Moore4

Jan 30, 2009 10:30 PM in response to Jim2006

Tried removing Perian, DivX, & Flip4Mac. No change.

I tried rebuilding the iPhoto Library. No change.

I removed the entire Preferences folder in the User Library. No change

I have a cloned backup. I tried linking iPhoto to that cloned library. No change.

I'm pretty well convinced the problem is in the iPhoto Library but I'm not sure what I can do about it. Since there doesn't seem to be any practical way to remove the videos from the Library maybe I could attempt adding videos in batches to my daughter's account in iPhoto until I run in to a problem but what a pain.

Oh and I considered posting the Hang Log that gets submitted to Apple but it's really long.

Message was edited by: Anthony Moore4

Jan 31, 2009 8:24 AM in response to AppleMan1958

Thanks. I sort of did that with one video I noticed was all black. Wasn't the problem child.

I've since copied those 15 (because they're all at the top for some reason) to my daughters account and they're not causing a problem in iMovie there so I guess they're not the problem children.

I guess I'm just going to continue copying the videos to her account one row at a time and keep relaunching iMovie to see if it hangs at some point. 481 of them though 😟

If none ever create a problem then I'm at a loss. I'm not even sure how I would delete the ones in the original account in order to reimport them. I was considering that maybe I could rebuild a new library from Time Machine backup and see what that does. 44GB though so I'd need to Ethernet it to my iMac. Any thoughts?

Jan 31, 2009 8:50 AM in response to Anthony Moore4

What might me a good troubleshooting idea is if I could run iMovie '09 on a different computer and point that computers iPhoto to my iPhoto Library. If it crashes then it is definitely related to my iPhoto Library and if it doesn't then it is not.

Unfortunately my 12" Powerbook is not iMovie '09 compatible. Think maybe I'll run my Extenal Drive Clone to a friends house to try that because at least it'd be definitive.

Jan 31, 2009 10:25 AM in response to Anthony Moore4

Same problem on my computer (MacBook Pro 15 unibody, MacOX 10.5.6 with all software updates)
iMovie'09 run well on another account but does not launch on my main account.
My iPhoto Library contains 8125 photos and 103 movies (avi & mov) (26 Go) but I do not see relation with the problem.

I try :
- to create another iPhoto Library on the account
- to copy com.apple.iMovie8.plist from another account

But nothing…

I plan to install iLife'09 again and read forums…

Thanks for your help.

Florian
From France

Jan 31, 2009 2:12 PM in response to Anthony Moore4

I had a similar problem. It was events stored on an external hard drive, not in iPhoto, though.

I am not sure if I solved it yet, but I will respond back if it happens again.
I deleted the iMovie Cache and iMovie Thumbnail from each event. Note that these caches and thumbnails were made with iMovie '08 and I just upgraded to iMovie '09. This process was taking awhile, so I left my MacBook Pro running while I went to get lunch.

When I came back it was frozen on an event. I closed iMovie, deleted the thumbnail folder (the cache folder has yet to be recreated) and restarted iMovie.

iMovie crashed after a few minutes of trying to re-create the thumbnail. I then looked closer at this event and found 2 movies with the Final Cut symbol on them. Note that I do make movies in Final Cut and I mostly use iMovie for 2 things: uploading these Final Cut movies to MobileMe and making photo slideshows. Recently I imported 2 and a half hours of old family vacation DV footage to make simple movies in iMovie.

Anyways, I pressed space in the finder to QuickLook at these 2 movies and they both had blank video, with a song I remember using to make this movie when I wanted to test out iMovie '08. The song was in the final movie and not in the event, so it was odd that it was in the event folder. I deleted both movies, restarted iMovie and it started working correctly.

Some in this thread have mentioned testing these iPhoto videos on different accounts and getting different results. I bet it is possible that iMovie creates thumbnails for iPhoto videos, and puts them somewhere in the home folder, possibly in the ~/Movies/iMovie Events folder. I would try and find this folder and delete the Cache and Thumbnail folders, and re-import them into iMovie. If that doesn't work, go through each iPhoto movie in the finder using QuickLook and if you find one that looks corrupt (no audio and/or no video, for example), move them aside.

iMovie '09 will not run

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