Ive been editing a time lapse in iMovie and keep having the same issue. When I go back to work on the project the clip editing bar where Ive been dropping the clips in keeps disappearing. When I scroll over that section on the bottom though its as if the clips are still there - they're just not viewable. I didnt click anything to turn them on or off - seems like a glitch. Any recommendations on how to fix this. See attached.
Hi, Chris,
Try restarting your computer and opening iMovie while holding down the Option and Command keys and selecting to delete preferences in the box that appears. iMovie will open in a new library. Reopen your old library to get back to your projects. See if that solves it.
Also, it is possible that this issue is confined to just this one project. Try creating a new project and putting your media into it. See if they display properly in the timeline.
-- Rich
Hi, Chris,
Try restarting your computer and opening iMovie while holding down the Option and Command keys and selecting to delete preferences in the box that appears. iMovie will open in a new library. Reopen your old library to get back to your projects. See if that solves it.
Also, it is possible that this issue is confined to just this one project. Try creating a new project and putting your media into it. See if they display properly in the timeline.
-- Rich
If you haven't already, try updating to current iMovie 10.1.11 and Mojave.
If you are already updated, then try redownloading iMovie.
You can also try creating a new library and creating your project there.
Does this issue happen with other projects and other non-timelapse clips?
-- Rich
Pretty sure it was the upgrade from iMovie 10.1.10 to 10.1.11 on March 22 that caused this issue ... but you can't take iMovie libraries back to an earlier version after they have been opened by the latest version (as far as I'm aware)
Rich,
I have 500GB of disk space but am running off the i5 Processor - but with 16gb of RAM. Still I think the 5000 images is pushing the project over the limit. Im going to delete the photos I dont need before dropping them into iMovie and break this up into a few projects.
While it would be much easier to make all of these edits in iMovie im not sure its possible on the machine I have.
Thanks for your attention to the matter.
Rich,
Thanks for the reply. I tried deleting the preferences per your instruction but that did not fix the issue. The Clip editor below where Ive been making edits to each frame is still missing. however when I scroll over that section the preview movie pane shows the clips as if they're still there.
This has happened to me 3x in a row and I keep recreating the project and starting over - but its getting frustrating and a massive waste of time. I have a bunch of pictures from a GoPro where Im creating a time lapse - there are several frames I need to delete and am unable to do so If i cant view frame by frame in the pane below. It works every time I start a new project but after a while it disappears. I cant explain it! any other ideas? Doenst seem like a settings issue, seems like a glitch of some sort. Im up to date on all the latest software.
Rich,
All of my software is up to date. Check
Redownloaded iMovie - issue seems to still happen.
Ive recreated this 3-4 times and get the same result. I work on it for a bit then, wham - the editor below disappears. but as I scroll over the clips are still definitely there!
I havent tried other projects other than Time lapse. There are over 5,000 images at 0.1 seconds per frame. So wondering if its a size issue of the project? In total its about 18gb of images.
My goal is to go through and clear out a good amount of the images but its much easier to do in iMovie instead of deleting each JPEG one at a time before I import them into iMovie. hoping someone can help fix this issue!
Hi, Chris,
Check the amount of free space on your drive. Make sure that you have enough to handle your movie. Probably need 30-40GB.
Since the thumbnails disappear while editing, it might be that your computer processor is not powerful enough to handle the editing in real time with 5000 photos in the project. Possibly this is the issue if you have an i5 processor versus the more powerful i7. Check your computer specs to see. Also, you want at least 4GB of RAM.
What you might do is to split your project into 3 or 4 projects, i.e, into more manageable segments. Then edit them separately and combine them into one project at the end.
To make sure that the issue is confined to this project, and not global, it would be helpful to test a couple of other projects to see if the issue happens there.
Another thing you can try is to boot up in Safe Mode (see Finder help menu for instructions) and, after everything loads, immediately shut down and reboot in normal mode. See if that helps.
-- Rich
You are welcome.
-- Rich
Hi Chris,
I'm experiencing the same issue with 2 libraries I've spent the past 2 months working on. I also have a similar spec machine to you.
The 'invisible' clip editor problem started a couple of days ago. The previous day everything was fine and now they are completely uneditable. All the work is effectively lost.
I've tried every fix option I can think of for the last two days (restore files, resets, redownloads, iMovie backups), everything except a different mac, but I'm thinking this is a bug in iMovie as it seems to be impacting only my two largest libraries 39.92GB & 50.26GB but not a 36.49GB library.
Regards, Eric
Clip editing in iMovie Disappears
