You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Media Crop Adjustments

I’m cropping to remove overscan errors from 8mm film. In Media, the Crop tool allows in constrained aspect ratio cropping, but the adjustment is quite gross (that is, it snaps to the next setting and does not allow fine tuning). Am I missing something?

MacBook

Posted on Aug 26, 2019 1:11 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 30, 2019 11:04 AM

Have you updated to current iMovie 10.1.12 (I assume you have since you reinstalled) and upgraded to current Mojave? Sometimes upgrading can cure little glitches.


If no luck anywhere, try clicking on the Contact Support item in the upper right hand corner of this forum screen and then navigate to the iMovie item. There will be a phone number that you can call to talk directly to an Apple Support person. Those folks can be pretty helpful.


-- Rich

7 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 30, 2019 11:04 AM in response to Dan Connors

Have you updated to current iMovie 10.1.12 (I assume you have since you reinstalled) and upgraded to current Mojave? Sometimes upgrading can cure little glitches.


If no luck anywhere, try clicking on the Contact Support item in the upper right hand corner of this forum screen and then navigate to the iMovie item. There will be a phone number that you can call to talk directly to an Apple Support person. Those folks can be pretty helpful.


-- Rich

Aug 26, 2019 1:26 PM in response to Dan Connors

Hi, Dan,


I am having trouble envisioning what you have described.


Are you cropping in an iMovie project time line, or in the media browser?


If it's in the media browser, you would select the clip, click on the crop icon, and then click on the Crop button that appears to the left above the preview screen. You should then get adjustment rectangles that will allow finite adjustment of the clip in the preview screen without any constraining to a particular aspect ratio. After making your crop adjustments you click on the blue reset button in the upper right of your screen to apply the changes. Is that the procedure you are following?


-- Rich

Aug 27, 2019 12:27 AM in response to Dan Connors

Hi, Dan,


I do notice slightly less smoothness in the up and down crop adjustment, but not to the extent that you describe. I also found that if I drag the upper edge of the timeline downward to enlarge the screen, and then click on the crop icon again (the one that looks like intersecting angles), I can rotate the screen display by 90 degrees. The up and down adjustment then becomes a side by side adjustment that works smoothly. You can try that and see if it works for you.


If not, try 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. Now see if the crop adjustment is smoother.


-- Rich



Aug 30, 2019 10:26 AM in response to Rich839

Rich,

Sorry, I was not clear. First, it is very difficult to grab the controls at top and bottom. Once one gets them, the sizing box moves smoothy, however if you get close to the edge, th box jumps either to the edge itself or a spot quite a ways away (maybe losing 5% of the height). It is smooth in the middle, but jumps when nearing top and bottom. This jumping also occurs side-to-side.


Since what I'm trying to remove is the garbage on the top and bottom of an old 8mm film, I end up removing more content thn I want.


Thanks for your help!

Aug 30, 2019 10:48 AM in response to Dan Connors

Hmmmm. I can't seem to replicate the issue you are observing. It works smoothly when dragging any handle or moving the box itself. No jumping.


You can access the top and bottom handles more easily if you drag the corner handle to make the picture a tad smaller.


Did you try the deleting preferences procedure that I made in one of my earlier posts?


Also, this may be an issue that is confined to just this one project. Try creating a new project and see if the cropping works better there.


-- Rich

Media Crop Adjustments

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.