Level 1

14 points

Artifacts in iMovie

Hello all,

I have macbook pro 2017 base model with the latest Catalina MacOS and latest iMovie. I have created iMovie project on my iPhone 11 pro with latest osX and all the clips were recorded with this phone.

I wanted to finish my project on Macbook pro, so I airdroped project from phone to the macbook.

Now during editing in iMovie I can see some ugly artifacts during crossfade transition (or just after transition) from one shot to another one. This artifacts are visible in iMovie and also in exported video. Strange thing is, that after few plays of the shot in iMovie, artifacts disappeared. However, then they again appear after some time.

I've tried to delete transition and also shot and import it once again, however artifacts appeared again. I am not able to export video without visible artifacts. I can also see that in some artifacts I can see shot from another part of the project, upside down.

It's very strange, don't know if it is related to fact that project was airdropped from iphone or not. On the iPhone I can't see any artifact. I didn't do any video on the macbook directly so can't tell what's wrong, where is the issue, but for sure somewhere is pretty ugly bug - looks like graphic driver doesn't work properly. The strangest thing is that after few play of the part of the project, artifacts disappear for some time.

Posted on Oct 16, 2019 9:22 AM

Top-ranking reply

Rich839

Level 8

48,882 points

Posted on Oct 16, 2019 10:13 AM

Hi, geniusweb,

I don't think that Air Dropping the project caused this. Possibly a corrupt preference is causing it.

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 artifacts are gone.

Another thing you can try is to copy your media into a newly created project and see if that cures the problem. To do that, do an Edit/Select All, Edit/Copy, of the media in your project and then Edit/Paste it into the newly created project.

You could also try booting up in Safe Mode and, after everything loads, immediately shut down and reboot in normal mode. Then see if iMovie works properly.

-- Rich

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geniusweb Author

Level 1

14 points

Dec 30, 2019 1:35 PM in response to Reefst77

Hi guys,

I am pretty glad I am not the only one with this issue. When I’ve opened this topic I was afraid there won’t be anybody else with the same issues. Now we can see there are plenty of users who can’t use their phones and macs properly - to easily capture, cut and export the videos without need of using another tools, transcoders etc. Just record, cut and export profesionally looking videos, everything in one software - this simplicity can’t be achieved today.

It’s very sad, because I switched from Samsung phone and PC with Pinnacle software to iPhone and Mac because of simplicity of the software with even better results. I have to say now, it was easier to have nice videos without artifacts on android and PC. No kidding.

But I have another piece to our ‘Puzzle game’. It seems that issue is in iPhone and it is totally out of iMovie on Mac.

Today I was able to export 15 minutes long video from iMovie without any artifacts (neither in preview nor exported video). In this video I have used around 100 clips from this year (recap from August 2018 till August 2019) - and guess what - all the clips were captured with my old samsung phone. No issues there. I bought my iPhone in September so no clips from iPhone in this recap video were used.

But, the most important question is - is here anybody from the apple? Is apple reading this forum and have information about our issues? Or we just complaining the issues to each other?

Reefst77

Level 1

8 points

Jan 5, 2020 8:53 AM in response to geniusweb

Doesn't seem to be a problem with the recording device (ie. iPhone). Check this thread:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250779422?page=1

I got a great deal for FCPX and have exactly the same problems like with iMovie. One person complained that the problems started since his upgrade to Catalina... 🤷🏻‍♂️

Slobokan

Level 1

4 points

Jan 16, 2020 9:10 PM in response to geniusweb

I am having the same issue...

I created a project on an older Macbook Pro (Mid-2014), and it worked like a charm. All video and photos were shot on iPhone XS Max + DJI Drone. Complete movie was created in iMovie, along with transitions and fades. Worked flawlessly. Exported movies were flawless, not a single issue.

Then...

I got a new Macbook Pro (2019) from my employer, and I transferred the project the new Macbook Pro because we needed to make updates to the original video edit. On the new MBP I get artifacts in random places (with random images and video clips) in iMovie as well as any version of the video that is exported.

This is very frustrating. I have a deadline this coming Monday, so I am thinking of transferring the project back to the old MBP (although I have already reset it and made it "new" for my wife), just to see if I can get the edits done without the artifact issue. I did not have a single issue with artifacts before I got the new MBP,

Rich839

Level 8

48,882 points

Nov 9, 2019 7:54 AM in response to Exman_Sw

Based on posts in other threads, the issue seems to occur with iPhone photos.

-- Rich

Rich839

Level 8

48,882 points

Dec 30, 2019 8:59 AM in response to Alvy

Seems to be no rhyme or reason to it. Perhaps converting or re-encoding the clips would help.

-- Rich

geniusweb Author

Level 1

14 points

Oct 16, 2019 12:10 PM in response to Rich839

Didn't help, anyway thank you.

Now I can see that issue starts to appear when transition effect is added between two or more videos, probably.

I've created a new project and everything looked fine until I did 2 things:

shortened the videos (clips) - from the beginning and from the end as well (to select only that part of the clip which is interesting)
Added cross disolve transition between clips.

This is probably bug in iMovie which is new, because of the new iphone or new OS Catalina?

Thank you for any sugestions.

dydboy

Level 1

4 points

Nov 3, 2019 8:31 AM in response to geniusweb

I'm having exactly the same issue with the very same setup on Catalina, this is utterly annoying. Without transactions working the tool is pretty much useless for creating content. Hope they fix this asap.

cmcd2008

Level 1

4 points

Nov 4, 2019 12:02 PM in response to geniusweb

I'm also getting artefacts introduced when rendering. iOS 13.1.3, videos all shot on iPhone XS, MacBook Pro 2019, macOS 10.15.1, iMovie 10.1.13.

The affect several files in a project and none of the suggestions offered have worked. I've only used the fade to black transition at the end, but most of the files are clipped. I get blocky compression artefacts and ghost images of other files in the project. The original files are fine when played and also when rendered as the sole file in a new project.

I've provided feedback via the link posted above, so hopefully it will get fixed.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Nov 6, 2019 8:01 PM in response to cmcd2008

I'm having the same issues. I'm guessing the artifacts are the same as what I am seeing. My footage was shot on an iPhone XS and I was first seeing the issue in iMovie. I've been thinking about upgrading to Final Cut Pro, so I made the leap thinking that maybe that would help..... same problems. I just edited another movie shot on someone's older iPhone (not sure which one maybe SE) and there are no issues at all. I can't nail down what is causing the issue. With Final Cut I can export it in a number of ways.... though the artifacts seem to happen in different places each time for me, they are still there.

Nov 7, 2019 1:21 PM in response to geniusweb

I have similar problem, iMovie, MacBook Pro (2017), Catalina, movies recorded with iPhone 7 and GoPro. Artifacts are every couple of seconds of the output movie. I already experience similar problems on Mojave, but artefacts were much less frequent. Currently the output is unacceptable due to the artefacts...

Exman_Sw

Level 1

8 points

Nov 8, 2019 9:57 PM in response to geniusweb

I have the exact same problem. Serious pixel overlay on multiple places in my timeline, both while editing and in the finished file. Have done two separate projects recently, both have the same problem. My clips are shot with iPhone XR. Have also added several GoPro clips in the same project, but these clips are unaffected.

kezwhite

Level 1

4 points

Dec 1, 2019 6:52 AM in response to geniusweb

Same thing happens to me. No Photos in the project, no HEVC files and not on Catalina. However on iMovie 10.1.13 and did not have this issue on 12. I have tried all the solutions regarding new projects, deleting preferences etc. No luck.

Reefst77

Level 1

8 points

Dec 30, 2019 11:09 AM in response to Rich839

The artifacts are also starting to pop up more and more during the preview/creation in iMovie. Funnily enough these artifacts aren't exported then. Some artifacts also contain pictures from totally different scenes from the same project - however not the scene immediately before or after the effected scene.

So yes no reason and totally random.

Jan 8, 2020 12:33 PM in response to Rich839

I was planning on trying to fix this current project using my workaround but there are SO MANY glitches that I am going to follow your advice and re-encode everything and basically make the project from scratch. What a pain.

Hopefully your method works.

Thanks,

Jason

Slobokan

Level 1

4 points

Jan 18, 2020 7:53 AM in response to Slobokan

After copying the library back to the original MacBook Pro that was used to put it together, the project has one spot where artifacts appear (it is a 7 minute video). The original MBP had NO artifacts last month when the video was produced. I will be trying to fix that before Monday's deadline. The same library on the new MBP has no less than 18 spots where artifacts appear.

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Artifacts in iMovie