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

48,156 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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84 replies

Rich839

Level 8

48,156 points

Nov 9, 2019 1:37 PM in response to Rich839

You can get Handbrake here:

https://handbrake.fr/

— Rich

Rich839

Level 8

48,156 points

Nov 14, 2019 6:43 PM in response to mtn_wanderer

Great that you got it working. Thanks for posting back. Were your clips in the HEVC format?

— Rich

Nov 14, 2019 7:01 PM in response to Rich839

Yes they were.

Rich839

Level 8

48,156 points

Nov 14, 2019 11:18 PM in response to mtn_wanderer

Looks like you’ ve got it working, although IMovie should be able to export HEVC without conversion.

—Rich

geniusweb Author

Level 1

14 points

Dec 1, 2019 7:55 AM in response to Rich839

Hello,

is there any way how to get back previous version of iMovie without time machine?

Thank you.

Dec 11, 2019 12:59 PM in response to Rich839

I was really hoping for a fix with today's updates for imovie (10.1.14) and Catalina (10.15.2), but the glitches are still there - anyone with different experiences?

dydboy

Level 1

4 points

Dec 11, 2019 4:18 PM in response to Rome@home

I was hoping the very same, this is so disappointing.

Rich839

Level 8

48,156 points

Dec 29, 2019 2:09 PM in response to Reefst77

Thanks for your helpful import. So maybe it’s the 4k and not the HEVC format that’s causing the problem. I, too, hope that Apple will fix this.

— Rich

Alvy

Level 1

4 points

Dec 30, 2019 1:05 AM in response to Rich839

I don't think so. My videos (iPhone 7) are always 1080p/60fps (HEVC) and I'm getting the same artifacts on iMovie 11.

– Alvy

Jan 4, 2020 6:49 AM in response to Rome@home

I have the same problem in iMovie but also in Final Cut PRO X. IMac and iPhone XS.

geniusweb Author

Level 1

14 points

Jan 4, 2020 9:25 AM in response to Rich839

Hello Rich, this issue is not solved, please uncheck it. Issue is not related to iPhone Photos which I dont use at all in my videos.

geniusweb Author

Level 1

14 points

Jan 4, 2020 9:27 AM in response to Zdenek_Liberec

I had an issue with artifact in Final cut as well, but only in preview window. After exporting the video, whole video was without artifacts.

Jan 15, 2020 5:27 AM in response to geniusweb

I have the same issue. Very annoying(( My setup is iPhone 7 Plus and Mac Pro w Catalina OS.

geniusweb Author

Level 1

14 points

Jan 15, 2020 8:29 AM in response to geniusweb

It's killing idea of iMovie - easy and quick software to produce good looking videos shooted on iPhone.

geniusweb Author

Level 1

14 points

Jan 17, 2020 12:59 AM in response to geniusweb

Guys,

is there anybody with the same artifacts issue and using another version of iMovie than 10.1.13? It seems all of us using the same version, right?

Thank you.

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Artifacts in iMovie