I cannot import photos into iMovie 10.1.6 in corrrect order

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Level 1

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I cannot import photos into iMovie 10.1.6 in corrrect order

I am trying to make a slide show using iMovie 10.1.6 on my iMac running El Capitan10.11.6. I imported about 200 pictures into iMovie and they showed in the events window in the correct order. I decided I wanted to make changes to the order of the photos in the folder so I deleted the event as well as the project and started over. Now when I import the photos into iMovie the order of the photos is scrambled. I have tried everything I can think of to get the program to import in the correct order. I renamed the photos (1-200), dates and time do not seem to make any difference. I even tried to import the folder of photos into Photo and then import to iMovie but it scrambles the photos in Photo as well. I tried importing another group of old photos taken about 10 years ago and they imported in the correct order. What is going on? Any suggestions?

iMac 21.5", OS X 10.11

Posted on Feb 4, 2020 2:01 PM

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Answer 1

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Rich839

Level 8

47,316 points

Feb 7, 2020 8:21 AM in response to dickfromab

Hi, dick,

So, a particular batch of 200 photos that initially imported into iMovie in correct order now no longer does so after you deleted the photos and changed the order outside of iMovie and then reimported. Correct?

The first thing to try is to open 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 you old library to get back to your preferences. Now see if you can import in correct order.

iMovie organizes photos and video clips in order of their creation date. Have you made edits or changes to any of the photos that might have generated a new creation date? Since you renamed the photos sequentially, have you tried selecting the photos as a batch in iMovie and doing a View/Sort by Name?

You might also try using the Image Capture app on your Mac to import the photos to a folder on your desktop. If the correct order is preserved you can then try dragging them as a batch into iMovie.

You could also try importing the photos in smaller batches.

-- Rich

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Answer 2

dickfromab Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 13, 2020 8:54 AM in response to Rich839

Thanks Ric,

Yes this helped. Evan though some of the photos had been edited and the creation date changed as it showed in the photo info, it apparently still had the original time and dates hidden from view but iMovie could see it. And yes it did find view sort by name function worked since I had labeled all the photos (1-200). One problem that kept creeping in was that overtime I reopened iMovie to work on the project it would default back to date not name in the media order, but did not attest any arrangement of the photos in the timeline. Thanks again for your help.

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Answer 3

Rich839

Level 8

47,316 points

Feb 13, 2020 9:32 AM in response to dickfromab

Great. Glad you've found a workable solution. Thanks for posting back with your results.

Odd that iMovie over time would default back to sorting by date rather than name. So, I guess that you occasionally had to resort by name.

-- Rich

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I cannot import photos into iMovie 10.1.6 in corrrect order

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