iMovie 10.1.6 on El Capitan - sharing/rendering returns CompressorKit. ErrorDomain error -1 - Caused by MobileDevice.Framework provided only in X86_64 and not anymore in i386 architecture.

I spent nearly a half-hour on the phone with support advisors this morning. The long and short of it is that the only recommendation they're willing to give is to update to Catalina. That seems to be the only solution to this particular set of circumstances that result in "CompressorKit. ErrorDomain". If you want a working iMovie and the ability to sync to your phone, you have to update to Catalina. I guess at that point, a new version of iMovie (10.1.14) becomes available to you, and I'm guessing it's 64-bit compatible. iMovie 10.1.8 is the only version available for Mojave or El Capitan, and it's not compatible with this 64-bit MobileDevice.framework.

I did not get the impression that they were interested in the details of this solution (I pointed them directly to this page), and didn't get the impression that any sort of fix would be coming. But the information has been passed on to the dev team. We'll just have to wait and see.

Otherwise, according to Support, you'll have to follow the steps that have fixed it for some: trying a fresh project, creating a new library, restarting into Safe Mode then back, creating a temporary user account and trying it there, deleting iMovie and reinstalling it. If none of that works, Support says upgrade to Catalina. I can only say that I went through all those other steps (including updating to Mojave), and that didn't fix it. Unless I'm willing to update to Catalina, I won't be able to have both iMovie and iPhone sync (and I can't update to Catalina without the risk of breaking a whole bunch of 32-bit apps and drivers).

Quick follow-up with some possibly useful information. I now remember why I had to reinstall iTunes in the first place. When I connected the iPhoneXR (iOS 13.3) to the Mac to transfer an MP3 file to Music, I found that the iPhone no longer showed up as a device in iTunes (no icon). I swapped cables, jumped through hoops, nothing. So I deleted and reinstalled iTunes (12.9.95).

Now when I connected the iPhone, I got a pop-up saying "A software update is required to connect to iPhoneXR" (see https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208831). So I installed, and it fixed that problem.

I am convinced that this update is what replaced MobileDevice.framework (same date and time), and broke iMovie resulting in the "CompressorKit. ErrorDomain error -1" error.

Now that I have gone back to the original MobileDevice.framework and iMovie works again, I can no longer connect my iPhone to iTunes! The "A software update is required to connect to iPhoneXR" popup has returned. But I can live with that. I rarely sync between the Mac and iPhone by USB. It's much more important for me to be able to use iMovie. I'll send a note to Support for them to look into it, but I can't put anymore time into trying to solve both issues.

Vince Patton --

I think that during this period of upgrades there are going to be glitches and conflicts as everything gets integrated, even with older but currently usable versions of Apple products. I suspect that many of these issues will be resolved over time. Meanwhile possibly some of those issues can be solved by using boot disks with older operating systems for running legacy software and earlier versions. Here's an interesting Apple bulletin that describes how to make a boot disk. Never tried it myself, but looks doable.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201372

-- Rich

You my friend are a genius!

I spent all day yesterday on trying to figure out what the issue was. I have an old Macbook 2010 running El Capitan and iMovie as well as Final Cut were not playing ball. I tried everything everyone had already suggested, nothing.

Then this morning I got on my scheduled call with Apple Support. Very helpful guy on the phone but basically didn't really know the issue.

Then when that call finished I saw there'd been a reply from my question last night on here from Rich839 https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251311132?answerId=252529521022#252529521022. He pointed me to your post.

I tried it and it worked for both iMove and Final Cut. I remember I updated iTunes a couple of weeks ago so I could get some new photos off my phone, which it wasn't doing.

I'd rather have video editing functioning than the phone sync option.

Thank you so much!

YES!! This was exactly the solution I needed! THANK YOU!

The CompressorKit. ErrorDomain issue seemed to come out of nowhere for me in iMovie. Last Thursday, everything was fine. Sunday night, no more exports/file saves. I searched everywhere and went through all the offered solutions: trying a fresh project, creating a new library, restarting into Safe Mode then back, creating a temporary account, deleting iMovie and reinstalling and finally just giving in and upgrading from El Capitan to Mojave (which I'd avoided because of audio drivers). Hours and hours of wasted time, nothing fixed the error.

I'm so glad I found your post this evening. I knew immediately that it was the right solution, because I'd had to reinstall iTunes last Friday, the day after my last successful iMovie project. I can't believe I didn't make the connection.

After seeing your post, I found that MobileDevice.framework was indeed the only recently updated folder in PrivateFrameworks. Fortunately, TimeMachine had the original 2019 folder in my March backup. Took me awhile to figure out how to use Terminal in Recovery Mode to allow me to get past the PrivateFrameworks permissions (I never dig this deep into OSX), but you provided just enough information for me to find that csrutil would give me temporary access. Copied the older MobileDevice.framework folder over the new one, rebooted, went back into iMovie and was finally able to render my movie.

Again, thank you so much for digging into this. After two days of searching, I'm certain you are the only one who has identified this issue. It may not be the solution for all, but I bet it is the solution for anyone who has recently updated/reinstalled iTunes.

I share the very same frustrations. However, I need a bit more info.

I too ran the Console and then ran iMovie and attempted an export. Console logged a number of errors involving MobileDevice.framework.

The suggestion here is to manually force replaced the offending library with a previous version.

I need some instructions. How do I that?. (I do run Time Machine with automatic backups. It'll be a crap shoot to figure out how far back in time to go to find a previous version of the MobileDevice.framework.)

Second concern: The "solution" means the iPhoneXR no longer connects to his iTunes, apparently an acceptable tradeoff.

I am not comfortable with that. I only sync my iPhone11Pro with my iMac by a cable. I do not use wireless synching or backups.

Thoughts?

That's a ****** shame. I cannot upgrade to Catalina or it turns a couple of valuable applications into bricks.

It's interesting that you say iMovie 10.1.8 is the only version available for El Capitan.

I run El Capitan and my iMovie is at 10.1.6, not 10.1.8. That would imply that an update is available, but I find no such later version available when I check for updates on my software. But, it also sounds like even that version has this fatal error.

If we cannot export anything from iMovie, I guess it has become a brick too.

I believe that iMovie 10.1.14 will run on Mojave. iMovie 10.1.6 is the highest version of iMovie that will run on El Capitan.

Apple has moved to 64bit and in the transition process there likely will be conflicts with older versions of iMovie as we apparently are seeing. Everything is not quite homogenous yet.

The incompatibility between 64bit and 32bit apps on Apple devices is an issue that cannot be resolved, unfortunately, until the third party developers of these apps release 64bit versions. Some older apps are no longer in production, so not possible to get 64bit versions. In that case one can make a boot disk that runs Mojave or earlier for the express purpose of running these older 32bit versions. Meanwhile, be aware that updates potentially could cause conflicts until all of this is worked out.

— Rich

Thanks nicocaro that's very helpful. I suspect that's what happened in my case, as I rarely use iTunes but had recently run some updates. I don't have a TM backup so that restore is not an option for me. I guess Apple is committed to pushing everything towards 64 bits apps, so we're all headed to Catlina; fortunately everything I use regularly is 64 bit so not too much of an issue, but I know for others some 32 bit apps are vital. Not for the first time Apple have broken something :-(

Rich839 wrote: "I believe that iMovie 10.1.14 will run on Mojave." For me (MacBook Air, now on Mojave), iMovie 10.1.8 was the highest update available. I can see in App Store that the latest version is 10.1.14 and it even says "Update". But when I hit update, I could only see an endlessly rotating download icon. I'll give it another shot, thanks for the heads-up! Though, at this point, I probably should leave well enough alone, lol

When I look in the app store for available updates, iMovie 10.1.14 is shown as an available update, as you have found in your case. I am running Mojave, as I mentioned previously. I don't need at this time to update to 10.1.14 since everything is working fine, so I haven't tried to see if the update function would work. (I'm leaving well enough alone. :)) Perhaps you need to move your iMovie app from the applications folder to the trash, but don't empty the trash. And then see if the app store will update. If it still won't do so, you can drag your iMovie app out of the trash and replace it in your applications folder.

But maybe you are right about not wanting to do too much fiddling. :)

-- Rich

Hi! thank you so much for doing far better job than apple support! (they only advised to reboot in safe mode, or reset the OS)

But I have an additional problem: I don't have any Time machine back up!!! :-((

I reinstalled an old version of iTunes (12.6.2) but the problem is still there.

Do you have any idea how to solve that? it is very frustrating knowing the solution and not being able to making it happen.

Thanks a lot!

ps: I don't need to sync with iPhone

Hello community,

I have the same error on imovie and also Final Cut .... I think you found the solution, but in my case I have no time machine before the update of device mobile.framework.

I have no permission to modify this file or replace by another one, do you have any solution to replace it without timemachine save ?

Thanks for help

Hi Donatien290

I uninstalled and re-installed iMovie from the App Store - which fixed the problem for me - I guess the install put back the older library version. Running High Sierra 10.13.6 I got iMovie 10.1.12 installed.

So looks you should be able to fix this even without a TM backup.

Paul

Hi Paulthom2,

Thank you very much for your help. I allready fixed this issue. To modify mobile device.framework, you need to start your mac with CMD+R to start with recovery tool. When the recovery tools appears you go on the top of the screen to open terminal tool and write the command : csrutil disable After that, restart your mac normally. Now you should have access to the folder private framework and you should replace the defect folder : mobile device.framework by an old one.

You need to restart your mac ... and it should works after