iMovie on new MacBook Air chronically pinwheeling

I have found little info on how to repair an iMovie library without triggering the prompt to do so. One poster on this forum found that he could trigger the prompt by removing a project from the library and then moving it back in. I have not tried that, so can't vouch for it.

One workaround would be to copy your projects, one at a time, from your old library to your newly created library. Then confirm that everything is working properly on your new library. That should work around any corruption that may have existed in the old library's structure.

As you mentioned, a Time Machine restore of your old library might work, if you can restore to the point before where the corruption occurred. I always worry that doing that might make your projects unreadable if you had done any iMovie updates. Also, you would lose any work that you had done in the interim time. So if you restore an old library you should not overwrite your present library, but rather restore the library to a new place or back up your present library elsewhere.

Rather than doing a restore procedure you first should try looking in the iMovie Backups folder on your Mac to open a previous backup of your library. To get to the iMovie Backups folder, follow this file path from the Finder menu:

Go/Home/Library/Containers/com.apple.iMovieApp/Data/Library/Caches/iMovieBackups

When you get there you will see a list of previous backups of your iMovie library.  Click on one dated just before your issue started.  iMovie will open in that library.   Navigate to your projects browser (where your projects are displayed as icons) and see if your projects are intact and working properly.

Although the problem seems to be solved with your new library, you might try doing Apple Diagnostics check as well, to rule out a hardware problem. This link will describe the process:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202731

-- Rich

Here's a diagnostic link that might help you isolate and fix the problem:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206157

-- Rich

What procedure did you use to transfer your iMovie library from old to new Mac? I assume that you transferred the library to an external drive formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and from there transferred it to your new Mac. That would be the way to do it. Is that the procedure that you followed? Possibly if the external drive were formatted FAT 32 maybe that caused some disruption in the library. An older iMovie library needs to be on a drive formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

Since you now have it working O.K. with your newly created library, I think that transferring your projects from the old library to the new library should solve it.

-- Rich

I wouldn't make the transfers from the Show Package Contents folder. Mistakes there can result in corruption of your library.

Instead, open both libraries in iMovie so that their names display in the library list in the side bar. Then open your old library and navigate to the project browser screen, where your projects are displayed as icons. Move your cursor over the title at the bottom of the icon. A little circle with dots in it will appear to the right of the title. Click on the circle and a drop down menu will appear giving you the option to copy the project to the library that you select.

As for the LAN network transfer, it should be O.K. since you are moving from hard drive to hard drive. But I have never done it that way, so can't be sure.

-- Rich

We’ve done as much as we can do on a forum of this type. I think at this point that a call to Apple Support might be helpful. The savvy techs there have the capability to remotely access your computer, that we cannot do here. Click on the Contact Support item at the top right hand corner of this forum’s screen. Navigate to a place where you can input your phone number. Hopefully the techs there will be able to isolate the problem.

Best of luck with this.

— Rich

I was happy to try and help. I think that the support folks will get to the bottom of the issue. Having the remote access capability should be useful.

If you have time, post back with your results.

-- Rich