Green Screen Not Working In IMOVIE

There have been several glitches and malfunctions reported following the recent update. If that is your situation then probably Apple will need to provide the fix.

Meanwhile, try these east to do diagnostic procedures to see if any of them solve the issue.

Shut down and reboot your computer

Shut down and reboot your computer. See if that cures it.

Deleting Preferences

Open iMovie while holding down the Option and Command keys and select 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.

Opening iMovie in a new library

Try opening iMovie in a new library.  To do that, open iMovie while holding down the Option key and then selecting to

create a new library in the box that appears.

Opening iMovie in a new user account

Create a new user account from System Preferences/Users and Groups and try to open and

use iMovie in the new account. You can use the Guest account on your Mac for this purpose.

New Project

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.

Safe Mode

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

Updating iMovie

To update/redownload iMovie 10, drag your iMovie 10 app from the Applications folder into the trash, but do not empty the trash. Sign in to the app store and open your purchases folder by clicking on your name at the bottom of the app store side bar. You will see your purchases displayed, including iMovie 10. Redownload/update iMovie from there. If not successful, drag your present iMovie app out of the trash (if you moved it there) and return it to the Applications folder.

Resetting the System Management Controller

Try resetting the System Management Controller:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295

Resetting the NVRAM or PRAM

Try resetting the NVRAM or PRAM, although this issue would be fairly rare:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063

-- Rich

If the project really is gone, try looking in the iMovie Backups Folder:

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.

-- Rich

Hi, GrupoElysium,

If none of the procedures listed earlier in this thread work, then probably the green screen glitch is caused by the recent updates and Apple will need to fix it. The only other thing I can think of would be to revert to your previous operating system and iMovie version. It would require a Time Machine backup. If you want to try that, go the the Finder help menu and type in "Revert" and you will get instructions on how to revert your Mac to your previous operating system.

-- Rich

Deleting preferences worked for me but I lost the last video I was working on.

That shouldn’t happen. Deleting preferences does not cause data loss. Are you certain that you are looking in the correct library?

— Rich

Hi there, I have the same problem. But none of the previous options has been working for me, and I do not know what to do, because I need it urgently.

HELP!!!