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IMovie 10.1.6 just started to fail when exporting. It's not bad file names, bad clips, lack of room on destination disk, and I've reset the NVRAM, and every other suggestion I've seen. I deleted IMovie--all its files--and reinstalled. IMovie 8 still works, and Adobe Premiere does as well. I am stumped--anyone have any other ideas? (Operating system is Sierra 10.12.6) Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
MacBook
Often Ian's suggested procedure of deleting preferences will work to solve export problems. So that was a good suggestion. Since it did not work in your case, try the procedures below:
Open iMovie in your Mac's Guest account. Create a project and see if you can export from there.
Failing that, try resetting the System Management Controller as explained in this link:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295
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.
If no luck with anything, try contacting Apple Support and discussing the problem with one of the savvy techs there. They have the capability of remotely accessing your computer, that we can't do here. Click on the Contact Support item in the upper right hand corner of this forum's screen. Navigate to a place where you enter your phone number.
-- Rich
Often Ian's suggested procedure of deleting preferences will work to solve export problems. So that was a good suggestion. Since it did not work in your case, try the procedures below:
Open iMovie in your Mac's Guest account. Create a project and see if you can export from there.
Failing that, try resetting the System Management Controller as explained in this link:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295
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.
If no luck with anything, try contacting Apple Support and discussing the problem with one of the savvy techs there. They have the capability of remotely accessing your computer, that we can't do here. Click on the Contact Support item in the upper right hand corner of this forum's screen. Navigate to a place where you enter your phone number.
-- Rich
Did you get any error message and, if so, what is the exact text of it? EDIT: What exactly happens when you try to export? Aside from the destination disk, how much application space do you have on your internal drive?
-- Rich
There is no error message. What happens is that I get the export window that allows me to choose quality of export, resolution, etc.--and then after clicking "next", I get the export destination window, then when I click "save", that window vanishes and nothing happens, instead of the usual little clock face wiping on the top right to indicate export progress. There is no message, and no file of any sort is produced in the destination folder. Free space on the internal drive is 110 GB.
Thanks so much to both of you for your suggestions--it was nice to get some new ideas! Unfortunately I've tried all of these things--at this point I think I'm going to go ahead and do what I've been planning for a while and get a new Macbook anyway--one last question: Any likelihood of when I migrate everything that even thought it's a different MacOS and newer Imovie that I might somehow transfer some glitch along with everything to the new Mac?
Seriously, though, I appreciate the Apple community and the helpful folks here.
-John
I think it would depend on the nature of the glitch. If the problem is corruption in your iMovie library then it would probably retain whatever issues existed. If the problem is conflict between iMovie and some other program, and you retain that other program, the conflict may still exist. Maybe Ian has some comment on that.
Be aware that if you upgrade to Catalina, a 64 bit OS, none of your legacy 32 bit programs will work, and some formats of legacy media will not play in iMovie. For any programs that are 32 bit you would need to contact the developers and see if there is a 64 bit upgrade. You can convert legacy media before upgrading.
-- Rich
Good things to know--in addition to my 2014 Macbook, I also have a 2009 model that is running El Capitan so I can use it for conversions if necessary. I am looking forward to using Premiere on a machine that has the capability to manage it better.
Throwing money at a problem is rarely a good idea.
Rather than buying a new Mac, you should completely erase the hard drive and do a clean install of the operating system.
This will return your Mac to its "as new" condition.
Needless to say you need to do a complete backup first as everything on your Mac will be deleted.
Could you be saving it to somewhere that does not exist or is unsuitable?
Try saving it to the desktop as shown here.
What export settings are you using?
Have you deleted the preference files by holding down the option and command keys etc. as you launch iMovie?
Have you tried exporting different videos?
I hadn't tried that--I did though and unfortunately it wasn't the fix. I've tried many different videos and same result for all.
IMovie won't export--and none of the regular solutions seem to apply
