Big Sur Thunderbolt connectivity to Sony Camcorder

Hi, MaryportClarky,

Try these procedures and see if any of them resolve the import issue:

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.  Deleting preferences is a safe procedure that will not cause data loss or disruption to your project.

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. Alternatively, you can use the Guest account on your Mac for this purpose.

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 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

I have no idea what is causing the problem so you need to go through a number of troubleshooting steps to see if you can rectify it.

To begin with, shut down iMovie and delete the preferences as described below.

If that doesn't help matters there are other strategies to try.

iMovie DELETING PREFERENCES

If  iMovie starts behaving unexpectedly in any way for no apparent reason, the problem could be caused by corrupt preference files. 

The cure for this is to delete the preferences. 

 Hold down the  Cmd and Option keys as you launch  iMovie and this window will appear.

Click “Delete Preferences” and  iMovie will open in the default (as-new) mode with no projects etc. on the interface. 

You will have to navigate to any project you were working on and reopen it.  Your project libraries by default are stored in your Movies folder unless you have specified somewhere different.

Hopefully, one of the procedures will work. Possibly the issue is with Big Sur, but also possibly you have a bad cable or Thunderbolt socket.

Have you tried starting the camera playing after plugging in, as that sometimes triggers recognition?

-- Rich

You now appear to have the choice of capturing your DV tape in both iMovie and QTP.

You may know this already, but QTP does not capture the DV tape in the same format as you previously captured in iMovie.

If you want to capture in the same format that you did before in iMovie which is .dv , then you need to continue with iMovie.

There are 2 formats to choose from in QTP capture , depending on the Quality that you select , i.e. ProRes which has large file size and smaller MP4 .

Just thought I would mention this before getting too far in with 30 hours of tape capture.

Also bear in mind that QTP captures in one long clip whereas iMovie captures many clips coinciding with scene break , so this might be the deciding factor.

As you have already started with iMovie , might be best to stay with it.

Have you tried importing using QuickTime Player?

Hi, Interesting read and I've a similar issue with an old HD JVC camera. I'm on Big Sur and have a Macbook Pro without thunderport, only a USB C connection. What connectors did you use?