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iMovie won't export and nothing I do will fix this. Help

Nothing I try will get iMovie to export again. What do I do now?


Mac mini, macOS 11.2

Posted on Feb 28, 2021 9:16 PM

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Posted on Mar 1, 2021 9:30 AM

Try 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. Now see if the export feature is working.  Deleting preferences is a safe procedure that will not cause data loss or disruption to your project.


-- Rich

4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Mar 1, 2021 9:30 AM in response to Grrr-iMovie

Try 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. Now see if the export feature is working.  Deleting preferences is a safe procedure that will not cause data loss or disruption to your project.


-- Rich

Mar 3, 2021 7:20 PM in response to Grrr-iMovie

Exporting to an ExFat external drive should work. But you can't put an iMovie library or Photos library on it, because to store and operate them requires a drive to be formatted APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled).


I would try formatting the external drive to APFS or to Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Then see if you can export to it. Be aware that reformatting a drive, if you go that route, will erase all data on the drive. So first backup all data that you want to keep.


-- Rich

Mar 3, 2021 7:32 PM in response to Rich839

Thanks for your advice. I will save this information for future reference. For now, I only export the rendered movie files and single images to upload to YouTube. This works for me.


I am leaving the iMovie Library and Photo Library on my Mac. In any case I have a time machine external HD for the back up of these libraries.


Cheers, Glenn

iMovie won't export and nothing I do will fix this. Help

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