I can place audio in the timeline of my project, but it will not allow me to place the same audio clip into the Background Music track. iMovie 10.2.2 on a MacBook Air, Catalina 10.15.7. I've tried deleting the preferences, and also deleting render files. Please help.
MacBook Air 13″, macOS 10.15
Both Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and APFS will work on your operating systems. APFS is preferred for solid state drives and Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for spinning drives. APFS is the more modern one so I would go with that, since you are into Catalina and eventually Big Sur.
iMovie libraries must be stored on drives formatted with one of the above two formats. I have several iMovie libraries stored in a Movies folder on an external drive formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). My iMovie app on my internal drive can find them with no problem. I am running Mojave as my operating system with APFS on my SSD internal drive.
— Rich
Both Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and APFS will work on your operating systems. APFS is preferred for solid state drives and Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for spinning drives. APFS is the more modern one so I would go with that, since you are into Catalina and eventually Big Sur.
iMovie libraries must be stored on drives formatted with one of the above two formats. I have several iMovie libraries stored in a Movies folder on an external drive formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). My iMovie app on my internal drive can find them with no problem. I am running Mojave as my operating system with APFS on my SSD internal drive.
— Rich
O.K. I see the problem.
There actually are several audio wells.
When you place an audio clip into the top well it will be connected by a little handle to the video clip above it. So, any work done on the video clip will affect the audio below it.
However, you can place your cursor on the audio clip and, while pressing down, pull it straight down to a lower audio well until you see the handle pull off of the audio clip. Keep pulling down until the clip pulls off.
You will notice that in the above screen shot the audio clip has been pulled down into a lower audio well so that the audio clip is no longer connected to the video clip. Now you can work on the video clip without affecting the audio clip.
-- Rich
I am not understanding. Can you rephrase your question? The “audio in the timeline” — is that embedded in a video clip? What steps are you taking to insert the audio, and what happens when you try? What format is the audio, and from what source? Is it DRM protected? Can you post a screen shot?
— Rich
I am trying to place audio into the "Background Music Well," which is the last track in the timeline, at the very bottom. It's marked with music notes at the start of it, and has a thin black border. This track locks the audio in place and keeps it separate from any changes made to the audio and video clips above it. It allows you to edit picture to sound, like for a music video where the audio must not change. There is only one Background Music track.
Normally you just drag an audio clip into the Well and it sticks there. Then any edits you make to the video or audio above it don't affect what's in the Well, and vice versa. And normally I don't have any problem doing this, so this is a glitch of some kind. I can successfully place any clip I want into the usual audio tracks, just not into the Well. There are no DRM issues involved.
This morning I restarted the Mac while resetting the NVRAM (pressing option+command+R+P). The problem persisted. Then, wouldn't you know it, thirty minutes later I came back and tried it again and it worked the way it should. So... resetting the NVRAM did the trick? Or not? It seems to be behaving now, maybe the gremlins are on coffee break, but I'll get back to work. I'll leave the thread open if you have any further insight or comments. Thank you for your interest.
Ah, that's helpful. That seems to behave just the way the Background Music Well is described. That bottom audio track stays below the thin black line, and that one is the fixed, or independent, one. I've just had trouble loading clips into there.
And I see that you can manipulate audio clips in multiple tracks above the line and keep their handles attached to the video clips above.
I still experience random behavioral glitches where things simply don't do what they are supposed to do. Would the fact that I have just 12GB of headroom on a 250GB drive contribute this?
Usually deleting preferences will clear up behavioral glitches. Insufficient free space can cause some issues if it really gets down low. Usually it will be sluggish performance or stuttering. 10GB usually is sufficient for iMovie to function O.K, although as OverSpoon said 10% free space is recommended. At 12GB you are getting a bit low. I doubt that it would cause problems unless you have a very large or complicated project. If you get down to 2GB is when you might get crashing or a warning message.
-- Rich
Both iMovie and now Photos have started to crash unexpectedly, so I think it's time to move data to a larger storage drive. I have a new 8TB drive but have all kinds of questions about the right way to format and partition it, since it will serve three computers with different OS: High Sierra (MacOS Extended), Catalina (APFS) and whatever the heck BIg Sur has changed. That's really a separate topic, but if you have any thoughts on that at this time I'm all ears.
For iMovie specifically, is there any special way or place to create video libraries so that iMovie will always be able to find them?
Hi there - quite possibly: it's always advised to keep 10% space free on the Mac, lest they error a lot
Thanks a bunch. I may start another thread about backup drives as we're getting off the original topic.
You are welcome.
-- Rich
iMovie won't accept audio in Background Music track
