Only 4 of the many recent videos that I want to use (on my iPhone camera roll/library) are showing up on iMovie on my MacBook Air therefore I can't import them. The last photos/videos that are available for import are from 12 months ago in 2020 and then there are 4 of the recent videos that I want to use but not the rest?
Could this be because of a lack of hard drive space on my Mac?
Please advise, and thanks in advance.
iPhone 11 Pro, iOS 14
You can drag a whole batch of videos to a folder on your desktop and then import them as a batch into iMovie. You might even be able to drag the videos from the Photos app library directly into iMovie. You can view them first in the Photos app library.
As for iCloud, you could turn off optimized photo storage. I don't use the cloud for photos, but I think then you would need to wait until all the photos downloaded into the Photos app. That would take up hard drive space, so you would need to be sure that you have sufficient space to handle the downloads. It might also take a lot of time, depending on how many photos are involved. Rather than do that I think you would be better off doing the procedure that I described above.
-- Rich
You can drag a whole batch of videos to a folder on your desktop and then import them as a batch into iMovie. You might even be able to drag the videos from the Photos app library directly into iMovie. You can view them first in the Photos app library.
As for iCloud, you could turn off optimized photo storage. I don't use the cloud for photos, but I think then you would need to wait until all the photos downloaded into the Photos app. That would take up hard drive space, so you would need to be sure that you have sufficient space to handle the downloads. It might also take a lot of time, depending on how many photos are involved. Rather than do that I think you would be better off doing the procedure that I described above.
-- Rich
Failure to display is not lack of hard drive space, because the Photos app vids that are displayed via the Photos item in the iMovie media sidebar are not actually in the iMovie library Original Media folder until they are imported into iMovie. If you lack sufficient hard drive space on the drive where your iMovie library is located, then that would prevent you from importing them. But you can still display them before importing.
Possibly the vids are not being displayed because you are using iCloud Photos with optimized storage enabled. With optimized storage some videos may be stored in the cloud instead of your drive, with just an editing thumbnail in the Photos app.
From the Photos app, try doing a File/Export Photo to your desktop and from there dragging the file into the timeline of an iMovie project.
To free up some space on your hard drive you can open iMovie and click on iMovie/iMovie Preferences and delete the render files from the preference box that opens. They are just temporary files that iMovie will recreate as necessary.
-- Rich
Thank you so much for replying so hastily.
The export didn't work so instead i've been able to drag a single video onto my desktop from the photo app and then into iMovie, however it took absolutely ages and I can't afford to do this for every single video as the space is also limited on my laptop.
How am I able to view the videos I may want to use in iMovie (from my photos/videos)? I've made videos previously and I didn't have this problem and I believe that what you said about using iCloud is the reason for this. Therefore is there a solution?
Many thanks,
Faye
You are welcome. Thank you for the kind sentiments. 😊
You can import the videos with a wired connection. I usually use the AirDrop feature to import videos wirelessly from my iPhone to my Mac. That way I can import several videos at a time. And there is no file size limitation. AirDrop must be enabled on both devices and the devices must be located less than 30 feet apart. Click on the Finder Help menu and type in AirDrop for instructions.
-- Rich
Ok, i'll give that a go and see how I get on. Thank you again for your amazing support. Have the most amazing day,
Faye :)
I can't import videos from iPhone to iMovie
