iMovie stuck on Loading...

I haven't looked at the FCP support forums, but if users there aren't experiencing the same issues is iMovie users are under Monterey, then there must be some functional difference between the two as it relates to libraries. I would assume FCP libraries are much larger than the typical iMovie user's library.

I'm dealing with HD video (no 4K or larger) and my weekly production of a 30 minute video got me to a 700GB iMovie library in under a year. I realize (now) that I should have been offloading project files to another library, but that didn't really come to mind given how everything just "worked" -- which is what I enjoy about my Mac.

An update to iMovie (10.3.1) was released last week. The only note in the version history is that it fixes an issue with the Command-Z keyboard shortcut if you're using Spanish. That's all that's noted.

Anyone notice if it solved their loading and clocking issues under Monterey? I updated to 10.3.1, but I had since segmented my projects into separate libraries, so none are as large as they once were. It seems like it's gotten a little more responsive, but I really can't tell.

Update: given that a smaller library that I had took awhile to open, but eventually did, I decided to open my larger (700 GB) library again and just leave it there to sit for a few hours.

Lo and behold, I came back to my iMac to find that the "Loading..." dialog box had cleared and the projects within the library could be opened. I don't know how long it actually took (I was gone for about 4 hours), but it eventually did.

I'm cleaning up my mess of empty libraries (created during troubleshooting) and am moving things around to reduce the size of the Library. Also, Time Machine has made at least one backup of the files on the drive that had previously been excluded.

Still definitely a bug with iMovie and/or Monterey. Also not sure what will happen when I quit iMovie and reopen the library -- hopefully this was a one-and-done operation the first time the Library was opened under Monterey, but who knows.

The iMovie library is on its own external 2TB SSD, so free space should be OK.

There’s still something wrong with Monterey and/or iMovie 10.3 given that we weren’t seeing the same performance issues with the older versions of the OS and/or iMovie. But I feel a little better now, knowing that the files aren’t lost and I can plan around the wait time.

The other thread mentioned that Apple is aware and a fix is coming; I just wonder how much effort they put into it if it’s a free application (vs. fixing something like FCP).

Thanks for the replies. I have deleted preferences and created new library files. I was able to get my near-term project done by opening an older (smaller) library that had enough of my "templated" assets to be able to piece together what I needed.

I suspect the size of the library is the issue. My smaller library still goes through an extended "Loading..." process when opening a project. However, within a few minutes, the window goes away. Trying to open the same project again results in it opening successfully.

I also looked back in Time Machine and saw that I was using the latest iMovie version (10.3) under Big Sur without issue last week (before Monterey). So it probably is Monterey that's the problem.

I'm considering my options. This might be the push I needed to try Final Cut Pro and move to something a little more robust than iMovie. I'm nowhere near a "pro," but it may be that I've been pushing the limits of what iMovie is designed to handle from a Library standpoint.

The other would be to revert back to Big Sur. It seems like I can do a "restore to the factory OS" -- which should be Big Sur on this 2020 iMac. Just need to think it through before I do that and make sure I'm not making my problem worse.