Edited home movies import into imovie as full length versions

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Edited home movies import into imovie as full length versions

We take home videos on iphones of things like our kids playing baseball games. We edit the original movie on our iphones to shorten it. We save it as is, not as a "new clip". When I import them into imovie, I can see the shortened, edited versions in the media box above the timeline. But when I add the movie to the timeline, the original, full-length, unedited version shows up. Is there a setting I am missing? For example, my son is at-bat and we record 2 minutes. When he is done with his turn, we immediately edit the clip on our phones down to just the part where he hits. Save as is, not as new clip. Now it is only ten seconds. It is ten seconds in iphoto, it is ten seconds in the media box above the timeline in imovie. Dragging it to the imovie timeline or using the + symbol to add it to the timeline and it's back to being 2 minutes. Why?

iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Apr 27, 2022 11:30 AM

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Answer 1

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Rich839

Level 8

47,796 points

Apr 28, 2022 8:52 AM in response to jesgramenz

From the Photos app, try doing a File/Export __ Photo to your desktop. On your desktop, confirm that that your iPhone edits carried over. Then drag the video from your desktop onto the timeline of your iMovie project. See if the iPhone edits carried over.

If the problem still is not curred, I would suggest that you contact Apple Support. The techs there have the capability of remotely accessing your computer that we cannot do here. To contact apple support click on the Get Support item in the upper right hand corner of this forum’s screen. Navigate to a place where you can enter your phone number.

-- Rich

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Answer 2

Rich839

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47,796 points

Apr 27, 2022 12:46 PM in response to jesgramenz

Hi, jesgramenz,

What you describe should not be happening. I tried your procedure on my pre-Catalina system by trimming an 8 second video on my iPhone down to 4 seconds, saving it as the same clip, then air dropping the edited video to my Mac, and dragging it into the Project Media window of an iMovie project. It was 4 seconds in the media browser. When I dragged it from the media browser window into the timeline the clip maintained the 4 second running time per my iPhone edit.

I would try the following 3 procedures, as needed:

Try saving the edited clip as a new clip on your iPhone and importing the new clip into iMovie.
Try creating a new project on your Mac and see if the iPhone edits carry over to the timeline.
If still no success, try deleting/resetting preferences on your Mac.

To delete 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.

If still no luck you can try a redownload of Mac iMovie from your purchases shown in your App store account.

As a workaround re-edit the clip in iMovie. A two minute clip would probably take only 20 seconds to edit, as you would be doing the easy edit of trimming out unwanted footage. Generally, you might find it easier to do all of your future editing in Mac iMovie rather than on the iPhone,

-- Rich

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Answer 3

jesgramenz Author

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14 points

Apr 27, 2022 1:03 PM in response to Rich839

Thanks for your feedback. We don't airdrop the videos, they are uploaded via the cloud into Photos app. Then I create an album of, for example, "February Videos". Then when I create a project in imovie, I access the album to import the media. Then I see what I described above...the edited time in the media box, but it reverts to unedited.

We started editing videos on the phone right away because it actually takes a long time to edit 18 at-bats from a month's worth of baseball games. We thought saving the clip as edited, rather than creating a new clip would be best. Apparently not. I tried some of the steps above and it did not fix it.

I did not yet try the reboot for preferences because I don't know how to find and reload the correct library. I also have not yet tried redownloading imovie from apps. Will deleting the app and reinstalling it cause me to lose data?

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Answer 4

Rich839

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47,796 points

Apr 27, 2022 1:22 PM in response to jesgramenz

No, reinstalling the iMovie app per the procedure I posted will not cause loss of data. The data is stored in the iMovie library, not the app. Don't delete the iMovie app from the trash until you have accomplished a successful redownload.

If you are not already doing so, since you are importing the vids into the photos app you might try accessing them in iMovie via the Photos item in the iMovie project media sidebar. Drag them into the timeline. That's actually the recommended way. The edits should carry over if everything is working correctly.

Also, try the procedure that I described in my previous post and see if that works. It's a whole different route into iMovie.

Everybody has their own preferences as to how to manage their workflow and whatever works best for you is totally your call. Rather than accumulating a whole month of videos before editing them, it might be easier to download each vid to your Mac right after the game, and then do a quick edit.

{EDIT} If iMovie opens in a new blank library after deleting preferences, you can close iMovie and go to your Movies folder on your Mac (or wherever you store you iMovie libraries) and double click on the library that contains your projects. iMovie will open in that library.

-- Rich

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Answer 5

Rich839

Level 8

47,796 points

Apr 27, 2022 1:33 PM in response to Rich839

In case I wasn't clear, if you redownload iMovie do not delete your iMovie library or that will cause loss of all your data and projects. You want to redownload the iMovie app, not the library.

-- Rich

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Answer 6

jesgramenz Author

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14 points

Apr 27, 2022 1:35 PM in response to Rich839

Hi, I will try the above. I will say however, I already do access the videos via the Photos item in the iMovie project media sidebar. That is where they show the correct edited times. It's only when they are added to the timeline they revert to the longer unedited version.

Ideally, I would love to have time to download videos right after a baseball game or swim meet, but there is zero time. So I try to do it once a month. We thought that by editing them directly on our phones first, we would save time when I created the home movie in iMovie. It used to work fine. So frustrating. Everything started going wrong after Catalina.

I have to run (as usual) but appreciate your feedback and will return to try the rest of your suggestions.

Thanks again!

Jane

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Answer 7

jesgramenz Author

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14 points

Apr 27, 2022 8:37 PM in response to Rich839

Yes, I understood what you meant, but thanks for clarifying. I did the above, but nothing fixed the problem. I even rebooted/restored the Photos app to see if the problem was on that end, but it did not fix it. It is just baffling to see the media in iMovie with the edited time, only to put it in the timeline and revert to the full original. I guess for now I'll just live with it. Super frustrating since this was not a problem at all in past years. I have problems with Photos as well; if I try to upload to Shutterfly, without exception, several photos do not upload. It's maddening trying to figure out. The share extension doesn't work anymore for Shutterfly either even though it's listed as available.

Thanks for trying to help me.

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Answer 8

jesgramenz Author

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14 points

Apr 28, 2022 10:27 AM in response to Rich839

I did contact support, and the way you explained above, to export the movie clips to the desktop and then drag to the iMovie timeline is the actual workflow. He then showed me how to report feedback to the engineers via iMovie and said they do indeed listen and make adjustments based on user feedback, To me, this seems like a "work around" vs. an intuitive workflow that makes sense. The other thing I will do is when we edit on the phone, we will save it as a new clip, then delete the original.

Thanks once again Rich!

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Answer 9

Rich839

Level 8

47,796 points

Apr 28, 2022 11:37 AM in response to jesgramenz

Yes, a few more steps involved in the workaround. Most important thing, though, is that you now can get your edited iPhone vids into iMovie without losing the edits.

Did Apple Support have any comment as to why the previously recommended way of accessing from the iMovie Photos sidebar item did not work? That's what's puzzling to me.

-- Rich

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Answer 10

Rich839

Level 8

47,796 points

Apr 28, 2022 8:57 AM in response to Rich839

As an added note, there have been two other reports on this forum of edits not carrying over to iMovie. So there might be some bug causing it. See what the Apple Support techs say.

-- Rich

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