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iMovie Audio and Video

You are combining audio and video clips outside the primary storyline. What does this mean? I cleared everything out of iMovie, literally a blank slate, and I can't import two clips I took on my iPhone SE. What does it mean? I have no way of detaching audio from these clips before I try to import them, but I shouldn't have to, I have been doing iMovie happily for years.

iMac 27″, macOS 12.4

Posted on Jun 11, 2022 2:03 PM

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7 replies

Jun 12, 2022 7:39 AM in response to trentsteelpower

This is an odd error message. It almost seems like iMovie is erroneously perceiving a compound clip. A compound clip is one that is like a mini project within the main project. iMovie cannot create them but Final Cut Pro can. See this link to the Final Cut user guide:


Create compound clips in Final Cut Pro - Apple Support


Is it possible that you have, or did have at one time, Final Cut Pro on your computer that perhaps is confusing iMovie?


-- Rich

Jun 12, 2022 4:26 AM in response to Rich839

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I suspect this is something that's affected a few hundred users, and it will get auto corrected in a future update. (That's my experience with how these things work) I even made a movie on my iPad and air dropped it over to my Mac, but it still wouldn't let me import. I won't follow up with Apple, I'll probably buy Filmora to see me through till this gets fixed. Thanks again.

Jun 12, 2022 7:51 AM in response to Rich839

Have you tried some of usual diagnostics, like deleting preferences: opening iMovie in a new library: shutting down and booting your Mac in Safe Mode and then immediately shutting down and rebooting in normal mode; opening iMovie in the Guest account on your Mac; placing your media into a different and newly created project?


-- Rich

Jun 20, 2022 12:28 AM in response to Rich839

Okay, I set up a Guest Account, and I used iMovie with a couple of clips, and it worked fine.

I went back to my account, and after deleting, and reinstalling iMovie, the situation has changed.

I no longer get the dialogue box I had before. Now I import clips, and they are all there in the upper screen, but I can't drag them down to the lower half to start a movie. The mouse pointer turns into a little sign which is a circle with a bar across it. But it's not red. So now I guess I'll try Safe Mode and report back in a few more days.

iMovie Audio and Video

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