User profile for user: S.Vampire
S.Vampire Author
User level: Level 1
15 points

Import videos to iMovie from Photos app in chronological order (oldest first)

I want to import videos from Photos app into an iMovie project. I want the videos in chronological order (oldest to newest). However, iMovie is showing videos in reverse order for whatever reason and I can't find any way to change the order. If I select the videos and drag them to the timeline, they are in reverse order (same as shown in Project Media).


I definitely solved this problem just a month ago, but I don't remember the solution and can't find it anywhere.


I tried to create an album in Photos and import from the album (I see that I created an album for my previous iMovie project), but no luck, it's still in reverse order.


This is so frustrating. Why did they reverse the order of videos? What even is a use-case when you want to add videos to the timeline in reverse order?

Posted on Oct 15, 2022 9:44 PM

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User profile for user: Rich839
Rich839
User level: Level 8
48,168 points

Posted on Oct 16, 2022 8:34 AM

Hi, S.Vampire,


iMovie imports in chronological order by date of creation. That would make it newest first. In the project media view you can select the clips and do View'Sort By Name, Date, or Duration, ascending or descending. Choosing Date and Descending would give you oldest first. Then you should be able to drag them to the timeline and the order should be preserved.


If the photos are in your Photos app, you can arrange them in the order you want in an album and then do a File/Export __ No. of Photos/Sequential to export them to a Finder folder on your desktop. You want to set the File Name to "Sequential" in the export box. From the desktop folder, drag them as a group into an iMovie timeline and they will retain their seaquence. It seems that dragging them into My Media will preserve the sequence, but in reverse order. However, when you drag them from My Media into the timeline they will come in in their proper sequence (not reversed).


-- Rich



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User profile for user: Rich839
Rich839
User level: Level 8
48,168 points

Oct 16, 2022 8:34 AM in response to S.Vampire

Hi, S.Vampire,


iMovie imports in chronological order by date of creation. That would make it newest first. In the project media view you can select the clips and do View'Sort By Name, Date, or Duration, ascending or descending. Choosing Date and Descending would give you oldest first. Then you should be able to drag them to the timeline and the order should be preserved.


If the photos are in your Photos app, you can arrange them in the order you want in an album and then do a File/Export __ No. of Photos/Sequential to export them to a Finder folder on your desktop. You want to set the File Name to "Sequential" in the export box. From the desktop folder, drag them as a group into an iMovie timeline and they will retain their seaquence. It seems that dragging them into My Media will preserve the sequence, but in reverse order. However, when you drag them from My Media into the timeline they will come in in their proper sequence (not reversed).


-- Rich



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Import videos to iMovie from Photos app in chronological order (oldest first)

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