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when importing video from iphone to imovie files are greyed out and cannot import to imovie

When I import mov files to imovie from my iphone, they are greyed out and cannot import.


MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Nov 22, 2022 10:09 AM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Nov 22, 2022 10:29 AM

There might be a corrupt preference that is causing this problem. Try deleting/resetting preferences. Open iMovie while holding down the Option and Command keys and selecting to delete preferences from the box that appears. iMovie will open in a new empty library. Reopen in your old library to access your projects. Now see if your issue is cured. You may need to reboot to set the preferences. Deleting preferences is a safe procedure and will cause no loss of data.


As a workaround, try using AirDrop to export the videos from your iPhone to your Mac instead of directly into iMovie. They will go into your Downloads folder (Finder Menu/Go/Downloads). If they play O.K. there, you can drag them into iMovie and see if they will work.


-- Rich

1 reply
Question marked as Best reply

Nov 22, 2022 10:29 AM in response to drwilder

There might be a corrupt preference that is causing this problem. Try deleting/resetting preferences. Open iMovie while holding down the Option and Command keys and selecting to delete preferences from the box that appears. iMovie will open in a new empty library. Reopen in your old library to access your projects. Now see if your issue is cured. You may need to reboot to set the preferences. Deleting preferences is a safe procedure and will cause no loss of data.


As a workaround, try using AirDrop to export the videos from your iPhone to your Mac instead of directly into iMovie. They will go into your Downloads folder (Finder Menu/Go/Downloads). If they play O.K. there, you can drag them into iMovie and see if they will work.


-- Rich

when importing video from iphone to imovie files are greyed out and cannot import to imovie

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