Titles off-viewer? and other annoyances 😀

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Level 1

109 points

Titles off-viewer? and other annoyances 😀

I am revisiting iMovie after some years of absence from using it. I love the simplicity, to get things done relatively quickly without a huge learning curve. So it's great that way. But I am stumped about a few things to the point where I am thinking "is it me or has iMovie gone rogue?"

I have imported videos shot on iPhone 14 Pro in landscape mode. I would think these would display / play in wide (16:9) format but they don't. Instead, they have black bars on top and bottom despite cropping to "Fit"
When I go to edit the titles I added, the cursor is so far off the video, I can't see what I am typing!
There's no option to resize the various sections such as the browser, viewer and timeline like in the past versions? How do I make the video fill almost the entire space in the viewer window so that I can actually see and better take care of my edits?

Has iMovie gotten so bad or is it me? Am I missing something? (By the way I have deleted the preference file and haven't notice much favorable result).

Can you shed some light?

Thanks!

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 13.2

Posted on Mar 21, 2023 12:36 AM

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Answer 1

Rich839

Level 8

48,168 points

Mar 21, 2023 9:39 AM in response to marconey

Try these diagnostic procedures and see if they cure the problem:

Deleting Preferences

Open iMovie while holding down the Option and Command keys and select to delete preferences in the box that appears. iMovie usually will open in a new empty library. If so, reopen your old library to get back to your projects. Possibly you may need to reboot to set the changes. Deleting preferences is a safe procedure that will not cause data loss or disruption to your project.

New Project

Another thing you can try is to copy your media into a newly created project and see if that cures the problem. To do that, do an Edit/Select All, Edit/Copy, of the media in your project and then Edit/Paste it into the newly created project.

Safe Mode

You could also try booting up in Safe Mode and, after everything loads, immediately shut down and reboot in normal mode. Then see if iMovie works properly.

Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

Resetting the System Management Controller

Try resetting the System Management Controller (but no longer available for the new M1 computers):

Reset the SMC of your Mac - Apple Support

Resetting the NVRAM or PRAM

Try resetting the NVRAM or PRAM.:

Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

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Answer 2

Rich839

Level 8

48,168 points

Mar 21, 2023 1:03 PM in response to marconey

Your screen shot does not show black bars on the top and bottom as you mentioned, but rather on each side. Normally that would indicate that you did not hold your phone in the horizontal position when recording the video.

If the above is not the issue, try redownloading iMovie. To update/redownload iMovie 10, drag your iMovie 10 app from the Applications folder into the trash, but do not empty the trash. Sign in to the app store and open your purchases folder by clicking on your name at the bottom of the app store side bar. You will see your purchases displayed, including iMovie 10. Redownload/update iMovie from there. If not successful, drag your present iMovie app out of the trash and return it to the Applications folder.

If still no success, try contacting 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 Support item above this forum’s screen. Navigate to a place where you can enter your phone number.

-- Rich

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Answer 3

marconey Author

Level 1

109 points

Mar 21, 2023 1:09 PM in response to Rich839

Rich, my screenshot is of an Apple-supplied background image that comes with iMovie. I don't understand why it's displayed vertically instead of horizontally (wide), esp. when iMovie prefers the 16:9 format. So this is not just happening to MY imported videos / photos but to the included images.

Yes, my next step is to trash iMovie and redownload, if not contact tech. support.

Thanks :o)

Kenny

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Answer 4

Rich839

Level 8

48,168 points

Mar 21, 2023 2:13 PM in response to marconey

Yes. Good point. I think you are at the place where your next move would be to contact Apple Support.

— Rich

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Answer 5

marconey Author

Level 1

109 points

Mar 21, 2023 12:19 PM in response to Rich839

Rich839, thanks for the response. While I had already deleted the pref. file as stated in my orig. file, I did the rest after your suggestions to no avail. iMovie still behaves the same. I still don't have an answer to WHY my iPhone 14 Pro imported videos, taken in landscape mode, do not show / fill the viewer - Truly annoying. I see the same with adding backgrounds that come with iMove such as in the included pic!

Addressing this, I think, would also address the titles being off-the photo / video in the viewer, while editing them.

Thanks,

Kenneth

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Titles off-viewer? and other annoyances 😀

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