Photos 5.0 has stopped letting me edit my videos - what can I do??

Question

Photos 5.0 has stopped letting me edit my videos - what can I do??

Can anyone help?

I can still edit all my photos fine on my computer, but when I click to edit any video, I can open up and play the film - but none of the editing tools are active (the Adjust/Filters/Crop buttons are greyed out and inactive).

I can edit more recent videos on my iphone fine. However, the particular video that I want to use (a film which I was able to edit and straighten on my iphone a week or so ago) will not now download onto my phone. Instead it says "Unable to Load Video - an error occurred while loading a higher-quality version of this video."

Only the unedited version of this film clip appears from the icloud in my Photos on my computer.

I'm on a MacBook Pro, with MacOS Catalina 10.15.7. I've restarted everything, but that hasn't made a difference.

Thanks so much for your help.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Apr 24, 2023 2:55 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

léonie

Level 10

200,931 points

Apr 24, 2023 10:32 AM in response to buildingfirstsite

You may want to test, if there is problem with your current Photos Library.

Try the following:

Export one ore more of your videos, that cannot be edited, from your Photos Library with File > Export > Export unmodified original to a subfolder in your Pictures folder.
Then create a new Photos Library:
- Quit Photos, if it is running.
- Launch Photos again, while holding down the options key ⌥ until the dialog to select a library appears.
- Then select to create a new library in your Pictures folder.
- Now import the exported video into the new Photos Library. Can you adjust the videos in the new library?

To switch back to your main Photo Library, quit Photos again, then double click your main library to open it again in Photos.

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

200,931 points

Apr 24, 2023 6:43 AM in response to buildingfirstsite

What is the codec of the video, taht yiou cannot edit?

After the upgrade macOS 10.15 Catalina, we can no longer edit some videos with older codecs. The upgrade to Catalina has removed some system frameworks from the system, that are needed for legacy cvideo formats.

There is no list, which video formats can be used in Photos 5; I am using the list for iMovie to get an idea which codecs are now problematic. About legacy media in iMovie for macOS - Apple Support

I have converted all my older videos to use either the codec HEVC or H.264, before I upgraded from Mojave to Catalina. These codecs seem to be safe to use in Photos on macOS 10.15 or later.

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Answer 3

Apr 24, 2023 9:14 AM in response to léonie

Thanks so much for your reply, léonie. It seems to be happening with all of my current videos on my computer, (even those filmed today) and I'm not sure how long this has been the case. Now, when I go back and look at any video in Photos, it isn't possible to edit it.

Previously, I have been able to edit films on my phone instead, and then transfer these to Photos via the cloud, but it isn't allowing me to access this particular film - it is only a fortnight old, or less.

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Photos 5.0 has stopped letting me edit my videos - what can I do??

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