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I have a video from family that I received in a text that I would like to save a frame from as a photo. It was taken with an iPhone 12 ProMax. In the Messages screen, I selected it to "add to photos," and it copied into my photos library. From there I opened it to select the frame I want, but the playhead is not showing on the screen. What can I do to make it work?
TIA,
Don
iMac (2017 – 2020)
For me the playhead appears when the cursor in in the video window area. It goes away when the cursor is removed from the video window.
Give this a try: boot into Safe Mode according to How to use safe mode on your Mac and test to see if the problem persists. Reboot normally and test again.
NOTE 1: Safe Mode boot can take up to 3 - 5 minutes as it's doing the following;
• Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed
• Loads only required kernel extensions (prevents 3rd party kernel/extensions from loading)
• Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically
• Disables user-installed fonts
• Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files
NOTE 2: if you have a wireless keyboard with rechargeable batteries connect it with its charging cable before booting into Safe Mode. This makes it act as a wired keyboard as will insure a successful boot into Safe Mode.
I still could not find the playhead in this particular video, but I had tried saving it earlier by advancing the video to the scene I wanted, then using File>Export>Export Frame to Pictures. I had the mistaken impression that this would save the frame to my Photos Library rather than a Pictures folder. Once I sorted that out, I went to Spotlight Search to locate my Pictures folder, and found the TIFF copy. I then used the share file function to move it to my Photos Library. In the meantime, I have gone through a safe mode startup, and have also reinstalled my macOS. The reinstall presented some new problems, but nothing major. My wallpaper uses my own photos, and now fills my entire screen, whereas before, there were "sidebars" that limited the size and resolution of the photos.
Thanks to all that offered solutions, it got me pointed in the right direction, and got this problem solved.
Since macOS13.5 Ventura the command "File > Export > Frame to Pictures" is doing nothing on my MacBook Pro (2019). No TIFF is added to Pictures, and there is no error message.
It is erratic: For some videos it is working, for some not. For example, for this video not H.264 codec I could extract a frame:
But nor for a longer video with HEVC code. Nothing happens, when I try.
You don't say what macOS version you are using, but for me, in Ventura, I can choose a video thumbnail, hit space bar to bring it to full sized preview, and, as long as my cursor is on the video, a video player control appears so I can play the video. If I advance the control to the frame I want, then I can go to File>Explort>Export Frame to Pictures, and that frame shows up as a tiff file in my Pictures folder.
One of the things that confused me at first was that the cursor has to be on the video to see the playback control. What is different for you?
Interesting. I tried a 7 minute video, m4v, and it worked. I may not have a longer video in Photos. mov and mp4 seem to work.
playhead does not appear in video in photos
