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jensen102 Author

Level 1

4 points

Moving videos from photos to iMovie, and back again is lowering the quality. How do I get around that?

I have a series of video clips in my photos app that I need to edit (trim, add/remove/enhance audio, arrange transitions, string together clips, etc.). iMovie has all the editing tools I need, but after uploading media to iMovie from Photos, and then downloading the finished content back to my Mac, the video quality is so much lower. I've exported with the best resolution, quality, and compress that I can, but the original videos from Photos still have much better quality. I'm not sure if the quality is lost when I move media from Photos to iMovie, or from iMovie to Photos after the editing process. How do I import, edit, and export videos between Photos and iMovie and still maintain the quality?

Posted on Sep 20, 2023 2:48 PM

Top-ranking reply

Rich839

Level 8

47,724 points

Posted on Sep 21, 2023 8:17 AM

Hi,

What operating system and iMovie versions are you using? In what format are the videos in the Photos app?

Meanwhile, try deleting/resetting preferences, as that often cures iMovie issues. To delete/reset preferences, open iMovie while holding down the Option and Command keys and select to delete preferences in the box that appears. iMovie will open in a new empty library. 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.

-- Rich

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Moving videos from photos to iMovie, and back again is lowering the quality. How do I get around that?

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