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Level 1

6 points

iMovie 11 does not see iPhoto videos

Using iLife 09, iMovie showed my iPhoto videos in the lower pane event browser.
Upgraded to iLife 11.
iPhoto spent some time converting my library - but it completed; and seems fine.

iMovie, however, no longer shows the iPhoto videos. The text says no video clips match the current selection - but this never changes no matter what is selected.

My previous iMovie projects all still exist; and seem fine. The videos that were added from the event browser in '09 are also still fine within those projects.

I'd appreciate any suggestions for fixing this.

Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Oct 21, 2010 10:02 PM

80 replies

tbhatch

Level 1

0 points

Nov 3, 2010 12:10 PM in response to nevillev

I have the same problem with iMovie 11. All of my movies from iphoto aren't displayed in iMovie. Although there is one movie that shows up and it is from a friends flip camera. All of my other movies taken with my Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H3 don't show up. Could it be a compatibility problem with the camera? When I manually import a movie file from the Sony Cyber-shot it works but it does say the file has the wrong frame rate and needs to be converted.

Hopefully someone has a solution soon or Apple releases an iMovie update that solves this problem. This is an unacceptable problem.

jvolino

Level 1

46 points

Nov 5, 2010 6:17 PM in response to nevillev

Neville:

I can assure you that the bug/"feature" of iMovie not recognizing and indexing movies from iPhoto that were not copied to the library existed back in version '09 also. So I agree with Apple that the behavior didn't change, but I am furious that it works that way. I don't think this problem existed in iMovie '08. There's no justification for it not being able to handle links to photos outside the iPhoto library.

--JV

nevillev Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 5, 2010 8:46 PM in response to jvolino

JV - you are correct. I'd forgotten; but I kept my "iMovie 09" at version 8.0.4 because of this issue; which is described in:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10711116&#10711116

The conversation in the above thread included the hope that an 8.0.6 update would fix this problem.

In fact, then, Apple introduced this problem in iMovie 8.0.5 - but has never fixed it.

For me it occurred when I upgraded to iLife 11 because my iLife 09 copy of iMovie was still at 8.0.4.

I have a large photo/movie collection on an external drive - sorted by date etc. I share it with other PC's in my home; and have no plans to allow iPhoto to import these files into its own file bundle. For me the preferences checkbox that allows the files to stay in their original location is vitally important. It appears that Apple supports this workflow because they provide the checkbox. Yet there's an important part of the iLife 11 functionality that silently fails if the box is not checked.

So how can we persuade Apple they've made a mistake?
-Neville

Jim2006

Level 2

360 points

Nov 5, 2010 9:13 PM in response to nevillev

Neville - iMovie 8.0.4 did not support videos that are imported into iPhoto by reference. Please test this for yourself

Nov 6, 2010 2:44 PM in response to tbhatch

i agree , this is very frustrating,
about 80% of the movie clips I had in Imovie just disapeared,
they are still there in Iphoto but I movie just won't see them anymore,
the work around is just may too much.. I cannot start exporting every single movieclip to the desktop to then import it into imovie.. i have several gigs of holiday movie sitting there waiting to be transformed to my holiday video..

what the **** is wrong with imovie 11? and more.. when will they fix it!

nevillev Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 7, 2010 7:18 PM in response to Jim2006

I have done some tests on my systems - and have verified that iMovie 8.0.4 definitely shows the videos correctly - even when they are imported by reference. iMovie 8.0.5 breaks this support. It remains broken in iMovie 9.0 (the version in iLife 11).

I realize there are a variety of configurations - so I can't say that 8.0.4 works perfectly in all of them; but it definitely works properly in mine.

I have to say I'm very frustrated by this experience now. I moved to Apple a couple of years ago because I could no longer trust the quality of Microsoft's products and operating systems. Apple proved very good by comparison - and seemed to have a solid strategy of making products that worked; releasing them when they were really ready; and supporting them very well.

A couple of their more recent releases, like Aperture and the latest iLife, show an unfortunate trend that I hope does not continue.

Overall I want iLife 11 to work well with my photos and videos; just like iLife 09 did (at least until the 8.0.5 update to iMovie). And I don't appreciate being told by Apple that it works as designed (i.e. that a checkbox in their preference pane silently breaks iMovie's integration with iPhoto).

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,058 points

Nov 8, 2010 2:03 AM in response to nevillev

Without knowing the exact specifications of the media you're talking about it's impossible to say. It can be for any number of reasons including but not limited to changes in licensing agreements.

nevillev Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 8, 2010 8:17 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

All the videos in question come from digital cameras I've owned - which is why they ended up in iPhoto. The cameras in include Canons (SD300 and TX1) as well as a Ricoh GXR-P10. Some are "low-def" and some are 720P hi def. All play just fine with QuickTime; and showed up with no problems in iLife 09.

The fact that it worked in the prior major version (iLife 09) and stopped working when I upgraded is really the crux of the matter regardless of other details. The next level of detail: That Apple really changed it during a minor update to iLife 09; and now claims that it hasn't changed with iLife 11 adds to my frustration.

Miwian

Level 1

0 points

Nov 14, 2010 3:22 AM in response to nevillev

I upgraded from iLife 9 to 11 but I'm very unhappy. iMovie refuses to pass the converting iPhoto-videos step and will not start up anymore. I'm desperate because I have to finish a movie by this tuesday. I tried everything (rebuilding rights, PRAM, restarting etc).

fugazied

Level 1

4 points

Nov 20, 2010 2:46 PM in response to nevillev

Same problem here until it prompted me to 'rebuild video thumbnails' or something similar. Did that and it allowed me to see them again.

Perhaps due to the size of your video libraries it is having issues. I only have perhaps 40 short videos.

Nov 22, 2010 4:53 AM in response to fugazied

hi!i just switched to ilife 11.before i had tons of videos in the iphoto event section in imovie. when updating only some of them (mainly recent ones) appear.it makes no sense since almost all the videos were done by the same camera. how can I get all those videos back?i tried rebuilding the thumbnails in imovie but it did not work.any solutions???thanks very much

jvolino

Level 1

46 points

Nov 23, 2010 1:14 PM in response to freesmith

Did you previously use the option in iPhoto preferences to not copy your photos into the iPhoto library? If so you would be subject to the same problem outlined earlier in this thread. Likely when you upgraded to iLife 11 the setting went back to the default of copying photos and movies to the library so those newer imports are showing up in iMovie 11.

-JV

Nov 25, 2010 3:17 AM in response to jvolino

you are right before i did not have the option on. but now i dont have it either. the videos that appear where not imported with the new version of imovie. its strange because those movies where imported with the previous versions. should i turn the option on? but now the videos in iphoto wont update in imovie.
in the other hand some videos which are not imported have the same exact format as those already in imovie. they were taken by the same cam!please help!thanks

Dec 7, 2010 10:02 AM in response to nevillev

I had the same problem. Then I did some debugging (the kind of debugging that Apple refuses to do since version 8.0.5 of iMovie) and found out that iMovie does find the movies in iPhoto as they are listed in its plist file but the referenced ones appear under a wrong path. Apparently the actual path is appended to the path to the internal folder of the iPhoto Library bundle. End of the technical rant.

Here is how I fixed it: open the Terminal and type (provided that you have the iPhoto Library in its default location otherwise fix the path with what it is)

ln -s /Volumes ~/Pictures/iPhoto\ Library/Masters/Volumes

it will create a symbolic link inside the iPhoto Library bundle so that the paths that are stored in iMovie will have sense.

I doesn't seem to affect iPhoto. I haven't tried to import new pictures into iPhoto to see if that link disappears but you can always recreate it.

Dec 8, 2010 3:52 AM in response to Marco Laurenzano

thanks for the help but i can not find the Master/Volumes inside my iPhoto Library. i have my iphoto library in the exact same spot you do but i do not have those folders inside...does the symbolic link have to be done to that folder in particular?thanks again for your time!

iMovie 11 does not see iPhoto videos