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iMovie not recognizing camera

Hey everyone.

So on Sunday I started uploading my footage from my camera through imovie with no problems. I got through five tapes and had no issues. Well, when I wanted to finish the rest of my tapes, I plugged my camera back in through the firewire and connected my external hard drive, but when I try to "Import from Camera" through iMovie, it wont read the camera anymore-- it just shows the built in camera. I've tried just about everything-- restarting my computer, unplugging, turning the camera off/on, letting my camera power off for a while. And it's still not recognizing my camera after it worked perfectly on sunday. The Firewire port just says: "Maximum Speed: Up to 800 Mb/sec"

Is there anything more I can do? Is this a problem within iMovie or my firewire?

Thanks!

13" MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Feb 8, 2011 12:18 PM

Reply
6 replies

Feb 11, 2011 3:56 PM in response to pinballwizard

I have the same story as pinballwizard. I am at a school in the middle of big video projects. I was able to connect to my camera(s) on Friday, February 4. On Monday, none of my computer lab computers recognize the cameras. The only changes I have made between downloads was software updates. Could there be something wrong in the update?

I, too have tried all the usual trouble shooting tricks... power, restarts, new cables, different cameras, etc.

Jul 30, 2013 3:45 PM in response to pinballwizard

Well, I had this issue and found a fix. It may be a fix for myself only, but it worked. I tried everything and no matter what I did, iMovie would not recognize the camera, only the iSight. However, even though iMovie would not recognize the camera, the computer still recognized the SD Cards and mounted them on the desktop. I opened one up and browsed to the movie clips. Then I simply dragged one of them over to the Event Library in iMovie. Only THEN did iMovie finally recognize my camera. It said "This file cannot be copied, it must be imported with iMovie Importer." I clicked yes and poof, problem solved.

Jan 3, 2015 10:00 PM in response to pinballwizard

I know this is an old post, but I wanted to add a fix that I found for myself by trial and error for future troubleshooters searching online for a solution to this problem. When my imovie program won't recognize my Canon Vixia video camera, I unplug the connection, turn on my video camera and record a brief test video. Then I turn its power off, set it to the video viewer mode, plug the connecting cable back into the camera and the computer, turn the power back on, open imovie, then suddenly it will recognize it again. Recording an additional video must somehow reset things. This tends to happen after I've plugged my camera into a PC. I save my movies on both our PC and my Mac laptop for extra security. I also have to use different USB cables - one just for the PC and another just for the Mac.

iMovie not recognizing camera

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