iMovie '11 and the SBBOD

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Level 1

7 points

iMovie '11 and the SBBOD

It all started when I wanted the new version of Aperture, so I had to "upgrade" to Mountain Lion, iMovie "11, and iPhoto'11.

Starting iMovie 11 immediately brings on the Spinning Beach Ball of Death. This lasts about 5 minutes. Loading the Project library (I only had 8-10 minor projects brought over from iMovie'09) gets me another 5 minutes of SBBOD. Opening a particular project (say, a simple one-minute video) buys me a permanent SBBOD, and I have to force quit iMovie. The whole system totally runs like crap after that. (I had to COLD BOOT the dang thing tonight - first time I ever had to do that with a Mac!) I tried the recommended deleting of the preference file, but that file, or anything like it, did not exist.

Any recommendations?

I have several time-lapse videos to make, so I really need iMovie to function again. iMovie 09 had NO TROUBLE like this, even with 2GB memory. Ah, the good old days…

Thank you!

Bob

iMovie '11 (9.0.8)

Aperture 3.4.3

iPhoto '11 (9.4.2)

Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Mac Mini 2009

2.4Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo

8GB memory

Mac mini, OS X Mountain Lion, iMovie 09, iPhoto 09, Aperture 3.3.

Posted on Nov 26, 2012 5:59 PM

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Answer 1

Nov 26, 2012 6:44 PM in response to ingots

When you upgrade to iMovie 11, it has to convert all previous projects to the new format to support the new features. You need to let it run. Do not force quit it unless you see that the Activity Monitor indicates a Hang condition. It could take a while depending on how many projects and events you have.

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Answer 2

ingots Author

Level 1

7 points

Nov 26, 2012 7:11 PM in response to AppleMan1958

I've let it go overnight in the recent past. After the first SBBOD, it does show all my existing progects in the upper left project window. I'll fire up iMovie again before I go to bed (otherwise it slows down everything...) and report back tomorrow.

Thanks...

EDIT: well, that was fast. I got the SBBOD, along with the red IMovie (not responding) status on Activity Monitor. But it only lasted a few minutes. Clicking Project Library brought up all 13 projects very quickly. And now I could open them! Thats progress, but I'm not sure why it;s better now...

Next I'll try to import a heap of stills.

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Answer 3

ingots Author

Level 1

7 points

Nov 27, 2012 3:23 AM in response to ingots

update:

I was able to import a folder of ~900 stills from Aperture to iMovie. It only took a few minutes, no SBBOD, no problems. Thinking things were indeed back to normal, I then tried to import my other two folders of stills, 1800 images total, and immediately got the SBBOD/ IMovie (not responding).

Force close, repair permissions, restart iMovie, started to import ONE folder, went to bed. 7 hours later:

SBBOD/ IMovie (not responding). But the(not responding) is somewhat intermittent - iMovie will occasionally switch back to normal for a short bit of time.

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Answer 4

ingots Author

Level 1

7 points

Nov 27, 2012 4:13 AM in response to ingots

FWIW:

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Answer 5

Nov 27, 2012 4:17 AM in response to ingots

Hi

When iMovie starts-up it also locate and checque iPhoto, iTunes, GarageBande etc Libraries. And if they are not in location or corrupted - then iMovie get's into problems as it can not locate or heal by it self.

You can try to - let iPhoto correct it's libraries by

• Start iPhoto - BUT KEEP alt-key and cmd-key down during up-start

• Select all choices

BUT BE AWARE THAT - This takes time's - lot's of time - 6 - 12 hours not un-common !

Now after this may be iMovie starts faster.

Yours Bengt W

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Answer 6

Nov 27, 2012 6:24 AM in response to ingots

Are you doing stop motion animation or time-lapse photography? If so, there are probably better tools than iMovie.

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Answer 7

ingots Author

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7 points

Nov 27, 2012 5:37 PM in response to Bengt Wärleby

Bengt,

I did the iPhoto library rebuilds. It didn't mtake that long, as my library isn't that old/big. But it did not improve iMovie. Dropping in photos from either iPhoto or Aperture continues to stall iMovie.

Bob

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Answer 8

ingots Author

Level 1

7 points

Nov 27, 2012 5:41 PM in response to AppleMan1958

AM'58,

Yes, I'm doing time-lapse. Typical project has 2-3000 stills. iMovie '09 handled this easily, with a fairly reasonable workflow (import photos, set to minimum display time, export movie to Quicktime, re-import the Quicktime movie, final adjust of playback speed.)

Do you have some better suggestions for a time-lapse tool?

Thanks - Bob

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Answer 9

Nov 27, 2012 6:03 PM in response to ingots

First, a question. When you drag in 700 photos at a time from Aperture, are you dragging in from an Aperture Folder, a Finder Folder, an Aperture Album, or an Aperture Event? Just trying to understand. Putting photos in an album in the order I need and dragging in the Album all at once from the Photo Browser in iMovie has worked best for me (but I have never done more than 300 photos at a time, and that was to beat markers, not time lapse.

For Time Lapse, I am no expert, but the apps I hear about are QuickTime Pro Version 7 and iStopMotion3 from Boinx.

QuickTime Pro lets you point to a folder and choose "Open Image Sequence". It will create a quicktime file with your image sequence and you have easy control over the number of frames per still, etc.

I have the iPad version of iStopMotion, but I have no experience with the Mac version, but it is worth checking out.

I think Final Cut Pro would also work, but the other two options are much more cost effective.

You can also create your image sequence in one of these apps and then import the resulting QuickTime file into iMovie or FCPX for more editing.

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Answer 10

ingots Author

Level 1

7 points

Nov 27, 2012 6:13 PM in response to AppleMan1958

I'm just dropping in an Aperture Project. This CAN work - it's worked finein the past - it's just not working now.

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Answer 11

ingots Author

Level 1

7 points

Nov 28, 2012 5:59 PM in response to ingots

So, I could eventually get a project open, but SBBOD would appear when adding a still image to the project. It made no difference if I added 1 or 999 stills, iPhoto or Aperture. iMovie still stalled, and had to be forced closed. Hopefully someone at Apple saw my 35 Force Close Reports. (Yeah, right...)

Here's what worked: deleting the iMove Project that I was working with. After that, iMovie '11 seemed to be back to it's old performance level!

Here's what had no effect (but appears to have done no harm). Most of it is based on advice from this forum:

I don't have any 3ivx codex' (codii?) in my QuickTime folders to delete. Just the two "good" files: "AppleIntermediateCodec.component" and "AppleMPEG2Codec.component". That's the entire folder.
From what I see, the iMovie Preference file has never existed. Couldn't trash what didn't exist.
Rebuilt all iPhoto libraries, using the Control-Opion key trick on startup.
Re-downloaded and re-installed the Mountain Lion OS.
I repaired permissions countless times.
I never had ANY video in my iPhoto library (nor in Aperture)
flip4mac was long ago deleted.
Ran the Yasu cache cleaning utility. Set to "stun".

High point: iMovie message that my stills would finish importing in 83 hours. That was right before SBBOD re-appeared.

Time for some scotch. And some time-lapse that features rabbits!

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Answer 12

Nov 28, 2012 11:15 PM in response to ingots

ingots wrote:

From what I see, the iMovie Preference file has never existed. Couldn't trash what didn't exist.

iMovie's preference file is in your Home (your user name) /Library/Preferences folder (NOT the Library folder at the top level in Macintosh HD).

As you are on Mountain Lion (Mac OS X 10.8), the User Library folder is hidden (as it is on Lion - Mac OS X 10.7). To access the Library folder, click on Go in the Finder menu bar, then press and hold down the Option key - the Library folder will appear in the drop down list.

In your Home/Library/Preferences folder, locate a file named "com.apple.iMovieApp.plist". With iMovie closed, drag this file to the Desktop. When next opened, iMovie will create a fresh preference file with the default settings. If iMovie now runs OK, you can change these settings in the menu item "IMovie>Preferences" if desired. Also, it's now safe to drag the old preference file to the Trash. Trashing the file will not harm your existing Events or Projects.

John

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Answer 13

Nov 28, 2012 11:15 PM in response to ingots

From what I see, the iMovie Preference file has never existed. Couldn't trash what didn't exist.

There are no versions of iMovie I know of that doesn't utilize a pref. file - so if You didn't find it - You looked in the wrong Library

To test if this got corrupted - easiest way is to

• Create a new User Account - log into this and re-try iMovie - If it now behaves - then here is where the problem lye. iMovie Pref or Cache file/s

It/They are located in

• Start-Up (Mac OS) hard disk / Users / Your log-in account / Libraries / Preferences

Not Library on root level (when opening the Macintosh HD - first window)

Yours Bengt W

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Answer 14

Nov 28, 2012 11:18 PM in response to Bengt Wärleby

Great minds think alike, hey Bengt! 😁

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Answer 15

Nov 28, 2012 11:27 PM in response to John Cogdell

Yes and it's parts of seconds that matters.

Have a Great day !

yours ever - Bengt W

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