iMovie text styles keep reverting to default

I was having this problem and then I read another post (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2644141?start=0&tstart=0) which was more general ("IMovie '11 is not always saving changes").

Anyway, to make a long story short, one person noticed that the problem was intermittent and he ended up having success by playing around with different ways of editing in the program. This led me to experiment as well.

Note that when you edit a title it changes the appearance of the playback window to indicate that you are in edit mode:

Notice the "Done" button in the upper right? Well, what I found was that I was often not bothering pressing that. I assumed that clicking elsewhere in the project or choosing another object to edit was an implicit "Done". So I did some experimentation and found that when I explicitly pressed the "Done" button, my changes were being saved.

Now of course, I know this is one of those "voodoo" solutions that really hasn't been tested extensively, so take it for what it's worth—a clue as to the real problem and perhaps a helpful hint.

Hi

Do I know - NO - BUT I've a general approache

If iMovie used to behave in one way - then suddenly stops doing so e.g. after a Panic/Forced Halt (very common origin)

then most probably the iMovie pref. file got corrupted

this file contains settings as PAL or NTSC and other things that one want iMovie to keep till started next time. May be choice of font and size too.

Trach this iMovie pref file - and it will revert to factory settings - then set it at Your liking and it most probably will remain.

• Delete iMovie pref. file

iMovie pref. file resides.

Mac Hard Disk (start-up HD)/Users/"Your account"/Library/Preferences

and is named. (one or more of these)

com.apple.iMovie.plist

com.apple.iMovie3.plist

com.apple.iMovie7.plist

com.apple.iMovie8.plist

com.apple.iMovie9.plist

com.apple.iMovieApp.plist

and find

com.apple.iApps.plist

While iMovie is NOT RUNNING - move this/these file/s out on to desk-top.

Now restart iMovie.

If You run Mac OS X.7 or more - then the Library in the User-account folder is invisibly and need to be set to be viewable. IT IS NOT in the Library on Root level (when opening MacintoshHD - first window = root level)

( It can be done like this: Open Terminal, then enter: chflags nohidden ~/Library

Press return, then restart, and it will always be visible until the next major update, when you do the same thing again. )

or - do like this.

On the Finder window at the top left of the screen,

Hold down the Option key and clicked on Go.

This allowed You to see the Library folder and select it.

Then keep the Option button pressed down in order to see and select the Library folder.

Once found it, You are able to navigate to the iMovie preferences file and move it to the trash. iMovie then start’s up fine!

Yours Bengt W

Yes, aapound, I understand. Apple seems to have lost enthusiasm for this program. I will guess why: They intended to make a simple program for people to edit the home movies of their vacation and it quickly snowballed into a huge endeavor as the features kept creeping. (I think iWeb fell victim to a similar problem.)

But even so, the bugs in iMovie are extensive and inexcusable. Even something as "Apple-defining" as cut-n-paste doesn't work reliably.

But anyway, for my simple videos it's working acceptably.

WRT file corruption, somebody on the other thread suggested using "Duplicate Project" as a way to create a new project which would (in theory) start out uncorrupted.

So what program did you choose as an alternative?

Are you referring to fonts used returning back to the Mac OSX system default?

If so this has little to do with iMovie.

Well if you are moving on I understand. However the issue you posed based on the info you stated does sound like Font Book is guilty to name the beginning.