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Can't export movie in iMovie 10: "This item cannot be shared while it is still referencing media on the camera"

I just edited and completed a short video (just under 4 minutes) and now it seems as if iMovie 10 somehow forced me to edit the files INSIDE the camera. Because when I unplug it, some parts of the movie vanish. And when I try to export it (or "share" it), I get the message "This item cannot be shared while it is still referencing media on the camera." How can that be? This has never happened in previous versions of iMovie.


The movie shows up in the iMovie library and I could even play it from Apple TV - but I want to export the file and cannot. I've imported all of the clips - looks like even did it twice. Very frustrating. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am using the latest OS X (version 10.9)

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Posted on Nov 2, 2013 2:01 PM

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49 replies

Dec 21, 2014 10:58 PM in response to Dieds

I also had the same problem, and at first thought it was because I didn't have enough space-- but I deleted a bunch of stuff off my HD to have enough GB but that didn't fix it.

I also deleted all the uploaded content (not the projects just the uploaded movie files), and then tried to re-upload the content. The circle pie never finished loading but again the projects were using the card to reference the content and therefore I still couldn't export or share the movie once again.


SOLUTION:

Finally... I removed all the movie files again, ejected the card and closed imovie. THEN, I opened iphoto and uploaded the video files there. Once they were all loaded, I ejected the SD card. I then opened imovie and DRAGGED the files over. The pie then loaded and in went the files. However, only one of my projects recognized so I did have to replace all the broken files in my project with the new ones. It's not perfect but it did allow me to finally export the movie.


I hope that this helps someone else out there who couldn't get the SD trick mentioned above to work.


Cheers

Dec 31, 2014 9:06 PM in response to Neosinn

DUDE!!!!!!!


Seriously I have just spent about 2 weeks going crazy because I couldn't render a 50 min video I made for my parents of their world trip due to the above issue. I have re-edited, bought software, downloaded, re-edited again etc etc.....Your work-around worked immediately from the original 'un-shareable' theater version I had. Thank you sooooooo much - made my New Year!


dunk

Mar 25, 2015 6:53 PM in response to Neosinn

Alright that worked. I have been searching a lot and this is the only thing I have found that worked. I still can't figure out why these files imported with the little camera icon showing linked to the camera, why some files imported that way and others not, how to import without this problem....but at least doing this work around I am able to save a copy of the film and save it to the hard drive. Thanks

Jun 10, 2015 7:01 PM in response to Dieds

I was sitting there for 2 hours trying to figure out what happened fiddling with iMovie on my macbook pro so I...

1. Shared the clip to Theatre.

2. Then I went back to library and deleted the sections of the clip that said "missing camera"

3. Shared that one to Theatre and renamed that clip

4. played both clips to see which one had the full clip in it

5. uploaded that one to iCloud (which took an hour but better than re editing the entire clip again from scratch)

6. checked my iCloud on my other apple devices which is my iMac (you can try your iPad, iPhone)

7. It was the full edited version on my iMac which worked and then I was able to Share my original edited clip to File!

8. happy dance!

Hope this helped you guys. I tried to do what Neosinn said about Theatre but that didn't work for me. Because after Theatre I couldn't share it to File still.

ps. The whole while whilst doing the above steps I had my SD card inserted into the MacBook Pro.

iCloud guys! iCloud saved me! it is the only answer

Jul 4, 2015 9:10 AM in response to Neosinn

I'm going to add to this. I had the same issue as everyone else and started on the solution Neosinn provided, but after sharing the video to Theater with iCloud activated, I dragged my window down a bit revealing the desktop underneath and then just dragged the file from Theater to the desktop. It instantly created a normal mp4! This is way easier than sharing twice and looking in the trash.

Can't export movie in iMovie 10: "This item cannot be shared while it is still referencing media on the camera"

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