Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Level 1

0 points

how to reimport videos imovie 10

Currently there is no way to re-import video from a SD card/ camera. I imported my videos and I inadvertently trashed and deleted them because I couldn’t figure out how to create an event or project and move my videos into it. When I tried to re-import the videos back into iMovie 10 they no longer show up in the list of videos for importing. They would show up for a second and then disappear. The new version of iMovie 10 for Maverick is very limiting compared to the old version iMovie 11 from iLife11’. There are no longer any advanced options or preferences, when importing videos the program used to break down imports by day and the timeline for the new version is too long - the old version you see the whole timeline wrapped into one window. When importing multiple videos from different times or days they are all lumped together into one event. This is a huge disservice your clients!!! If there is a way to do this I couldnt find it.

I have a question to Apple: Do you even have beta testers testing your products before they go to the public? It seems like your motto is to tell users how YOU think we should use the products you are producing. I am sorry if this is harsh, but I getting more frustrated every time I try something new from apple. On top of that I had to uninstall iMovie 10 and reinstall iMovie 11 and it worked just fine. I won’t be upgrading to version 10 anytime soon until you bring back some of the old features.

thanks,

iMovie (iOS), OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Nov 4, 2013 2:42 PM

Best reply

10Minutes

Level 1

9 points

Posted on Jan 3, 2014 6:22 AM

Same as yourself I have published on YouTube 100+ movies of our sons city as well as high-school football and soccer games using the previous versions of iMovie prior to iMovie 10 and this single problem with clips importation nearly had me ditch iMovie altogether after all these years of productive use 😠 Because I had just finished doing the editing and it refused to create the final MP4 file because of media files still on camera and had failed to import and because so many small clips (nature of sports) easily missed so doubly frustrating 😠😠 and most of all did not want to restart the editing process again...

The workaround for me when running into trouble with clips still stucj on camera that refuse to import has been:

1. Create a new iMovie Library

2. Proceed to import the clips that refused to download first time around into this new library.. no need to move the originally imported clips (they stay in the original iMovie library)

3. Copy the existing movie project into this new library... No need to change anything in the movie project

4. Share file again to generate the MP4 from this new copy of the movie project

When iMovie 10 is open, all the the iMovie libraries you create are visible on the left and appear to be able to share clips between each other with the project in one library maintaining the links to the clips in the other libraries. By creating a new iMovie library it seems to reset the flag of the clip importation to allow importation to proceed and still maintain all the editing you did originally in the other library. It will not look for the same clip in the new library which is why you need to copy the entire movie project as it looks first for the clips locally in the newly created library.

Hope this work for you !

View in context

31 replies

Feb 27, 2014 11:48 AM in response to claudefromboischatel

any other idea??? remove some preference for import again my movie without lost my work???

Mar 22, 2014 7:40 AM in response to sserchh

Thank you!! I spend an hour searching and 5 minutes to find your answer.

Solved my problem. 🙂

Mar 23, 2014 11:41 AM in response to sserchh

I found this icon and unchecked this box, but when I then try to import the clips, iMovie kind of ignores me. I select the clips I want to import and click "Import Selected," then my import window shuts down but iMovie does not import the clips.

Any ideas?

Mar 23, 2014 6:10 PM in response to neojim913

Do the same for me... The only tips i found work but not on all movie... I create a a new library in finish movie and i can continue my project in this library but not in the other one...

forchen

Level 1

5 points

Mar 30, 2014 4:18 PM in response to neojim913

If you see no movies because you'd previously imported the movie before, you can click the little film strip icon in the upper right corner and unselect "Hide Imported Clips". As long as you didn't delete the movie, it'll re-appear and allow you to re-import the movie.

Jul 13, 2014 3:30 PM in response to neojim913

***!! all i want to do is upload this new iMovie but all it does no matter what people say on this blog it still doesn't work? how do i get in direct contact with apple and tell them how pathetic this new upgrade is.. do you not understand how frustrating this is!!cive spent hours and it still forever is saying either missing files or cannot be shared because whatever is defencing?? apple has downgraded here!! what kind of idiots do you have working for you. yes this new iMovie may look more modern but this should be at alot better day and age technology.

Sep 23, 2014 9:34 AM in response to neojim913

I also encountered this problem. I find this version of iMovie very frustrating and counter-intuitive too. Many features are obscured behind double clicking certain edges of clips, new icons pop-up that I've never encountered before, and many obvious features seem to be overlooked or missing. ANYWAY... I was able to re-import clips problem by moving the needed clips to the trash (don't just press the delete key or the clips will get marked "rejected" and then they will hide). Click the small drop down menu at the top of the clip window to show "all clips". OK, delete your clips, then open a finder window, navigate to your camera's memory card and drag the clips that you need re-imported into the clip window. I had more success this way than I did through the File > Import from Camera. Unfortunately the new files did not link to the timeline clips and I had to re-edit everything. Not a solution but it's what I did.

Oct 4, 2014 12:24 AM in response to kactapuss

I just managed to solve this problem thank god!

Like everyone i had the camera icon on the videos in the events box, which also said click file etc to reimport.. the only difference i did which worked was that when i plugged my sd card in it popped up with save to iPhoto so i did.. went onto the events / projects bars and at the top it says iPhoto library.

i used my iPhoto library to place onto my project result!

Dec 7, 2014 2:13 AM in response to neojim913

Hi Neojim913,

I had the same problem too, some clips just kept referencing camera. In the "File" menu, I couldn't find such an option as "re-import from camera/archive". Then in "Import", when I re-select the clips in the camera and click "import selected", iMovie just ignored it and did nothing at all.

Somehow I found out a way to export the edited movie, by exporting it to theatre first, then delete it, find it in the trash can, and copy the file out to desktop. Then it's free to go anywhere.

That does not solve the problem fundamentally I know, but just worked.

Hope that could also be a helpful solution if this problem comes up again.

Cheers,

Jimmy

Jaymz

Level 2

222 points

Dec 22, 2014 6:24 PM in response to Cowboy Jimmy

There seems to be an issue with re-importing directly from the camera, or even if the camera is on and linked to iMove in any way.

To get round this situation I closed iMovie. Exported the camera files onto the desktop (or a folder on the desktop if you are a neat freak). Then I ejected the camera and removed it from USB. After that I opened iMovie, deleted the old event files and dragged in the new files form the desktop. It all worked ok after that.

Jan 2, 2015 8:00 PM in response to 10Minutes

this worked for me after deleting the clips with camera symbol (for everybody who is wondering what "this" refers to as I did before: see the "in response to ..." link at the top of the message - I am referring to 10Minutes's solution employing a new iMovie library)

Here is what I did exactly:

imported all clips into an event "event 1" in "iMovie Library 1".
At some point I did not have enough space on the hard drive so iMovie asked me if I want to stop writing the clip data. I clicked yes, freed up space, ran into the problem with the non existing option to re-import clips with the camera symbol, read this thread, and solved the problem with the following.
created a new library (sth. like File -> Open Library -> New, don't have it in English), let's say the new library is "iMovie Library 2"
imported the correctly filtered unimproved clips (the same which have a camera symbol in "event 1") into "event 2" of "iMovie Library 2"
deleted the non-imported clips with the camera symbol in "event 1" (of "iMovie Library 1")
waited until the import procedure finished (the filling circle in the upper right corner disappeared and all the circles in the bottom left corners of the clips disappeared in "event 2")
selected all (finally) imported clips in "event 2"
dragged them onto "event 1"
held CMD to get rid of the "plus" sign (switched from copy-mode to move-mode)
released the mouse to paste the clips into "event 1"
right clicked on "iMovie Library 2"
selected "show in Finder"
right clicked on "iMovie Library 2" again
selected "close library "iMovie Library 2""
deleted "iMovie Library 2" in the Finder window from step 11

Feb 10, 2015 7:52 AM in response to neojim913

Same here! I have a video that is due today for a school project and now i can't turn it in because on each and every single video clip it says missing camera. I'm really frustrated right now because I've been working on this project for more than 2 weeks and now it just gives up on me.

Mar 20, 2015 7:00 PM in response to shlomo321

I just spent about 3 hours trying to figure this out on my own before finding this post. That's 3 hours of my life I can't get back......Oh well.....Thank you for the idea of creating a new iMovie library to import the interrupted clips into. Moving them into my existing library worked perfectly.

jstdva

Level 1

4 points

Sep 8, 2015 8:48 AM in response to 10Minutes

Thank you!!!

ybicjag

Level 1

4 points

Nov 3, 2015 7:12 AM in response to neojim913

I think the easiest work-around is simply to start iMovie first and then connect whatever device you're using as your source.

how to reimport videos imovie 10