After updating to El Capitan, all of the photos I added to a project that I was working on goes black when reviewing the video.

Be aware that when you start iMovie v10 it will automatically "Update Projects and Events" from v9 (and you can do others later). In the process it creates duplicates of all items in both your Projects and Events folders. As Apple advertises, "so you can continue to use iMovie 11 (v9) if you want". That went south with El Capitan. And to my knowledge Apple has not corrected the problem.

toddlonie, (and several others); As you have already probably figured out, the instructions about finding the "Render Files" only applies to iMovie v10 (NOT iMovie 11 (v9). There seems to be some who also have the black photo problem in iMovie v10. I will relay the suggestions about the "Render Files" to those discussions and see if they cure any problems there.

I have 9.0.4 and have the black picture problem. You reverted back to Yosemite? or Mountain Lion? How did you do that? It kind of scares me to try it. Should I be afraid? Will I lose anything else? As it is, all of my pictures that I had imported from iPhoto are gone from iMovie... All of them. And I can't get them back through Photos... frustrated!!! thanks

I am among the users of iMovie '11 (version 9.0.9) that have projects that have been corrupted after upgrading to El Capitan. I upgraded to 10.11.2 today and the problem still exists, that is, still shot thumbnails appear in the timeline window of the project but are now black screen images in the project browser. I believe I can import the project into the new version of iMovie but find the keystroke editing of the 9.0 version to be so much easier to use. I will be making a duplicate of the project file and try importing it into iMovie 10.0

Please Apple fix this problem.

Update: iMovie 10.0 crashes when I attempt to convert my events and projects from iMovie 9.0. Very disappointing. The issue with the black screen of photos from Aperature that I inserted into my projects is very frustrating. I have many hours of work that has been ruined unless the black screen can be fixed.

maggie-7; You replied to my comment asking, how I reverted back to a previous system. I did not revert back. Possibly you meant to replay to another's comment. But I do know that reverting back is pretty tricky. When I upgraded to El Capitan I worried about incompatible software so I put El Capitan on an SD card and tried using it that way for about a month. Seemed to work okay but was very slow. I only played around with iMovie v9 and El Capitan briefly and didn't notice the black photo problem. Then I read the line in the ad. for iMovie v10 and it said one could "Update Projects and Events" without destroying the original files in order to continue using iMovie v9. I took Apple at their word and upgraded. All seemed to be okay. Maybe a little slower than when I was running Snow Leopard but for the sake of having all my devices syncing and the new features of El Capitan I was happy. Then when I discovered that iMovie v9 didn't work I decided to just move up to iMovie v10. And so far it has worked fine. I still like the way iMovie v9 works and debated wiping the HD and reinstalling from my Time Machine backup. So if you are serious about going back that might be a way to do so. I also looked into putting an old system on an external drive and running that system when I wanted to work in iMovie v9. But I still have an old iMac running Snow Leopard so I just put the Project and Event files in the appropriate folders on an external drive and move that drive to my old machine.

cruising jack;

Check out some of the discussion of iMovie v10 and El Capitan. They may give you help with your "Updating" problems.

Make sure your old iMovie Events and iMovie Projects folders are at the root of the Movies folder. What I did was move most of the Events and Projects out of those folders and only Updated a few at a time. I figured any that I had already finished didn't need updating. Then I discovered I could pull the movie clips in from the iMovie Events folders I had stored elsewhere and just start over on the Project.

Since this problem is obviously affecting many users of iMovie 9.0 who have upgraded to El Capitan, is the posting of this problem in the Apple Support Community thread the best way to bring it to the attention of Apple Support personnel? Will a call to Apple Support (who will not be able to solve the issue) be enough help to escalate it to the Apple engineers? I have a very large project I have been working on with a combination of movie events and a hundred photos that is affected by the black screen problem.

To my knowledge this problem is universal. I have yet to find anyone that can run iMovie v9 and El Capitan.

YES a call to Apple may be the solution. But I fear they are just going to tell us we MUST upgrade to iMovie v10. But several in other discussions have called and as you said, "(who will not be able to solve the issue)" was the result.

Thank Rich Rydalch. I am lucky to have an older Macbook pro fro 2008 with OS X and iMovie 9. I am trying to salvage what I can from my current project and use my old computer until I can figure out how to get back to Yosemite.

:-)

I have the same situation. I have an older iMac and I have used that when I really want to go back to iMovie v9 for editing. I put the movies I want in the appropriate folder (Event in iMovie Events folder and Project {if I have created one}, in the iMovie Projects folder) on an external HD. Then hook that drive to the older iMac, open iMovie v9 and all works well. But I must say, the more I work with iMovie v10 the more I like it. One of the best features is that in renders movies in the background so one can continue working. You can even "Share" your movie to several different venues and it keeps track of all and sends them when it's ready. Right now I have movies going to File, iTunes and Email.

One thing I don't like about the iTunes interface is that the shared movie is hidden way deep in the Library. Consequently if you have that movie on an external drive and disconnect it the movie will not play in iTunes. So I usually make a file and load that into iTunes. Duplication I know, but it works for me.

I haven't upgrade the OS yet and downloaded the new imovie on accident. Now I am stuck with a half finished project any new pictures taken with my iphone 6s won't work and show black. So sad I am going to present a project half finished as I am out of time. Come on Apple!!

If you are still on a system previous to El Capitan you should still be able to run iMovie v9.

I have heard of the black photo problem with iMovie v10 but to date all the problems there relate to El Capitan.

Do all photo pulled into iMovie v10 show black both in the Event Library and in the movie line?

I have Yosemite and version 10.1 iMovie. How do I go back to 9? I don't dare switch to El Capitan the app store has far more negative reviews then positive. This really ***** this is the most frustrating thing ever. I have more photos and no where to go with them.

I load a folder full of photos from another folder into iMovie and after that anything that I uploaded in the last day is black when added. If the picture was taken last week or older it will import no issues. It changed just in the last 2 days after iMovie opened for the first time a few days ago. It ran for some time trying to load all my old content.

They show up at the top but when hitting the plus icon to jump them into the time line they show up in preview like all photos but show up black in play back of the time line. I can add captions and they will show up but the photos will not show up. strange.