Q: Images/stills turn black in iMovie since El Capitan upgrade

I am having the same problem with El Capitan OS X 10.11 and iMovie 9.0.9.  I need the export capabilities I had with iMovie 9 which I don't have with iMovie 10.  Its of no use to me.  My solution is downgrade to Yosemite so I have use of iMovie 9 again which I'm doing now.

Hi There,

I seem to have the same issue since I upgraded to iMovie 10.1. I just finished a video with version 10 no problem, but now 10.1 doesn't allow me to preview non-iphone photos. I tried upgrading to el capitan in hoping it would work, but unfortunately, it didn't. Pretty frustrating since now I can't make a video without stills. Videos seem to not have an issue.

Same issue here!  Upgraded to 10.1 and imported pictures from iPhoto are showing up black.  A real PAIN!

WORK AROUND SOLUTION:  It would seem that iMovie 10.1 has a photo dimension restriction.  After trying to save the file in different media formats with no luck, I then decided to limit the photo size.  I reduced the image to the intended dimension of the video (i.e. 1080p is 1080 pixels wide) and voila, it worked like a charm.

There is a known problem with Color Profiles in Preview - El Capitan  that Apple is working on.

All users with this problem contact Apple support or give bug feedback to http://www.apple.com/feedback/

Note" the color profile one Preview Poster mentioned is sRGBIEC61966-2.1

You are correct that you set the dimensions when you export but I assume you would know what your desired dimensions will be before you export as you're making the video. Therefore you can reduce the file size and dimensions size of your photos to a minimum of the maximum desired dimensions of your video to avoid a loss of quality.  For example I had images that were greater the 6,000 pixels wide which is excessive for a 1080p movie unless you are zooming in with Ken Burns. I'm not suggesting this work around is a good thing, to be honest I hate it, but you do what it takes to get the job done. As far as upgrading from iMovie 8, I would as I found the later releasea such as iMovie 10.0.9 very stable on Yosemite. I like the layout of iMovie 10.1 better but still I'm shocked apple can't get photo's to upload into their essential software. I mean this is a rookie mistake and says something about the quality of Apple Software going down. if Apple really wanted to impress their customers they would regularly comment in their discussion board and implement features users are asking for as opposed to intentionally removing software to force our hand into buying a newly released device. (i.e. Front Row on a Mac mini vs. Apple TV)

Does anyone have an answer to this question - i.e., how to restore the still clips to projects in iMovie 9 when running it on OX 10 El Capitan?

Exactly the same issue as you with iMovie 10.1.

Given there are many of us its clearly not operator error so how do we escalate this with Apple to get it resolved...?

I have a callback with Apple Support on Wednesday 11th Nov, morning so will post results then.

I`ve got the same problem too...

Select the photo in your project, right click the photo and select Reveal in Finder.  Open the photo using your photo editor (photoshop or alternative) and resize the image to the dimensions of your video.  (Just shrink the photo a little to a minimum of the max dimensions of your expected movie). Save it and iMovie will pick-it up.  Though no optimal it's a temporary work-around and doesn't take to long.

Did you get an answer? I have the same problem; resizing images has not worked.

Spoke with 3 people at Apple support. None able to identify the problem although the last person was able to help eliminate a few items - i.e. created a new user and tried (failed) so its not a corrupt user; created a new iMovie library and tried (failed), dragged photo's to the desktop and then into iMovie (failed) so no issue with media import etc - all suggested changes had absolutely no impact on the problem.

I was able to demonstrate that even 2 photo's from the same camera taken within 10 seconds of each other behaved differently in iMovie once added to the timeline.

His next suggestion is to use the app "Image Capture" to see if that helps, and pending that outcome the only other suggestion (at this stage) is to uninstall iMovie and download a 'fresh' copy and reinstall.

Option 1 is a workaround and doesn't address the issue. Option 2 is just hoping.....  Not an encouraging outcome but I am sympathetic in some way of the task the Help staff have in front of them. He was very keen to resolve the issue but I suspect he was still a 'generalist' in terms of support and that a programmer will be required to debug the problem - if they can replicate it in the lab.

One thing of interest (to me at least and may not be related) is that the old iMovie app was about 420Mb in size. The new iMovie is over 2Gb, so a lot more complex?  As I was closing down the iMovie app and just chatting to the Support guy, I noticed it was very very slow to shut and in fact displayed a message that it was attempting to close background processes or similar - even though it wasn't rendering or adding media or any other function that could conceivably require the app to be 'engaged'.

This delay in processing was also evident when testing creating a new movie. I added 6 photos to the timeline and tried to 'playback'. Initially all 6 were blacked out in the playback screen (top right hand corner of iMovie). As i continued to talk to the tech I played the same photos back a few times. Within a couple of minutes the 2nd photo suddenly behaved perfectly in playback, whilst the remaining 5 were still blacked out. Then a few minutes later the 1st photo also started to behave as it should.

I then waited 15 minutes but they remained the only photos that behaved.

So, i wonder if in the background the system is trying to render or process the images but for some reason either my computer and ram/processor are just not fast enough to allow that OR there is a bug in iMovie that puts it in some sort of loop and doest allow it to finish processing the photo's?

So, no answer and still a complete mystery.

If anyone has tried the ImageCapture option to import their photos and/or reinstalling the app then let me know so I don't waste any more time.

Thanks