In El Capitan, cannot import photos to iDVD

Question

Level 1

10 points

In El Capitan, cannot import photos to iDVD

When using iDVD in El Capitan, the drop zone for photos, etc., disappears from the screen so photos cannot be imported there. They can be imported in the Edit Drop Zone section but do not show on the main screen. They also do not burn to a dvd. I get the same result in both wide screen and standard settings.

I tried changing themes and reinstalling the app from my iLife 11 disc. That did not change anything.

I am using iDVD on a Mac Pro. I tried using iDVD on an iMac at the Computer Club and it seemed to work fine. Hopefully there is fix.

Any ideas?

Posted on Oct 26, 2015 10:47 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

Old Toad

Level 10

207,367 points

Oct 27, 2015 9:17 AM in response to Joel in AZ

Log into another user account on your Mac and see if iDVD behaves the same there or not. This will tell you if the problem is limited to your account or is system wide.

If it's limited to your account try this basic troubleshooting fix:

1 - delete the IDVD preference file, com.apple.iDVD.plist, that resides in your

User/Home/Library/Preferences folder.

2 - delete the contents of IDVD'S cache folder: User/Home/Library/Caches/com.apple.iDVD.

3 - launch IDVD and try again.

NOTE: In Lion and Mountain Lion the Home/Library folder is now invisible. To make it permanently visible enter the following in the Terminal application window: chflags nohidden ~/Library and press the Return key - 10.7: Un-hide the User Library folder. This will work for all system versions.

If you're running Mavericks, Yosemite or El Capitan go to your Home folder and use the View ➙ Show View Options menu to bring the this window:

Reply

Answer 2

Joel in AZ Author

Level 1

10 points

Oct 28, 2015 9:25 PM in response to Old Toad

Hello Old Toad,

New info: more playing around has shown photos can be imported into some themes but not others. For example, they can be imported into Soft Frame and Sunflower but not into Center Stage or Modern,

Logging in as another user gives the same result. Using iDVD on another computer with El Capitan also gives the same result.

Since iDVD has not been supported for a few years, my conclusion is that we are approaching a time when iDVD will not work at all on new operating systems.

MY SOLUTION: I will use iDVD on an external drive bootable with Yosemite. The drive will only be used for iDVD. This will work for me since I use iDVD occasionally but not every day.

If others want to use this approach, they will need to it while they still have access to Yosemite.

Thank you for you attention to my situation.

Reply

Answer 3

Parm4u

Level 1

9 points

Oct 30, 2015 9:29 PM in response to Joel in AZ

The same thing happened to me tonight. I upgraded to El Capitan, then tried to use iDVD. My entire screen went black whenever I tried to import a photo into the menus and in some cases the photo could be seen and then others it was blurry or greyed out when the menu played back again.

I have to agree iDVD is slowly starting to not work at all on newer operating systems even though other components work just fine. The DVD burned successfully and photos look fine during DVD play back. I can't afford the chance to lose the import photo option which is an important component of what I do for my clients on DVD so I restored back to Yosemite.

Reply

Answer 4

Nov 8, 2015 8:08 PM in response to Joel in AZ

I have had success by drawing photos to desktop then from the desktop drag photo into iDVD theme.

Reply

Answer 5

Parm4u

Level 1

9 points

Nov 8, 2015 1:24 PM in response to sunshinehal

Yes it is successful to do that, but I still got the black iDVD screen and then as the menus replayed the photos were smudged or unclear to see if even there.

Reply