Alex_Reds
Level 1 (16 points)
iLife

Q: Can't see photos from Photos App in iMovie

Hi there,

 

I just came back from holidays and wanted to make quick video report for my friends.
Opened iMovie, clicked on Photos Library and expected to see all my recent(at least) photos. However there were some random pics, year and month old, some of them I pretty sure deleted, not sure how they ended up in there.

 

I tried to reconnect iCloud and resync photos, however to no avail.

 

Any ideas what to do? The "it just works" is sure broken

 

Thank you in advance

Mac mini, OS X El Capitan (10.11.5)

Posted on Jun 2, 2016 2:36 PM

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Alex_Reds

Q: Can't see photos from Photos App in iMovie

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Jim Wanamaker,

    Jim Wanamaker Jim Wanamaker Jun 2, 2016 3:51 PM in response to Alex_Reds
    Level 4 (3,940 points)
    iLife
    Jun 2, 2016 3:51 PM in response to Alex_Reds

    Sounds like your problem is with Photos not iMovie. Can you see your pics in the photos app? Are you using iCloud photos library? If yes then perhaps you need to wait for iCloud to synch your pics to your Mac.

  • by Alex_Reds,

    Alex_Reds Alex_Reds Jun 2, 2016 4:02 PM in response to Jim Wanamaker
    Level 1 (16 points)
    iLife
    Jun 2, 2016 4:02 PM in response to Jim Wanamaker

    JIm,

     

    Yes I can see them. That's the thing. I can browse and share them. I see them on my phone, iCloud website and in my Photos App. They only don't appear in iMovie or Final Cut Pro import options.

     

    Here are my settings:

    Screen Shot 2016-06-03 at 00.00.24.png

    Screen Shot 2016-06-03 at 00.00.36.png

  • by Jim Wanamaker,Helpful

    Jim Wanamaker Jim Wanamaker Jun 4, 2016 3:29 AM in response to Alex_Reds
    Level 4 (3,940 points)
    iLife
    Jun 4, 2016 3:29 AM in response to Alex_Reds

    I see you have optimize Mac Storage selected. I believe that means you have only a lo res thumbnail in the photos library. Perhaps you need to download a full res version of the photos you want to use. This may be why you don't see them in iMovie or FCPX.

  • by Alex_Reds,

    Alex_Reds Alex_Reds Jun 4, 2016 3:10 AM in response to Jim Wanamaker
    Level 1 (16 points)
    iLife
    Jun 4, 2016 3:10 AM in response to Jim Wanamaker

    I had that idea in my head.. but I couldn't believe it works that way. I would imagine, once I selected an image in iMovie, original resolution would be downloaded. Exactly the same way as if you were accessing old photos. Once you clicked on them the loading circle appears in the right corner of the photo. And that;s fine since on our devices we have them as thumbnails only. Why we can't have the same thumbnails in iM and FCPX?

     

    First I assumed iMovie looks for photos in "My Photos Library.photoslibrary". Which when I browsed it, was consisting of only thumbnails. Nothing more. However it acts weird as well.. Right now it is just only about 300mbs, but night before, after I resynced Photos with iCloud, it was about 500mb then ended up at 900mb, and yet I couldn't see photos in iMovie.

    Also I made few photos with my iPhone the other day, came back home, opened iMovie and to my surprise a few my recent pics and movs were there. However already today it's empty again. Don't understand that. Where did they come from? And why they gone? And what were those old pics I mentioned in the my first post?

     

    Not sure if such behaviour is a bug or feature. But to me it looks more like a bug

  • by Alex_Reds,

    Alex_Reds Alex_Reds Jun 4, 2016 3:29 AM in response to Alex_Reds
    Level 1 (16 points)
    iLife
    Jun 4, 2016 3:29 AM in response to Alex_Reds

    Well I activated "Download Originals to this Mac". And I can see now my photos. But that's ***, cuz  now Ive got some other problems )

    Screen Shot 2016-06-04 at 11.20.50.png

     

     

    P.S.

    Anyhow, Jim, I'll mark you post as helpful. It's still not correct answer to me, since I havent got what I wanted, and Optimized feature doesn't work as expected.

  • by Jim Wanamaker,

    Jim Wanamaker Jim Wanamaker Jun 4, 2016 10:32 AM in response to Alex_Reds
    Level 4 (3,940 points)
    iLife
    Jun 4, 2016 10:32 AM in response to Alex_Reds

    I think at this point it would be advisable for you to post in the photos discussion where the folks most knowledgable on Photos app hang out. My knowledge of how the iCloud Photo Library works is very little as I do not use iCloud. Good Luck!

  • by Alex_Reds,

    Alex_Reds Alex_Reds Jun 4, 2016 10:37 AM in response to Jim Wanamaker
    Level 1 (16 points)
    iLife
    Jun 4, 2016 10:37 AM in response to Jim Wanamaker

    Thanks Jim!

     

    Although I think its more to do with the way iMovie and likes deal with iCloud based libraries.

  • by Alex_Reds,

    Alex_Reds Alex_Reds Jul 20, 2016 5:07 AM in response to Alex_Reds
    Level 1 (16 points)
    iLife
    Jul 20, 2016 5:07 AM in response to Alex_Reds

    Funnily enough just found out help article on apple site If Media Browser doesn't show your entire Photos library - Apple Support