Can't import AVCHD to iMovie after High Sierra update

Thanks for the tip Luis, I uninstalled Perian and now can import the videos directly from the camcorder to iMovie just fine, after a lot of frustrating attempts and going through the file conversions. I should have tired this first, thank you!

Well, for those of you who were still struggling with this problem in spite of never having installed (or needing to uninstall) Perian, here is the workaround I've found:

Connect your camera directly to the computer. Using QuickTime, open the AVCHD file from inside the "PRIVATE" folder on the camera's disk image. This will load a list of clips on the camera. Select the ones you want to import, and click okay. Then you'll need to save them all to your computer individually in their new .mov format, being sure to name them (otherwise they'll all just be called "AVCHD.mov"). For some reason QuickTime is able to read and convert these files without corruption in a way that iMovie and FinalCut cannot.

Then finally, you can import the clips from the saved location into iMovie or FinalCut for editing.

Note: This method will not properly bring in the time stamps from the camera. Every clip will be time-stamped at the time that you saved it to your computer. So be sure to save them in the same chronological order you shot them.

I view this as an inelegant and imperfect hack, not a real solution, but at least my $900 camera isn't a paperweight anymore. I hope Apple can resolve this issue more completely and remove the need for working outside of iMovie.

Do you by any chance have Perian installed? Perian was useful back in the day but it was discontinued long ago and now in HS it causes conflicts. There are a few threads onthe FCP X forum where uninstalling Perian solved similar issues to those described here.

Same here:

1. First no import possible directly from HG20 (via USB directly from hard drive of recorder)
2. Manually extracted .mts files and imported into iMovie but then no sound.
3. Deactivated Perian and voila: all fine again (including time stamps!).

Greets.

swisslad wrote:

I posted this problem last October with some interesting further replies (including contact from Apple)

imovie 10.1.7 wont import avchd files

Still no solution. Perhaps in imminent 10.13.3?!

iMovie can import AVCHD just fine for most users.

It was determined that for at least some if not all of those affected the problem was due to old Quicktime plugins lying around, specifically Perian and the A52 codec.

Did you look for them and uninstalled?

Did you try doing a clean install on a separate drive or partition? If that works, it will confirm that the problem lies in your current installation.

Most likely if you just hope for a fix in a coming update you will be disappointed.

i had the same issue, even down to wondershare being buggy and useless (got refunded thankfully). I REMOVED PERIAN, and instant fix. osx high sierra, new imac, jvc everio camera.

5. Now what is wrong with imovie/High Sierra and with the Apple Team ?

You should ask what is wrong with your system.

iMovie, FCP X, etc work fine with AVCHD, and the "no audio in AVCHD" problem has been clarified time and again - you almost certainly have Perian and/or the A52, probably from a long time ago.

Unistall those things, restart your mac and use AVCHD as you did before.

This was the fix for me. I removed the Perian, but that didn't do it, this file was still located in the audio/plug-ins/components folder and once removed and rebooting, it worked. Spent 3 hours looking for this fix. THANK YOU!

You are amazing!!!! I am doing a huge project and about had a nervous breakdown when none of my videos would play or import. Who would have thought the simple fix would be unchecking the box for Perian!?!? Worked for me! Thank you thank you thank you!!

Same stuff here. Removing Perian made importing work, but time stamps are wrong. Had to change them manually.

The reason why users are now unable to import AVCHD files from camcorders (who used to work properly for years with iMovie) is that High Sierra has introduced stricter security protocols. Apple have not yet published final APSF format documentation for developers (in my case Sony) to update their software in order to make it work with High Sierra. Sony customer care told me that they are waiting for OSX Sierra to fix the issue so that they can change software on their end. This issue is also affecting the latest Sony camcorders models.

Thank you Luis. On Mac OS High Sierra (10.13.1) I had the same issues: iMovie (10.1.8) did not manage to import AVCHD movies from my Sony camera anymore, although this worked correctly on previous Mac OS version (Sierra). With Mac OS High Sierra, the video import was stuck before finishing, or it completed only partially ("camera" icon shown on the video in iMovie with text "The media for this clip is still on the camera"). Also in all cases iMovie was not able to read the sound of the video.

Finally, deactivating Perian (version 1.2.3) on my Mac solved these issues with Mac OS High Sierra: System Preferences > Perian > click on "Remove Perian". Then close and restart iMovie.

steelbar wrote:

According to the apple tech I talked to, Quicktime is what is used to convert the AVCHD for iMovie and it no longer supports that format. His response was to convert it in one of the free programs before putting it into iMovie

AAArg!

Bruce

That tech, whoever he/she is, is wrong.

AVCHD is supported - it would be silly to drop it, while there are millions of users recording in this format.

As you can see in this thread, and other similar threads on this forum, for many of the affected users it came down to Perian, a rather old Quicktime plugin, which was abandoned years ago. That is not to say you couldn't have a different problem, but the information you conveyed above is simply false.

AVCHD media (including the .MTS files contained in there) use AC3 audio tracks.

Check if you have an older A52Codec.component installed in /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components. Remove it as AC3/A52 codecs are build-in to macOS nowadays. After rebooting, AVCHD import should work fine again.

The third party software Perian installes this incompatible version of an AC3 codec in the components folder, so uninstalling these might have the same effect.