Exporting movies into iMovie

Question

Level 1

87 points

Exporting movies into iMovie

So, I have a hand held video recorder and took several videos, imported them from the camera SD card into Photos. I now want to tweek those videos using iMovie but:

1. I cannot find the videos in Finder

2. I cannot export the videos from Photos to my desktop - I get an error message saying it could not convert .AVI

3. I cannot drag and drop from Photos to iMovie

4. I cannot open the movies in any other player app like VLC or iTunes

What do I do?

MacBook Air (11-inch, Early 2014), OS X El Capitan (10.11.6)

Posted on Sep 28, 2017 12:28 PM

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Answer 1

Staynavytom Author

Level 1

87 points

Sep 29, 2017 1:25 PM in response to Rich839

None of these techniques work either. iMovie opens all of my photos and videos in my Photos library and only those videos created by my GoPro will export. Here is the screen shot of my attempt to drag and drop a .avi file to my desktop or to export it to my desktop.

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Answer 2

Rich839

Level 8

47,238 points

Sep 29, 2017 1:34 PM in response to Staynavytom

If the Photos app is the only place that you have the photos, in addition to what I have already said in my earlier post, you can buy an app called PowerPhotos for about $30.00 that I have read will reveal the finder locations of photos in the app. Check out Lèonie's post in this thread on the Photos for Mac forum:

Viewing Original File Names in Photos

-- Rich

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Answer 3

Rich839

Level 8

47,238 points

Sep 28, 2017 4:37 PM in response to Staynavytom

You can do as IdrisSeabright said.

Or, you can open iMovie and create a project. Then select the Photos library in the sidebar. When your clip displays in the Photos library browser, drag the clip into the project timeline. Then select it and do a File/Reveal in finder. A window should pop up with your clip highligted. Option-drag it to your desktop.

You can also open Photos and drag the video to your desktop, or do a File/Export to your desktop. From there you can drag it into iMovie if you want. You can't drag it directly from Photos into iMove, however. You must go to your desktop first.

-- Rich

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Answer 4

Staynavytom Author

Level 1

87 points

Sep 29, 2017 1:48 PM in response to IdrisSeabright

I may have found my solution in Handbrake. I tried it again and this time when searching for my video files in the open files window, I found a button called options. When I clicked it, my video names showed up and I chose one to change to .mov format and save to my desktop. I then could import into iMovie as a .mov file and it seems to work. Also could open with VLC and other video apps. Thanks to Rich889 for the refresher idea on using Handbrake.

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Answer 5

Sep 28, 2017 1:05 PM in response to Staynavytom

What format are the files in?

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Answer 6

Rich839

Level 8

47,238 points

Sep 28, 2017 2:28 PM in response to Staynavytom

Hi,

.AVI is a bucket that could contain almost any format. You can use VLC or the free download, Handbrake, to convert to Mp4/AAC, that will then import into iMovie.

-- Rich

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Answer 7

Staynavytom Author

Level 1

87 points

Sep 28, 2017 2:40 PM in response to Rich839

I have Handbrake but I cannot find my videos in Finder. Where are they located?

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Answer 8

Sep 28, 2017 4:14 PM in response to Staynavytom

You said that you'd imported the videos into Photos. You can export them to another format by selecting the movie in Photos then selecting File>Export.

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Answer 9

Staynavytom Author

Level 1

87 points

Sep 29, 2017 1:14 PM in response to IdrisSeabright

This is exactly my problem. File export will not export the .avi file.

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Answer 10

Sep 29, 2017 1:28 PM in response to Staynavytom

Can you view the movies in Photos?

If you still have the files on the camera, I'd start over and import them using Image Capture rather than Photos. Then you should be able to access them using VLC.

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