iMovie crashes at launch, what to do?

Question

Dear Apple communityI need your help. Imovie keeps crashing when I try to launch it. I&#x27;m an experienced iMovie user and this has never happened to me before.I just updated my system to macOS High Sierra version 10.13.1 and this is the first time I use imovie after the update. I&#x27;m working on a project I started in the previous version of iMovie and macOS. It worked fine the first couple of hours, then suddenly it crashed and kept crashing when I tried to restart the program.I have tried shutting down all other applications and restarting the computer with no success.u help will be greatly appreciated. I have a deadline.

PhilipHP · Answer

Here is an extract of the crash report (Can&#x27;t fit it all in here)Process:               iMovie [2335]Path:                  /Applications/iMovie.app/Contents/MacOS/iMovieIdentifier:            com.apple.iMovieAppVersion:               10.1.8 (311956)Build Info:            iMovieX-31195006019000000~1App Item ID:           408981434App External ID:       824158953Code Type:             X86-64 (Native)Parent Process:        ??? [1]Responsible:           iMovie [2335]User ID:               501Date/Time:             2017-11-12 21:25:44.721 +0100OS Version:            Mac OS X 10.13.1 (17B48)Report Version:        12Bridge OS Version:     3.0 (14Y661)Anonymous UUID:        421A7090-25A9-160A-5AD6-B79868E57E81Time Awake Since Boot: 5700 secondsSystem Integrity Protection: enabledCrashed Thread:        39  Dispatch queue: com.apple.root.default-qosException Type:        EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT)Exception Codes:       0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000Exception Note:        EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFYApplication Specific Information:-[QCCGLRootContext minimalSharedContextForCurrentThread]: Inconsistent stateabort() calledApplication Specific Backtrace 1:0   CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff2df502fb __exceptionPreprocess + 1711   libobjc.A.dylib                     0x00007fff548bdc76 objc_exception_throw + 482   CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff2df50249 -[NSException raise] + 93   QuartzComposer                      0x00007fff389e8672 GFException + 2784   QuartzComposer                      0x00007fff389eb5b3 GFThrowException + 2925   QuartzComposer                      0x00007fff3899197f -[QCCGLContext minimalSharedContextForCurrentThread] + 2436   QuartzComposer                      0x00007fff3899155f -[QCOpenGLContext startRenderingPatch:options:] + 617   QuartzComposer                      0x00007fff389bfdb8 -[QCRenderer initWithRenderingContext:patch:] + 3748   QuartzComposer                      0x00007fff38a3644a -[QCRenderer initOffScreenWithPixelFormat:size:colorSpace:patch:] + 10789   QuartzComposer                      0x00007fff38a3685b -[QCRenderer initOffScreenWithSize:colorSpace:composition:] + 15510  Flexo                               0x000000010e9232f1 -[FFIMTrailerInfo newThumbnailOfSize:] + 136111  Flexo                               0x000000010e923477 -[FFIMTrailerInfo thumbnail] + 7112  Flexo                               0x000000010e923630 __50+[FFIMTrailerInfo preloadThumbnailsForTrailerIDs:]_block_invoke + 27213  libdispatch.dylib                   0x00007fff5547a6cd _dispatch_call_block_and_release + 1214  libdispatch.dylib                   0x00007fff55472e88 _dispatch_client_callout + 815  libdispatch.dylib                   0x00007fff5547fda5 _dispatch_queue_override_invoke + 88016  libdispatch.dylib                   0x00007fff55474a7a _dispatch_root_queue_drain + 51517  libdispatch.dylib                   0x00007fff55474826 _dispatch_worker_thread3 + 10118  libsystem_pthread.dylib             0x00007fff557361ca _pthread_wqthread + 138719  libsystem_pthread.dylib             0x00007fff55735c4d start_wqthread + 13

Luis Sequeira1 · Answer

It may be a corrupted plist file. I don’t use iMovie but following what is common in FCP X I’d try starting iMovie while holding down command and option (that is the standard way to clear preferences in FCP X).

PhilipHP · Answer

Thank you for the tip Luis. I must admit the issue some how resolved it self after, I gave the computer some rest and then just tried a regular launch again. Have no idea what happened, but glad I got to finish my video before deadline.