Some of my background clips are missing when I re-loaded a project on the Timeline.

Question

Level 1

8 points

Some of my background clips are missing when I re-loaded a project on the Timeline.

Some of my background audio clips are missing when I reloaded my project on the Timeline after quitting iMovie. It usually happened when I tried to quit iMovie and this message appeared:

"Cancel background tasks"

Sometimes it's also preceded by this message:

"Imovie.library is damaged" and it suggests repair to be done.

A missing music clip still plays normal but it's not visible on the Timeline.

I also constantly get this loading blue-green-yellow spinning ball appearing when I click to do something at the Timeline. It's a real time-wasting nuisance! Is it because my computer hasn't enough space? I have only about 50 G.

My questions:

1) How do I get back a missing audio clip that's playing normal at the Timeline? I need it for editing.

2) Why do I get "Cancel background tasks" message? Does it mean my work will be deleted?

3) Why is iMovie.library damaged? How to prevent it?

4) How to prevent this constant, annoying spinning colorful ball interrupting?

iMovie '11, Mac OS X (10.7.5), null

Posted on Dec 10, 2017 11:46 AM

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Answer 1

Rich839

Level 8

47,226 points

Dec 10, 2017 12:01 PM in response to kiatmin1

iMovie libraries sometimes inexplicably become damaged. Often impossible to determine what caused it. Same with the spinning beach ball.

Try repairing the library and then opening iMovie while pressing the Option and Command keys, and then deleting preferences in the box that appears.

For the beach ball, Make sure that you have sufficient free space on your boot drive, at least 20GB, so that iMovie has room to work. Shut down other process intensive programs while iMovie is running.

Canceling background tasks does not delete your work.

When transferring all your media from one project to another, do an Edit/Select All, Edit/Copy, and then Edit/Paste the media into your new project. If you just manually select clips you can inadvertently miss some, and these will not be carried over. Your missing clip should still be located back in your original project, from where it can be selected, copied, and pasted into your new project.

-- Rich

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Answer 2

kiatmin1 Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 19, 2017 6:46 AM in response to Rich839

Thanks, Rich, for always being there when I need help!

What I wanted to know most was whether "Cancelling background tasks" from they system meant my work would be deleted. You say it's not so I am happy. This very often happens when I want to quit iMovie. As originally i feared that quitting might delete my work, I didn't dare quit. And missing clips in Timeline, I forgot to tell you, come back when I quit and get in gain. I was afraid to quit so I asked if there's another way to get back missing clips. Your info has given me the assurance to quit to get back missing clips as I don't fear system cancelling or deleting my work. Thanks!

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Answer 3

Rich839

Level 8

47,226 points

Dec 10, 2017 12:15 PM in response to Rich839

Oops. Sorry. I re-read your post and realize that you were not transferring media from one project to another. So you can ignore the last paragraph of my previous post.

-- Rich

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Answer 4

Rich839

Level 8

47,226 points

Dec 19, 2017 7:22 AM in response to kiatmin1

Happy that I was able to help.

Cheers,

Rich

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