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New to iMovie. Photos/albums are not showing up. Fix?

IMPORTANT: Boilerplate answers do not work. I don't use the cloud, rural location with unreliable connections, so all data is stored on external drive.


I am trying to make a template in iMovie to do a series of self-care videos for my practice. Have never used this program. On a MacBook Pro on High Sierra.


I open iMovie and go to media. Only a small portion of the Photos files are showing up. Recent imports aren't available, and I can't find any way to locate my pix. I would appreciate some guidance, or direction to links that address this BUT DON'T ASSUME CLOUD STORAGE IS AVAILABLE.


Thank you.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch,Early 2015), macOS High Sierra (10.13.2), No iCloud, external drive 4 storage

Posted on Jan 20, 2018 3:23 PM

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Posted on Jan 21, 2018 10:07 AM

Are you updated to current version of iMovie (10.1.8)? If not, do the update.


What format are your unrecognized photos in? Put one on your desktop and do a control-click on it, then click on Get Info.


Drag a photo from the Photos app to your desktop. Then drag it from there into iMovie. Does it import in? If so, that may be your work around.


Re your procedure, are you doing My Media/Photos Library/Years and then clicking on the applicable year to display your photo? If not, try that.


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Jan 21, 2018 10:07 AM in response to BarakaBY

Are you updated to current version of iMovie (10.1.8)? If not, do the update.


What format are your unrecognized photos in? Put one on your desktop and do a control-click on it, then click on Get Info.


Drag a photo from the Photos app to your desktop. Then drag it from there into iMovie. Does it import in? If so, that may be your work around.


Re your procedure, are you doing My Media/Photos Library/Years and then clicking on the applicable year to display your photo? If not, try that.


User uploaded file

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Jan 20, 2018 5:28 PM in response to BarakaBY

Your Photos library probably is already designated as your system library because iMovie is reading it.

However, open Photos and click on Photos/Preferences. In the box that appears, click on the box that says "use as system photo library".


User uploaded file


If it's grayed out, like in the above example, then it is already your systems library.


Try opening iMovie while holding down the Option and Command keys and then selecting to delete preferences in the box that appears. Sometimes that cures glitches.


-- Rich

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Jan 21, 2018 8:52 AM in response to Rich839

You might also try doing the procedure described in this link even if you are not using iCloud:


If Media Browser doesn't show your entire Photos library - Apple Support


Also, in the finder, go to Apple/System Preferences/iCloud and make sure that you are not inadvertently signed in to iCloud. As you probably know, photos in iCloud will not show up in the Photos Library accessed from the iMovie "My Media" sidebar.


-- Rich

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Jan 20, 2018 4:25 PM in response to BarakaBY

Is your external drive formatted MAC OS extended (journaled) that is required to store your Photos app library? Are you saying that some of your photos imported into the Photos app aren't being displayed when you click on the Photos Library item in the side bar from within iMovie? After going to My Media in iMovie, what did you do next?


The Photos app library needs to be designated as your system library before iMovie will read it. Even then, the only albums that will display are the Photos app system albums, not the ones you have created.


Do your pics display when you open the Photos app library from within the Photos app? If so, then that would be where to locate them.


-- Rich

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Jan 20, 2018 5:13 PM in response to Rich839

Yes, the external drive is formatted as above. Not all photos that show in the Photos app are showing when I click on Photos Library in iMovie.


Went to My Media in iMovie, clicked on Photo Library and selected My Albums, and only some of the pix in the Album I need for this show up. The missing ones show up in Photos app as recent imports, and I've tried to move them to the proper Album without success.


How do I designate the Photos Library as the system library? I think that's above my pay grade...

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Jan 20, 2018 6:38 PM in response to Rich839

Yes, it's greyed out. I tried deleting preferences and re-opening iMovie and the photos are still not showing up. The recent imports are not showing up though I've moved them into the proper album in Photos and closed that app before reopening iMovie.

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Jan 21, 2018 10:08 AM in response to Rich839

Current version of iMovie. The photo was a pdf so I changed it to jpg and it imported from the desktop. I can deal with that workaround. When I try using "years" rather than albums, the photo wasn't showing, but that was probably the pdf issue - my fault.


I'm trying to use the iMovie Help panel but, like most apple help, without a lexicon to identify what apple calls the process or tool I'm trying to figure out, it's not very helpful. I miss the days of hard-copy manuals because browsing for what I needed was so much easier. I have some residual brain injury from TBI and I can't track online help very well.


As to the iCloud issue, the only things that use iCloud on my devices are contacts and calendars, so I don't think that has an effect on this.


Thanks so much for your help, I really appreciate your persistence in getting me through this!

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New to iMovie. Photos/albums are not showing up. Fix?

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