Share fail with iMovie 10.1.9 on High Sierra

If the files are 4k 60p, that might cause problems, as iMovie only works with 4k 30p. You can try exporting at a lower resolution and see if that works.

Also, if the files came from iPhone 7 or later, they may be in HEVC format that sometimes causes problems. If that's the case, you can change your video export settings format on your iPhone to "most compatible".

Have you tried opening iMovie while holding down the Option and Command keys and selecting to delete preferences from the box that appears? If not, try it and see if that helps.

Another thing you can try is to open iMovie in a new library, copy one of your problematic projects into the new library, and see if you can share from there. You can open in a new library by holding down the Option key as you launch iMovie, and selecting New in the box that appears.

The latest version of High Sierra is 10.13.4, so you might try updating to that if you haven't already.

-- Rich

Hmmmm. Sometimes issues do arise with updates. You should be able to restore iMovie 10.1.8 from your Time Machine backup. Or perhaps copy it over from your laptop to your desktop.

If you are importing your clips directly into iMovie, try instead importing to your desktop using the Image Capture app on your Mac. Then drag the vid into iMovie and see if you can export. If you still can't export, use the free download, Handbrake, to convert the vid to Mp4/AAC and drag the converted clip into iMovie to share out. Do the conversion even is the clip is already Mp4/AAC.

-- Rich

To: USSwamp and FredCG:

Other than my previous posts above, I don't have much more to add.

Some other things you can try:

Copy and paste your project into a newly created project and see if you can share out from there.

Try trimming off the first 4 seconds of the first clip and see if the project then shares out. (Unintuitive, I know, but it works in some cases.)

Slowly scroll through your project and see if there are any signs of corruption, such as white flashes, flickers, black frames, artifacts, and trim those out before sharing.

Make sure that you have sufficient destination space for the shared out movie, and sufficient space ()20-25GB) for iMovie to operate efficiently.

-- Rich

Just to keep this going, I too have this problem. The issue seems to come from adding any audio files to your movie. The only way to get iMovie to share is to use the ProRes setting and then the file is too large on the disk and is completely unsharable or don't have any added music or sound. I was on the phone with AppleCare for 2 hours and they acted surprised I was having this problem. They did all of the steps mentioned above and then they wanted to delete and re-install the Mac OS. I said no to that option, as I have the luxury of having multiple Mac machines available to me at work and wanted to try it on them first. All the machines are up to date and running the same program versions. I added a few random photos and dropped in an audio file (even the system default sounds) and had the same error on every machine. Come on Apple, Don't act surprised. This is more than an isolated issue!

Hi,

Take a look at this thread and see if the solution proposed in there works for you.

Movie export results in "Share Failed" and "Error: this is null!"

Yes, iMovie will not launch from Safe Mode. With a Safe Boot, you open in Safe Mode and, when the loading is finished, you immediately close out of it and reboot in normal mode. Then you open iMovie.

-- Rich

iMovie 10.1.9 would not share movie so I ejected the portable hard drive that contained the iMovie Library from my Mac Mini 2012. I then plug the external hard drive into my Mac Book Pro (2012) after I upgraded its iMovie to 10.1.9 and I was able to share the movie.

I was on the phone with Apple support for over an hour about this. I was moved up the support chain from chat support, to phone support and then even to a higher level of support.

The last person I spoke to said he was on a call with someone with a very similar issue, and though it has not yet been resolved, he said that it has been passed on to the software engineers. He captured data from my Mac and passed that on.

He said there are three possibilities when they get back to me. They might have more questions, they may have a solution or it might actually require a software update. The last one struck me that it is at that level, which at least lets me know that it is not just my Mac.

I will update here after Apple gets back to me, which should be in the next day or so.

Hoping to show the breadth of the issue, I am having the same problem with video clips from my JVC Enverio. 1080 format. iMovie 10.1.9 Imports the clip into events but fails when I try to move the clips into the movie stream. This does not happen with 1080 clips from my Fijifilm camera. Fuji clips work fine on 10.1.9 at 1080. iMovie 10.1.8 worked without issues. This problem arose immediately when 10.1.9 was installed. I believe High Sierra was also updated at about the same time. Now using High Sierra 10.13.4. I hope someone has a solution.

I am having this same issue and have tried almost all the suggested solutions.

I have started iMovie with the option/command keys to delete preferences.

I have tried rebooting in safe mode and then rebooting again.

I have tried moving the compressor folder from inside the iMovie application and then moving it back again.

I tried reverting to the previous version if iMovie, but then I cannot open the library because it has now been updated to the new library for 10.1.9.

I tired creating the new library and then moving the project I need to export over to there and then share a movie, and that still did not work.

I am updated to the latest MacOS (10.13.4).

So, I am completely frustrated and at a loss as what to do.

Any help would be appreciated.

I am having the same issue on my MacBook Air (2015) on 10.13.5. Completely up to date. "Can't Encode" failure type.

My movie was imported as two clips from a Canon video camera.

I added no extra sound/audio. I just added a title and a transition in between clips and at the end.

I hate to say it but at least iMovie 9.0.4 was still reliable.

I will try to remove the transitions and see if that helps....

Please keep me posted as to your results.

Hi Fred. Did Apple get back to you with a potential solution?

Hi

This workaround worked for me too! Clearly a problem introduced by the iMovie 10.1.9 update by all the comments in this thread. Let's hope a correction/fix arrives soon!