iMovie producing Pink and Green screen

I have a Late 2011 MacBook Pro running 2.8 Ghz Intel Core i7, 8Gb 1333 mhm DDR3 memory, Intel HD Graphics 3000 512 MB and 1TB SSHD. I'm trying to make a movie in iMovie using some video and stills from a high quality DSLR. I'm having an issue during preview and also with my final render where most of my photos are displaying pink or green backgrounds or lines instead of my photos. At first i was having an issue with the transitions so i would change those and it would help in preview, ive tried importing different pics, i've tried duplicating the project and rendering the duplicate, i've tried exporting it as a file and exporting it to youtube but nothing is working.. This is my first real test of iMovie and im very disappointed. I'm running the latest iMovie 10.1.9 and Mac OS High Sierra 10.13.4. My computer is older but it was a beast in its day and there is no reason it shouldn't be able to do this simple task. It takes hours to render a final product only to have it be glitchy... My video doesn't have the issue, its just the still pics. Does anyone have a fix for this software glitch?

MacBook Pro, macOS High Sierra (10.13.4), iMovie 10.1.9

Posted on Jul 2, 2018 2:58 AM

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Posted on Jul 2, 2018 7:24 AM

Hi, Tony,


The first thing to try is opening iMovie while holding down the Option and Command keys, and selecting to delete preferences in the box that appears. iMovie will open in a new library. Reopen your old library to get back to your projects. Then see if your photos display properly.


If that doesn't solve it, check to see whether the issue might be confined to just the current project. Instead of duplicating the project, do an Edit/Select All, Edit/Copy, of the media in the project and then Edit/Paste the media into a newly created project.


If still no luck, a procedure that has solved this type of issue for others has been to reduce the resolution of the photos. To do that, place the photo on your desktop and open it in the Preview app on your Mac. (It will do that by default when you click on the photo.) In the Preview menu select Tools/Adjust Size and in the box that appears reduce the long resolution number to a number less than 4000 -- go lower if you need to. So if, say, your photo is 4200 x 2000 lower the 4200 number to 3000 or whatever, and save the photo. Drag the adjusted photo into iMovie and see if it displays properly.


Also, iMovie likes the jpeg format, so check the format of your photos and change to jpeg if the format is something else, even if the photo already is jpeg. TIFF and png formats also will work.


You can try opening iMovie in a new library, and copy your project to that library, and see if that makes any difference.

You do that by opening iMovie while holding down the Option key and selecting to create a new library in the box that appears. iMovie will open in the new library.


All else failing you could try a reinstall of iMovie by moving the iMovie app icon from the Applications folder into the trash, but don't empty the trash. Then reinstall iMovie from the online app store. Don't touch the iMovie library itself, because if you delete the iMovie library you will lose your projects.


-- Rich

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 2, 2018 7:24 AM in response to tony2you

Hi, Tony,


The first thing to try is opening iMovie while holding down the Option and Command keys, and selecting to delete preferences in the box that appears. iMovie will open in a new library. Reopen your old library to get back to your projects. Then see if your photos display properly.


If that doesn't solve it, check to see whether the issue might be confined to just the current project. Instead of duplicating the project, do an Edit/Select All, Edit/Copy, of the media in the project and then Edit/Paste the media into a newly created project.


If still no luck, a procedure that has solved this type of issue for others has been to reduce the resolution of the photos. To do that, place the photo on your desktop and open it in the Preview app on your Mac. (It will do that by default when you click on the photo.) In the Preview menu select Tools/Adjust Size and in the box that appears reduce the long resolution number to a number less than 4000 -- go lower if you need to. So if, say, your photo is 4200 x 2000 lower the 4200 number to 3000 or whatever, and save the photo. Drag the adjusted photo into iMovie and see if it displays properly.


Also, iMovie likes the jpeg format, so check the format of your photos and change to jpeg if the format is something else, even if the photo already is jpeg. TIFF and png formats also will work.


You can try opening iMovie in a new library, and copy your project to that library, and see if that makes any difference.

You do that by opening iMovie while holding down the Option key and selecting to create a new library in the box that appears. iMovie will open in the new library.


All else failing you could try a reinstall of iMovie by moving the iMovie app icon from the Applications folder into the trash, but don't empty the trash. Then reinstall iMovie from the online app store. Don't touch the iMovie library itself, because if you delete the iMovie library you will lose your projects.


-- Rich

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iMovie producing Pink and Green screen

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