imovie not recognizing camcorder

Hi,

Camera recognition issues can be caused by a number of things, such a a bad cable connection, bad socket, faulty import procedures, unsupported camera and so on. iMovie supports most tape based DV cameras, however.

The first thing to try is to open 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. Now see if iMovie will recognize your camera.

If still no luck, try plugging into a new socket and/or replacing your connecting cable.

Try importing into the Photos app on your Mac. Try importing to a folder on your desktop, using the Image Capture app on your Mac.

Confirm that you are using the proper import procedures and cables. Here are a couple of links that discuss those issues:

https://help.apple.com/imovie/mac/10.1/#/mov6af9c94c1

EDIT: Here's the second link:

https://help.apple.com/imovie/mac/10.1/#/mov50a336efa

-- Rich

Another thought.

The camcorder must be connected to your Mac via the FireWire port of the camcorder( with appropriate thunderbolt adaptors if required.)

USB cables will not work.

Over the last 12 months there have been a number of posts regarding problems importing from mini DV tape and most of these appear to be with Canon camcorders.Not totally sure but seems to have been associated with the arrival of Sierra /High Sierra and later.

In the link below is another link to a version of iMovie 6. See reply from Rich in the link.

You may well find that this can be used to import your DV tape.

If so you can then import the files into your current iMovie version or continue with iMovie 6 if it works OK.

Worth a try at least!

How to import iMovie HD 6 and earlier iMovies into iMovie 10

Have a look at this link to see if any of it helps.

No Audio When Importing Mini DV Footage (iMovie, FCPX, QuickTime)

It would appear that importing using QuickTime Player with tape running (playing) before the record button is hit does work.

How to use QuickTime Player - Apple Support

You will see that I have not been able to establish through that post weather or not the fix will work for importing into iMovie as well.You may want to try this yourself.

If the fix only works for you in QuickTime Player then you will need to import the file into iMovie.

QuickTime Player imports DV tape in one long clip, not individual clips that iMovie imports which coincide with the start /stop positions of camcorder recording.

This is the cable you need to connect your camcorder to your Mac

It is known as a 4 pin FireWire 400 to 9 pin FireWire 800 cable.

The small end 4 pin FirewIre 400(left) goes into the DV out of the camcorder and the bigger end (right ) goes into you Mac which is this port, 9 pin FireWIRE 800

Fortunately these cable are not expensive and can be found on eBay or Amazon.

On these sites search for "4 pin FireWire 400 to 9 pin FireWire 800 cable"

A USB to Thunderbolt adaptor will not work and would anyway cost an arm and a leg.

When you have the correct cable try it with both versions of iMovie.

Have just had reply to above link that "fix" works with iMovie as well.

So ,just to recap, set tape to play before hitting import button.

Hope this works for you.

Perhaps thesurreyfriends will have some thoughts. My final thought is as follows:

Transferring old technology can sometimes be problematic, as you have found. I suggest that, with all the trouble, time, and frustration involved with this, that you get a professional service to transfer your tapes. That way you can expend your energy on creativity rather than technical issues. You might want to take a look at this link:

How to convert miniDV from camcorder directly to an external drive so that I can later take parts to use in imovie

-- Rich

You say you tried the method in iMovie.Was this just iMovie 10 or did you try iMovie 6 as well?

If you haven't tried iMovie 6 since you bought your new cables then I would certainly give it a go.

I don't know how functional iMovie 6 is with High Sierra, but would think that it may well import your tape.

If it does import correctly then you can import this into iMovie 10.

Get back and let us know if you can or cannot import OK with iMovie 6.