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imovie Error: RenderFrameAt returned: 4 for absolute frame: 9666

Hi,

I've used iMovie to put music on a silent movie made by my grandfather. But when I try to export the file, it stops near the end of the process and fails because of an " Error: RenderFrameAt returned: 4 for absolute frame: 9666".

I work on a MacBook Air of mid-2012 and have a Catalina Os, 10.15.7 version.

I downloaded iMovie just yesterday so it's the latest version : 10.2.2

Does anyone know how to fix this?

Thanks a lot

Fleur

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Dec 22, 2020 5:49 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 22, 2020 6:56 AM

Probably a problem with the media at that point in the movie.

Unfortunately, AFAICT, you cannot display the time in frames over your timeline - nor can we see what fps are being used, but assuming (for lack of better information) 30fps, the problem should be around 5 minutes and 22 seconds.


Try copying everything up to about 5 minutes, and paste that into a new project.

Does that project export?


7 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 22, 2020 6:56 AM in response to fleur117

Probably a problem with the media at that point in the movie.

Unfortunately, AFAICT, you cannot display the time in frames over your timeline - nor can we see what fps are being used, but assuming (for lack of better information) 30fps, the problem should be around 5 minutes and 22 seconds.


Try copying everything up to about 5 minutes, and paste that into a new project.

Does that project export?


Dec 22, 2020 8:01 AM in response to fleur117

Hi, fleur117,


The error message is telling you that there is corruption in your project at or around frame 9666. Most likely it is a black frame. So you need to scroll to frame 9666 and scroll around that area and look for signs of corruption, like black frames, white flashes, artifacts. Cut out any that you find and try to re-share. Best to work with a duplicate of your project so as to preserve your original.


Here is a link to a time to frame converter so you can precisely locate the corrupt frame 9666:


https://www.zapstudio.net/framecalc/


You will need the frame rate of your project to enter into the converter in order for it to make the calculation. Then you enter the frame number of 9666. The frame rate of your project will be the frame rate of the very first video clip (not photo) that you placed into the newly created project. The converter will give you the time point in the timeline at which frame 9666 is located. That's the area that you want to scroll around to see if you can find any black frames or other corruption that you can remove.


A trick for determining the frame rate of a project is to expand your time line out with the slider located above and to the right of the timeline. Then place your cursor on a clip in the timeline and, while pressing down the "r" key, drag your cursor along the clip. A yellow box and a frame counter will appear that displays the frames as you drag along. If, for example, it is a 30 frame per second project when the counter reaches 00:29 that will mean 29 frames.



On the next tick on the 30th frame it will turn to 01:00, meaning 1 second and zero frames, and thus a 30 frame per second project.



-- Rich



imovie Error: RenderFrameAt returned: 4 for absolute frame: 9666

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