Clips "going black" when attempting to share to a file

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Clips "going black" when attempting to share to a file

I've noticed that when I recently added movie clips from my iPhone to a project in iMovie, the "break" the project when I try to share to a file.

I get an error message after a while when creating a file, and I've noted that, consistently, the file terminates before an iPhone video in the sequence. When I go back into iMovie, the clip "goes black" and can't be played (audio or video). Taking out the clip allows the project to be rendered to a video file... until it reaches another iPhone video....

I added them to the timeline in iMovie from within the app, so I'm not sure why they're breaking.

Anybody else having this issue?

iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Mar 28, 2021 1:06 PM

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Answer 1

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Rich839

Level 8

47,610 points

Mar 29, 2021 11:31 AM in response to ric360

Create a new iMovie project and put one troublesome iPhone video into it as the sole clip in the project. See if you can share it out. If you can share it successfully then likely the issue with the other project is confined to just that one project.

If you still cannot share out, then try deleting preferences. Open iMovie while holding down the Option and Command keys and select 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. Deleting preferences is a safe procedure that will not cause data loss or disruption to your project.

-- Rich

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Answer 2

ric360 Author

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Apr 4, 2021 10:11 AM in response to Rich839

I appreciate the response, Rich.

I wasn't able to share out as the sole clip in a project.

Then, after deleting preferences using the method you described above, I was able to get back to my old projects. Unfortunately, now all iPhone videos in Photos aren't available in the iMovie library, only pictures. I tried dragging and dropping directly from Photos, but it just ends up pulling over only a screenshot.

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Answer 3

Rich839

Level 8

47,610 points

Apr 4, 2021 10:19 AM in response to ric360

What format are the videos that are going black? Do you have any photos and videos stored in the cloud, through iCloud Photos? If so, do you have Optimized Storage enabled? What iMovie version are you running?

Deleting preferences only restores iMovie to its default preferences.

-- Rich

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Answer 4

ric360 Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 25, 2021 8:14 AM in response to Rich839

Hi, Rich, sorry for the delay.

I'm running i Movie 10.2.3, and it seems this issue started with the last update. I haven't had this issue until a couple months ago.

The videos are all .MOV and they're stored locally on a hard drive and not in the cloud.

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Clips "going black" when attempting to share to a file

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