Aspect Ratio defaulted to vertical instead of horizontal - help!

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Level 1

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Aspect Ratio defaulted to vertical instead of horizontal - help!

Hi,

I created a montage movie of videos and pictures. I created it the same way I’ve always done. However someone it is defaulted to crop all my videos and pictures to vertical orientation? My version is 10.3.5 and everything I’m reading is that it should always default to horizontal and that you can’t even change to vertical if you want to. So what happened? I spent hours putting in video clips and pictures and can’t find anyway to normalize the aspect ratio. Can anyone help or explain this? I think I have to start my project all over. The only thing I noticed now the very first picture I dragged into my video was a vertical picture. Did this auto select my aspect ratio to vertical? Crazy that there is no way to change it!

Posted on Jan 21, 2023 8:42 PM

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Answer 1

Sandra2279 Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 22, 2023 11:08 AM in response to Rich839

Well, I figured it out, but not sure why they have it set that way. I redid the whole thing last night and the first thing I put into the movie was a horizontal picture from my I phone. Now aspect ratio of that new project is horizontal but still it 16:9 more like 6:4. I just started over a third time and made sure the first thing I put in the project was a horizontal video clip. Now the aspect ratio is normal. It’s like the ratio defaults to whatever the first thing you put in. Old versions never did that to me. I think apple messed up this version.

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Answer 2

Rich839

Level 8

48,156 points

Jan 22, 2023 8:49 AM in response to Sandra2279

Hi, Sandra,

You are correct that the 16:9 aspect ratio of iMovie cannot be changes. An imported vertical clip will display with black bars on each side to make it fit the 16:9 screen dimensions. So what you are describing should not be happening. To cover the bases, are you certain that the clips displaying as vertical were not actually recorded in vertical orientation?

Click on iMovie/Preferences in the main iMovie menu and make sure that your Photo Placement option is set for "Fit". Then create a new project and see if your clips import at the correct aspect ratio.

If the problem persists, try deleting preferences, as this looks like the type of issue that deleting preferences might cure. 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. Possibly you may need to reboot to set the changes. Deleting preferences is a safe procedure that will not cause data loss or disruption to your project.

-- Rich

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Answer 3

Sandra2279 Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 22, 2023 10:54 AM in response to Sandra2279

Thanks for your response. I know it “shouldn’t” have happened but it did. I ended up starting over and staying up late and reimporting everything into a new project. The first thing I imported into the faulty project was a normal photo, same as the thousands of others I’ve done. It happened to be a vertical photo. It must have been a weird glitch. Just so strange because I saw so many posts of people wanting to do that so their videos and mine did it automatically - when I didn’t want it to!

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Answer 4

Rich839

Level 8

48,156 points

Jan 22, 2023 11:30 AM in response to Sandra2279

Interesting. Can’t tell whether it’s a bug or something specfic to your set up. You are the first that I am aware of to report it on this forum. Did you try deleting preferences?

Anyway, glad you got it working.

BTW, after you set it for horizontal how are the actual vertical clips displayed? Do they have back bars on each side?

— Rich

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Answer 5

Sandra2279 Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 22, 2023 3:04 PM in response to Rich839

I didn’t delete my preferences since I figured out how to get it to work (just had to start over again and make a third video of the same thing). I’m hoping the issue goes away with updates or that I remember to drop in a video as my first clip (rather than a photo) the next time I use it.

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Aspect Ratio defaulted to vertical instead of horizontal - help!

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