imovie: Ken Burns and Crop not working

Try deleting/resetting preferences and see if that cures it. To delete/reset preferences open iMovie while holding down the Option and Command keys and select to delete preferences in the box that appears. iMovie usually will open in a new empty library. If so, 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

Anyone come up with a fix on this?

I upgraded to a new MacBook Air M3 (running Sonoma 14.5) and whenever I try and use the Ken Burns effect in any of my projects, the grab handles appear but the application virtually freezes.... I checked the Disk Activity application and it shows CPU usage for iMovie hitting 100%.

My project and files are on an external drive. When I use the same project on either my Mac Mini M1 or MacBook Pro M1 I have no issues.

Anyone who has solved this problem and can advice would be greatly appreciated.

Try opening iMovie in a new library and see if the Ken Burns feature works properly there.

If still no luck, try these procedures:

Resetting the System Management Controller:

Try resetting the System Management

Controller (but no longer available for the new M1 computers):

Reset the SMC of your Mac - Apple Support

Resetting the NVRAM or PRAM:

Try resetting the NVRAM or PRAM.

:

Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

-- Rich

I'm having the same problem with an M1 MacBook Pro. iMovie hangs and CPU goes to 100%, usually when attempting to use the Ken Burns feature.

Shut down your computer. Restart. Open iMovie and create a new project. Now see if the Ken Burns feature works properly.

-- Rich