Marking clips that have been used while building an iMovie project

Question

Marking clips that have been used while building an iMovie project

According to iMovie help, after a clip is selected and placed in the timeline, the clip should have an orange stripe across the bottom in the gallery. I remember this happening years ago when I first used iMovie, but I have not seen the orange stripe while creating my last several projects. I was with a friend today helping her to learn iMovie, and she did not get the orange stripe on her computer either. How can I get this feature back? It is helpful.

MacBook Air (M3, 2024)

Posted on Jul 25, 2025 1:02 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Rich839

Level 8

48,156 points

Jul 25, 2025 6:17 PM in response to angelafromnewburyport

Hi,

Yes, you should see an orange line across every clip in the browser that you have added to the timeline. Since you are not seeing that, try deleting preferences and see if that cures the problem.

To delete preference 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 empty library. Reopen your old library to get back to

your projects. (To reopen your old library close iMovie and go to your Movie folder or wherever you have your old iMovie library stored. Double click on the library’s icon. iMovie will open in that library.) 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

Reply

Answer 2

Jul 27, 2025 6:32 AM in response to Rich839

Thanks, Rich. I'll give it a shot.

Reply