User profile for user: alanna233
alanna233 Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

iMovie imports no longer working for Photos or iCloud videos

I am using iMovie on my MacBook Pro (purch. July 2020) and shooting video with my iPhone XS. I have made several projects in iMovie so far, and all of a sudden, my videos no longer import. They show up in iMovie my media as black thumbnails with audio w/no visual, or thumbnails that play for less than 4 seconds. What happened? How can I fix this? My several longer projects With many videos imported all video just fine. I was downloading videos from my Google Drive to my MacBook, then uploading them until that stopped working and had to convert each file from .mov to mp4, (took hours) and now nothing works. Dragging videos from iCloud or Photos was working for a couple projects, now not at all. Even videos I shot this afternoon on iPhone aren’t showing up in iCloud or Photos, but are visible on my phone. Any help would be appreciated!

Posted on Jul 29, 2020 10:00 PM

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User profile for user: NICHOLAS GORNE
NICHOLAS GORNE
User level: Level 1
28 points

Posted on Jul 30, 2020 1:47 PM

They do import automatically, but they remain in the cloud, except for a thumbnail. If you change the settings in Photos to keep originals on your computer, then the videos will always be locally available. Otherwise, each time you want to access a video and manipulate it, it has to be downloaded from the cloud to your computer. You'll notice a little white circle that fills in as the video loads onto your computer from the cloud. If it's available on your computer, the play controls will pop up right away when you open the video. Hope this helps!

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User profile for user: NICHOLAS GORNE
NICHOLAS GORNE
User level: Level 1
28 points

Jul 30, 2020 1:47 PM in response to alanna233

They do import automatically, but they remain in the cloud, except for a thumbnail. If you change the settings in Photos to keep originals on your computer, then the videos will always be locally available. Otherwise, each time you want to access a video and manipulate it, it has to be downloaded from the cloud to your computer. You'll notice a little white circle that fills in as the video loads onto your computer from the cloud. If it's available on your computer, the play controls will pop up right away when you open the video. Hope this helps!

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User profile for user: NICHOLAS GORNE
NICHOLAS GORNE
User level: Level 1
28 points

Jul 30, 2020 2:39 AM in response to alanna233

I was having a similar issue and realized that when using the cloud I needed to make sure that I downloaded the videos that I wanted to use in Photos or iCloud Drive before I could load them in iMovie. They just wouldn't show up until I loaded them in the Photos app or through the Finder.

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User profile for user: alanna233
alanna233 Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Jul 30, 2020 12:48 PM in response to NICHOLAS GORNE

This may be a dumb question, but what do you mean download into Photos? I connected my iPhone to my MacBook and was signed into iCloud and also had Photos open. Do they not transfer automatically?

I did get the videos to import by selecting them on my iPhone and airdropping them onto MacBook and importing from downloads folder to My Media iMovie. Although, every time one thing works, the next time I try it, they don’t import🤷‍♀️we’ll see if it keeps working! Thanks so much!

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iMovie imports no longer working for Photos or iCloud videos

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