Cannot drop images or videos onto iMovie timeline

Suddenly I cannot drop images or videos onto the iMovie timeline. They simply won't attach to the timeline so I cannot make a movie. I have no idea why this is suddenly happening. I have been making iMovies for years. All images and movies are from my iPhone.

I have a MacBook 16" with OS 12.6.

iMovie is 10.3.4

I have 1.5 TB remaining of my 2 TB iCloud account.

I resorted to using iMovie on the iPhone today .. with success, but very basic.

Any ideas? Thank you.



MacBook, macOS 10.15

Posted on Oct 15, 2022 3:31 AM

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Posted on Oct 15, 2022 8:45 AM

Hi, Michael,


Try deleting/resetting preferences, as that sometimes cures things when iMovie behaves other than as expected. 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 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. Now see if you can drag and drop images and videos into the iMovie timeline.  Deleting preferences is a safe procedure that will not cause data loss or disruption to your project.


-- Rich

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Question marked as ⚠️ Top-ranking reply

Oct 15, 2022 8:45 AM in response to Michael Vallance

Hi, Michael,


Try deleting/resetting preferences, as that sometimes cures things when iMovie behaves other than as expected. 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 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. Now see if you can drag and drop images and videos into the iMovie timeline.  Deleting preferences is a safe procedure that will not cause data loss or disruption to your project.


-- Rich

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Oct 16, 2022 8:20 AM in response to Michael Vallance

Glad you got things working. Yes, deleting preferences is the first thing to try when things suddenly start not working right. Another easy thing is to copy your media into a newly created project, as sometimes issues are confined to just one particular project and will go away when you start another project.


Have fun.


-- Rich

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Cannot drop images or videos onto iMovie timeline

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