Sort photos chronologically in imovie

Hi, John,

I'm not running Ventura, so can't comment specifically. I can confirm that you are correct regarding that the older versions automatically imported clips in chronological order and that the photos library displayed the clip times.

You might check to see if you have the View/Sort By settings somehow changed to sort by other than date. And make sure that your iMovie version is current version.

In general, often when iMovie fails to display a function it is because the preferences have gone awry. It can happen with updates or upgrades. Deleting/resetting preferences can sometimes cure the issue.

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. See if the issues you mentioned are cured. 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

In the My Media view, did you have your iMovie library name selected in the sidebar, as shown in the screen shot that I previously posted? When you click on the iMovie library name then the photos and videos that are actually in the system will be displayed in the media pane. From there they can be sorted by View/Sort Clips By.

However, you cannot sort from the Photos library sidebar item because the photos displayed when you click on Photos are not actually in the iMovie system. The photos that are displayed in iMovie are contained in the Photos app library and iMovie just refers to them. They haven't been imported yet, so Sort By won't work on them and will be grayed out. When you drag one of the photos into an iMovie timeline, then it it will enter into the iMovie system (the iMovie library).

If View/Sort Clips By is still grayed out, then you might try redownloading iMovie from your account purchases in the app store. First drag your present iMovie app (the app, not the library) from the Applications folder into the trash, but do not empty the trash. Then, if you cannot successfully get a download from the account purchases window in the app store, you can drag your iMovie app out of the trash and replace it back in the Applications folder.

-- Rich

-- Rich

Sorry about that. It was worth a try.

-- Rich