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marialinda Author

Level 1

4 points

imovie won't "share" a file to a format that it can reimport itself?

I'm using imovie 10.0.5. I've seen lots of buzz about the difficulty of exporting/sharing from imovie. I tried to share to file. It saved (an hour later) as a .mp4 file. Fine. I tried to reimport the same file to use it as the base I could add onto. Imovie couldn't read what it had written....mp4 not supported? I have no other option for how to save it? I can't select .mov. Even quicktime couldn't read the mp4 file it created. What can be done about this...imovie has rendered itself useless for my project unless there's a workaround. :/

Posted on Apr 9, 2020 12:39 AM

Top-ranking reply

Rich839

Level 8

47,730 points

Posted on Apr 9, 2020 9:34 AM

That shouldn't be happening. iMovie can read the re-imports of what it has exported. I have done it hundreds of times.

I am wondering if maybe you tried to re-import the temporary file of the movie on your desktop instead of the fully rendered movie. When you export from iMovie a temporary file is created on your desktop to assist iMovie with the rendering. When the movie is finished rendering, a full Mp4 file will appear on your desktop. Sometimes the temporary files can remain on the desktop for a few seconds after the movie has finished rendering, but then they will disappear. So possibly the rendering had not been competed, but you thought that it had, and tried to import the temporary file, that will not import. Just covering the bases.

Your software, by the way, is really out of date. That could also be the problem. You might consider upgrading to the highest version of iMovie that your computer can run.

-- Rich

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imovie won't "share" a file to a format that it can reimport itself?

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