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Imovie freezes when deleting clips from Project Media

I'm running iMovie 10.1.14 on a 2017 iMac running Catalina with 16gb RAM and 1 tb storage. I've been importing video from older analogue VHS's for the past few days. Some of the imported clips in Project Media are garbage because they didn't import correctly. When I select them, and click File/Delete Media, I see the "Delete from iMovie library" popup, but when I select 'Delete', I simply get the spinning beachball. I've tried numerous times, rebooting and/or clearing NVRAM in between. No luck. Does anyone have any advice? Phil

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on May 22, 2020 4:20 PM

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Posted on Jun 11, 2020 10:15 AM

Safe mode, deleting preferences, redownloading. Don't mess with any of that. Find your library on whatever scratch disk you use (for me it was my external hard drive, but is most likely your MAC HD) Right click on it - show package contents - open the project folder where your imported media is stored and delete it from there.


When you re-open iMovie, the file should be blacked out with a big "?" on it. Delete that. You're good to go.


I had your exact same issue. I was importing a big 2 hour file. iMovie froze while importing it. So I force quit iMovie. I reopened iMovie and tired to delete the file like normal and got the spinning beach ball every time I clicked delete on the popup.


My method worked perfectly and I can't believe Apple recommended Rich's methods. Completely Unnecessary

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 11, 2020 10:15 AM in response to Philman662

Safe mode, deleting preferences, redownloading. Don't mess with any of that. Find your library on whatever scratch disk you use (for me it was my external hard drive, but is most likely your MAC HD) Right click on it - show package contents - open the project folder where your imported media is stored and delete it from there.


When you re-open iMovie, the file should be blacked out with a big "?" on it. Delete that. You're good to go.


I had your exact same issue. I was importing a big 2 hour file. iMovie froze while importing it. So I force quit iMovie. I reopened iMovie and tired to delete the file like normal and got the spinning beach ball every time I clicked delete on the popup.


My method worked perfectly and I can't believe Apple recommended Rich's methods. Completely Unnecessary

May 22, 2020 9:37 PM in response to Philman662

Hi, Philman662,


Try opening iMovie while holding down the Option and Command keys and selecting 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. Now see if you can delete without freezing.


If no luck, you could also try booting up in Safe Mode (see Finder menu for instructions) and, after everything loads, immediately shut down and reboot in normal mode. Then see if iMovie works properly.


If still the problem persists, try redownloading iMovie. To update/redownload iMovie 10, drag your iMovie 10 app from the Applications folder into the trash, but do not empty the trash. Sign in to the app store and open your purchases folder by clicking on your name at the bottom of the app store side bar. You will see your purchases displayed, including iMovie

10. Redownload/update iMovie from there. If not successful, drag your present iMovie app out of the trash and return it to the

Applications folder.


-- Rich

Jun 11, 2020 11:31 AM in response to TheGrimmGreen

Of course, do whatever works. What is good about this forum is that there are lots of contributors who can chime in with solutions that have worked for them.


I don't like to recommend deleting anything from the iMovie Library package contents because I have no idea of the savvy level of the poster. Deleting stuff from the package contents runs the risk of corrupting the library if you make a mistake. Therefore I recommended a safe course at the outset. If those didn't work, then we could have considered other procedures. Rather than go into the package contents I probably would have suggested a File/Reveal in Finder of the clip and deleted it from the Original Media pop-up folder. Your way would work too if you are confident that you know what you are doing. ,


-- Rich



Imovie freezes when deleting clips from Project Media

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