Importing Photos in iMovie
2022 Macbook Air and I am having difficulty using iMovie. When trying to import media, it won't allow me to add photos from the photo application. Why is that and how can I fix it?
MacBook Air, macOS 12.4
Question marked as
Top-ranking reply
Hi, Robbie,
What steps are you doing to import the photos, and what happens when you try? Any error message?
To import using the Photos item in the iMovie sidebar, the Photos app library must be designated as the system photo library. So, open your Photos app library and from the Photos app menu click on Photos/Preferences/General and confirm that the words "use as system Photo library" are grayed out. That would mean that your library already is the system photo library and you need do nothing further. If not grayed out, click on the words to gray them out.
If the above is not your situation, try deleting preferences. To delete 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. Now see if you can import from the Photos sidebar item. 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.
If still no luck, you can open your Photos app library and iMovie at the same time, and drag the photos directly from the Photos app into an iMovie project timeline.
-- Rich
-- Rich