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Extending Transition Play Times

I found out recently that you can extend the length of transitions in iMovie. However, when I try to, an error pops up, telling me, "The clips do not have enough media available to change the length of this transition."


I don't need to transitions to be any longer than 4 seconds, yet, there are more than 2 seconds of clips on either side. What else do I need to do before I can extend the transitions?


Technical specifications

iMovie Version: 10.3.1

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 12.0

Posted on Nov 24, 2021 7:29 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Nov 25, 2021 1:32 PM

The default transition is 2 seconds. You don't need to do any trimming to get that.


Since the clip is 8 seconds, I would think that you can trim back on that a little. If not, try making a still image of the first frame and import the still image in front of your video clip. Adjust its duration to receive the transition.


Or maybe you can insert a split-off piece of the video in front and trim that back as necessary.


If you still have trouble, post a screen shot that shows what you are trying to do.


-- Rich

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Nov 25, 2021 1:32 PM in response to Eisig_Liang

The default transition is 2 seconds. You don't need to do any trimming to get that.


Since the clip is 8 seconds, I would think that you can trim back on that a little. If not, try making a still image of the first frame and import the still image in front of your video clip. Adjust its duration to receive the transition.


Or maybe you can insert a split-off piece of the video in front and trim that back as necessary.


If you still have trouble, post a screen shot that shows what you are trying to do.


-- Rich

Nov 24, 2021 11:00 PM in response to Eisig_Liang

You need to trim back the clips on each side of the transition to create some residual video that the transition can grab onto. When you trim back the visible video in a video clip the trimmed out portion does not disappear. It still remains but just becomes invisible. The remaining invisible part is called “residual video”. It is the residual video onto which the transition overlaps. This only applies to video clips. Still images do not have residual video because they cannot be trimmed — you can only change their duration, but the entire photo still is displayed so there is no residual. This is unlike a video clip where trimmed out frames are no longer displayed.

Extending Transition Play Times

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