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missing photos from "my albums" in iMovie

I am using iMovie for the first time, and getting frustrated...

Using iMac with updated operating system.

I selected for the Library my Photos, which links to my Photos app, and I see the favorites, videos, panoromas, selfies, etc. When I select My Albums, it has all of the different albums I created in Photos app, but all of the albums are missing more than 50% of the photos that are there when I look at them in the Photos app.


I have tried:

  • quitting both iMovies and Photos, and opening with option+command to reset preferences.
  • trying to remove photos that have names with special characters in them (-)
  • rebooting
  • creating new albums with a different name
  • dragging photos from the photo app to iMovie


Any suggestions?

Posted on Jan 31, 2022 2:02 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Feb 1, 2022 9:43 AM

O.K, then. Nothing to do but some troubleshooting.


First, confirm that the general preferences in your Photos app designate the library as the system photo library. iMovie will only read photos that are in the system photos library. If the box that says "use as system photo library" is grayed out, that means that it is already designated as the system photos library.


Make sure that your iMovie version is updated to most current.


If all O.K, then try the following diagnostic procedures:


Opening iMovie in a new library


Try opening iMovie in a new library.  To do that, open iMovie while holding down the Option key and then selecting to create a new library in the box that appears.


Opening iMovie in a new user account


Create a new user account from System Preferences/Users and Groups and try to open and use iMovie in the new account. You can use the Guest account on your Mac for this purpose.


New Project


Another thing you can try is to copy your media into a newly created project and see if that cures the problem. To do that, do an Edit/Select All, Edit/Copy, of the media in your project and then Edit/Paste it into the newly created project.


Safe Mode


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.


Resetting the System Management Controller


Try resetting the System Management Controller (but no longer available for the new M1 computers):


https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295


Resetting the NVRAM or PRAM


Try resetting the NVRAM or PRAM, although this issue would be fairly rare:


https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063


Contact Apple Support


If none of the above resolve your issue, contact Apple Support.  The techs there have the capability of remotely accessing your computer that we cannot do here.  To contact apple support click on the Get Support item in the upper right hand corner of this forum’s screen.  Navigate to a place where you can enter your phone number.


-- Rich



Similar questions

5 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 1, 2022 9:43 AM in response to beeac

O.K, then. Nothing to do but some troubleshooting.


First, confirm that the general preferences in your Photos app designate the library as the system photo library. iMovie will only read photos that are in the system photos library. If the box that says "use as system photo library" is grayed out, that means that it is already designated as the system photos library.


Make sure that your iMovie version is updated to most current.


If all O.K, then try the following diagnostic procedures:


Opening iMovie in a new library


Try opening iMovie in a new library.  To do that, open iMovie while holding down the Option key and then selecting to create a new library in the box that appears.


Opening iMovie in a new user account


Create a new user account from System Preferences/Users and Groups and try to open and use iMovie in the new account. You can use the Guest account on your Mac for this purpose.


New Project


Another thing you can try is to copy your media into a newly created project and see if that cures the problem. To do that, do an Edit/Select All, Edit/Copy, of the media in your project and then Edit/Paste it into the newly created project.


Safe Mode


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.


Resetting the System Management Controller


Try resetting the System Management Controller (but no longer available for the new M1 computers):


https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295


Resetting the NVRAM or PRAM


Try resetting the NVRAM or PRAM, although this issue would be fairly rare:


https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063


Contact Apple Support


If none of the above resolve your issue, contact Apple Support.  The techs there have the capability of remotely accessing your computer that we cannot do here.  To contact apple support click on the Get Support item in the upper right hand corner of this forum’s screen.  Navigate to a place where you can enter your phone number.


-- Rich



missing photos from "my albums" in iMovie

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