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User profile for user: Ilvie77
Ilvie77 Author
User level: Level 1
5 points

Sort photos chronologically in imovie (timeline)

If I drag photos/videos from the photos app (icloud) into the timeline below to create a movie, they are inserted from newest to oldest, which doesn't make sense and causes a lot of manual resorting.

I've read several threads here, but couldn't find any solution for me.

* I have created an album in photos. I see the photos sorted chronologically when I open the album in the upper part of imovie (imovie media library), but once I drag them to the timeline below they are newest-to-oldest again.

* I cannot use any of the functions "View > sort by" because these functions are grey / deactivated no matter if I mark photos or not.


I am getting quite fed up with imovie. This is such a basic requirement. I cannot believe it doesn't work properly. Do you have any new ideas for me? I'd be very thankful. It would save a lot of work.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 12.4

Posted on Jul 9, 2022 5:56 AM

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User profile for user: Rich839
Rich839
User level: Level 8
47,730 points

Posted on Jul 9, 2022 8:21 AM

The thing is, the photos that are displayed in the media browser from the Photos library sidebar item are not really in iMovie. They are just referenced thumbnails to your Photos app library. That's why you can't sort them in iMovie. Photos in the timeline are in the iMovie system, but there is no feature for sorting them there, other than manually arranging them. However, as described below, one can create an Event, drag the photos into it, sort them there, and drag them into the iMovie timeline. Or, you can open the library browser and do it from there.


The procedure for a new Event is as follows: Select the library's name in the iMovie media sidebar, Then do a File/New Event. Drag into the Event the photos displayed in the media browser from the Photos item library in the sidebar, From within the event, you can do a View/Sort by ascending or descending. Then you can drag the photos into the iMovie timeline and they should keep their sort order.


If you don't want to create a new event, you can instead click on the library's name in the media sidebar to reveal the library browser, where you can select a range of clips and sort by View/Sort, and then drag into the iMovie timeline.


Here's a link to Apple's online help menu that describes how to sort clips:


https://help.apple.com/imovie/mac/10.1/#/movdd0339f07


-- Rich






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User profile for user: Rich839
Rich839
User level: Level 8
47,730 points

Jul 9, 2022 8:21 AM in response to Ilvie77

The thing is, the photos that are displayed in the media browser from the Photos library sidebar item are not really in iMovie. They are just referenced thumbnails to your Photos app library. That's why you can't sort them in iMovie. Photos in the timeline are in the iMovie system, but there is no feature for sorting them there, other than manually arranging them. However, as described below, one can create an Event, drag the photos into it, sort them there, and drag them into the iMovie timeline. Or, you can open the library browser and do it from there.


The procedure for a new Event is as follows: Select the library's name in the iMovie media sidebar, Then do a File/New Event. Drag into the Event the photos displayed in the media browser from the Photos item library in the sidebar, From within the event, you can do a View/Sort by ascending or descending. Then you can drag the photos into the iMovie timeline and they should keep their sort order.


If you don't want to create a new event, you can instead click on the library's name in the media sidebar to reveal the library browser, where you can select a range of clips and sort by View/Sort, and then drag into the iMovie timeline.


Here's a link to Apple's online help menu that describes how to sort clips:


https://help.apple.com/imovie/mac/10.1/#/movdd0339f07


-- Rich






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Sort photos chronologically in imovie (timeline)

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