Can't select files to import

I have some DVDs from an event that we held. They were recorded directly to the disk, but are regular disks, not mini ones. I got the video off with Handbreak and now have an .m4v file that I'm trying to import into iMovie to edit. I didn't change any of the default settings on Handbreak (other than the destination and name of the file) and I've tried getting the file again, restarting the computer, etc. I can never select the file I need, it's always gray. I'm going through Import Movies, there is enough space for the file, it's nothing fancy (like HD). Any ideas? (And this is all fairly new to me, so don't assume I know much! It may be a stupid error and/or it would be really easy to talk over my head.)

iMovie '08 will only allow you to to import files containing compression formats that can be edited, but MPEG-4 is one of those formats, so I don't know what the original poster's problem turned out to be. Generally, (I found this info from another thread) to import formats like WMV, etc., you have to first convert it to any of the acceptable compression formats: DV, AIC, M-JPEG, Photo-JPEG, MPEG-4, or H.264. For audio this may include DV, AIFF, AAC, Unsigned Integer, Uncompressed, etc. Files with adaptive PCM (ADPCM) -- a common AVI audio compression format for digital cameras -- will not import.
The simple method of converting is using Quicktime Pro. Opening the file and choosing to export it. When dealing with wmv files, it's necessary to have the upgraded version of Flip4Mac. A cheaper, but less featured app is called Visual Hub.

Similar Messages

HT1451 I am trying to restore my playlists that disappeared yesterday. I have followed these instructions but when I get to step 7, I can't find File Library Import playlist. What am I missing?

I am trying to restore my playlists that disappeared yesterday. I have followed the instrutions on the support page but when I get to step 7, I can't find File>Library>Import Playlists. What am I missing?

I suspect the menus have changeed slightly since that document was written...
Empty/corrupt library after upgrade/crash
Hopefully it's not been too long since you last upgraded iTunes, in fact if you get an empty/incomplete library immediately after upgrading then with the following steps you shouldn't lose a thing or need to do any further housekeeping. Note that in iTunes 11 an "empty" library may show your past purchases with links to stream or download them.
In the Previous iTunes Libraries folder should be a number of dated iTunes Library files. Take the most recent of these and copy it into the iTunes folder. Rename iTunes Library.itl as iTunes Library (Corrupt).itl and then rename the restored file as iTunes Library.itl. Start iTunes. Should all be good, bar any recent additions to or deletions from your library.
Alternatively, depending on exactly when and why the library went missing, there may be a more recent .tmp file in the main iTunes folder that can be copied & renamed as iTunes Library.itl to restore the library to an earlier state. Look for a recent .tmp file that is similar in size to the .itl files in the Previous iTunes Libraries folder. If it has happened repeatedly you may want the earliest such file generated since the last iTunes upgrade.
If applicable, see iTunes Folder Watch for a tool to catch up with any changes since the backup file was created.
When you get it all working make a backup!
Should you be in the unfortunate position where you are no longer able to access your original library, or a backup of it, then see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
I've noticed more of these missing library posts of late and a common factor to most since I started asking is AVG Anti-Virus. It seems in some cases it might be at least part of the reason why the library file disappears. Try excluding the iTunes folder from any AV scanning process.
tt2

LR 5 is very slow to give me a visual so I can properly select them for import. What's the problem?

LR 5 is very very very slow in giving me a visual of my images so I can properly select them for import. What's the problem? I'm very disappointed with this glitch! Please Adobe fix it quickly! Has anyone else come across this problem? Any solutions? thanks

trygzuz wrote:
LR 5 is very very very slow in giving me a visual of my images so I can properly select them for import. What's the problem? I'm very disappointed with this glitch! Please Adobe fix it quickly! Has anyone else come across this problem? Any solutions? thanks
Is "very very very slow" 30 seconds or 30 minutes or 30 hours or 30 years?
It is possible that you have a hardware problem which is causing the slow operation (in my case, it was a bad card reader, but it could also be a bad USB port or USB cable or bad camera card). In fact, in my opinion, these issues are 99.9% of the time hardware issues.

Can't Select File Format in Image Capture

I just installed SANE software to support my old HP 5470c scanner on my new Mac Mini running Lion. If I select Color or Black and White, I can't select a file format. If I select Text, I can choose TIFF, PNG, or PDF. Also the Scan button only works in Text mode, presumably because a file format is not selected. Is this an issue with Image Capture or did I need to set up some file formats some where?
Thanks,
Curt
P.S. I can get a color scan in basic mode although the scan itself is corrupt.

I had a similar issue where only a few file formats were available when color was selected (png, tiff and something else, which i knew was weird because i've always scanned to jpeg and that was not an option). The menu went back to normal, fully populated with all of the file formats once again when i toggled the DPI menu. I had been at 300 DPI, I simply switched it to 100 and then back to 300, and suddenly I had twice as many formats to choose from. Hope that helps.

Can't select files for uploading through Flash Player

I can only say that this seems to be related to Flash Player, but I'm not 100% sure exactly what the cause of the problem is.
On most sites that uses a Flash uploader it won't allow me to select files for uploading. When I get to the Select A File dialogue box
all files are greyed out. This happens in Chrome, Firefox and Safari. I'm using the latest version of Mac OSX. I can't seem to find
any information about this anywhere on the web.

Make sure Java and Javascript are both turned on in Safari Preferences/Security.

How can I rename files when importing?

Is there a way to rename files when importing them? Every method I've tried retains the original file name the camera assigns (e.g. DSC_0001). I'd like the ability to rename the files automatically either with a date or event name with sequential numbering following.
Thanks!

First you will have to upload from the camera to a folder on the Desktop where you can batch rename them before importing into iPhoto. That's a safer workflow IMO because you can make sure the photos are safely on the hard drive before starting any other operation.
OT

Lightroom 5 can't copy files when importing PC catalog

Attempting to merge my old PC catalog into my newer Mac one.
I tidied up both catalogs, then consolidated the PC catalog and media onto an external USB 3 drive (NTFS) - Mac catalog is on an external Firewire drive (Mac OS Extended Journaled). Both separate catalogs were extensively tested and were working, with all media accessible.
I imported as catalog from the Mac catalog, and previews looked fine, and imported catalog looks fine EXCEPT almost none of the media has copied across (about 4500 photos worth!) some did, though, no idea why, or why not, in either case. Got an error message which said Lightroom couldn't copy some files.
I did so much manual cleanup, which took days, to make this painless, I'm pretty gutted such a simple thing didn't work.
Any idea what might be wrong and how to clean up this mess without having to go through it all manually AGAIN, please?

OK, I'll try to give you the info you need. Firstly, I'm not the one doing the copying, I'm asking Lightroom to copy files to a new location while performing an 'import from catalog'. Also, I've just undone the previous import and I was incorrect, Lightroom copied none of the files across at all. This is all being done on the Mac, just so you know.
Exact steps were as follows -
1 - File -> Import from another Catalog (choose PC Catalog on NTFS HDD).
2 - Appropriate files (all of them in fact) selected.
3 - Settings were- File Handling - copy to: (folder on the Mac external HDD). Replace: Nothing (only new files copied). With preview.
2 - Exact error message is "Problem importing from catalog 'Lightroom was unable to copy the files for these images to the folder you selected'." The previews appear in the catalog but with the missing file icons.
I've removed the previous import and tried again, with the same result. In between the tries, I checked read/write permissions on both drives, which have full access, and also tried manually copying one of the folders across between the same two HDDs using the Finder (i.e. outside Lightroom), which worked perfectly, so I can't agree it's not a Lightroom issue at the moment.

Can't select file names in list view

System: Mac Pro 2.93 Quad-Core, 6GB RAM, 10.6.2
I updated from 10.6.1 to 10.6.2 using software update AND from 10.6 to 10.6.2 doing a clean install. Both times I had problems with the finder: first, the icons in the sidebar turned into "page" icons (a white rectangle similar to the Documents icon, but one sheet instead of "two"), then I couldn't select the file names (to change the name of a file) in list view. Strangely I could do so in icon view or using Get Info. I trashed the com.apple.finder.plist file, and now every window has it's own set of values (different icon sizes and sorting prefs.) and I can't seem to make all windows default to a set of view/sort values (every time I open a window they change even after I selected "use values as defaults").
I'm stumped any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Also, if the finder is "acting-up," does that mean that copying files, doing backups and the like, are all compromised? (This would be really upsetting).
Thanks

Have a bootable backup/clone of your previous 10.6.1 installation or a TM backup?

Can a .prel file be imported to Premiere Elements 9

I have several movies that have been created with past versions of Elements. I do not have the DVDs. Is there a way I can import and edit these .prel files?

Thank you for your response.
I guess I did not give a good description of my problem.
Yes I have three 1TB hard drives with most of my movies from the past few years. These drives contain the Adobe files along with the video and audio files that were edited to produce the Adobe projects and DVDs.
I must also say that I have registered versions of Adobe software going back to when.......the newest version of Premiere Elements, ver. 9, is installed on my computer at this time.
I had a request from a friend for a DVD of a basketball game from 2007. His grandson was one of the players in that game. Not having a copy of the DVD for that game I thought this is easy. I loaded the hard drive went the Adobe project file and tried to open it. This project was created with an older version of Adobe software. The reply was that code for that file was not available! Now I'm thinking Adobe would not do that to its customers. So I went online to look for an answer. I should have never done that. I get too frustrated because the answers now days is never to the question I asked. I understand the economics of this but I've been working with computers since DOS 1.1. Back in the days when Bill Gates answered the help line with "Hello this is Bill can I help you!" The key that is missing today is real customer service. Sorry I'm off the subject. I could not find any answer about the Premiere Elements being backward compatible. That is when I turned to the forum. Since I do have the video and audio files I can create a new project and create the DVD. I stand is that I should NOT have to re-do this project. I'm going to have to spend time redoing work done. The part that makes me mad is I have to do this because Adobe wants more money on its profit sheet at my expense. I know I don’t have to buy the product but I am a loyal customer or at least was a loyal customer. I've notice other software out there that does what I need. Sorry again I'm off subject!
I thank you for taking the time to reply and trying to help. If you know anything about an add-on or extra code I can use to save me time I would really appreciate it!
Thanks
Michael

Can ditto select files based on modification date?

Hi. I'm trying to use ditto to make backups. I would like to have it select only files modified after a certain date. Is there a way to do this?
I noticed the bom (bill of materials) option... can that be used for this purpose somehow? Not quite sure how best to create a BOM that includes only files based on modification date.
Any suggestions? Thanks
Eric

ditto doesn't provide a way to select only files modified after a certain date -- but find does; see the "-newer" and "-newerXY" options. Using find, you can generate a BOM file listing files that have been modified after a certain date.
Then you can pass that BOM file to ditto.
Powerbook G4 1GHz Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Can't select files when using Automate batch command

Hi all,
I'm having a huge problem here.
I am working with CS3 on a mac (leopard).
I batch process (when applying actions) all the time using the Automate/Batch process command.
I have been doing this for years on my computer but all of a sudden it has developed a problem. When I bring up the batch command and select a source folder, I am not able to select any of the files (jpgs/tiffs) . They are not highlighted for me to select them.
So far I have deactivated and re-installed CS3 on my computer. Still not working. So, I have downloaded CS3 onto my laptop and taken the files from my desktop onto the laptop and the problem is the same. Like I said, this has just started happening for no reason after years of working fine.
Please, please, can anyone help.
Thx.
Richard.

I hardly use the feature, so I may have missed some change, but »Folder« seems to indicate that You are to select a Folder, not Files.

Time Machine: Can't Select Files/Folders to Restore

Hi:
Time Machine has always worked superbly for me in the past. However, today, I tried to restore a desktop file from last week. When I open Time Machine and hit the arrows to navigate it takes 10" or so, but eventually gets there. However, when I click on any file or folder that is visible, nothing happens. Thus, I cannot select a file/folder to restore it.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

See if this thread is fruitful:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/10394546#10394546

How can you select files in Image Browser during a slideshow?

I am using Image Browser in Maverick 10.9 OS. It does not seem to have the function to select images during a slideshow like Zoombrowser does. Is this correct or am I missing something?
Thanks

Hi jfabian!
Thanks for posting.
What you are experiencing is correct. It is not possible to select images while a slideshow is playing in ImageBrowser EX.
Did this answer your question? Please click the Accept as Solution button so that others may find the answer as well.

Preview not available for this file on import

I just transferred all my stuff from a vista computer to a new Windows 7. Lightroom 3.3 is now running as a 64 bit. I am importing tiff scans which were done on the Vista computer. At first everything was going fine, but now when I select files for import, all I can see are greyed out boxes which say "preview not available for this file". If I import the file, all is well, but I would like to see them in preview as well. Also, the program has crashed twice in the middle of an import.
Thanks for any help!

Yes, the larger preview is viewable. I'm using Vuescan to scan the files. Nothing has changed with the scanning from the previous scans which worked fine...same settings, same computer (not the new one).

How to write .CSV file to import device placeholder into Lion Server Profile Manager?

I'm now using Mac Mini with Lion Server (10.7.4). I've already setup a server with Profile Manager to manage some iOS devices.
Now I need to add many devices into Profile Manager. From some articles, (for example http://my.safaribooksonline.com/book/-/9780132778879/chapter-4dot-managing-accou nts/ch04lev1sec3), I found that I can use .CSV file to import many device placeholders at a time. So I create a .CSV file "devices.csv" with the content as the following:
iPhone001,12345ABCD12,,,
Then I import this file to "Devices" in Profile Manager, but in vain. It says that the placeholder is invalid.
If there's any one could provide some exemples? Thanks a lot.

Hi Nien-Yi Ho,
A little late, but perhaps someone else can benefit ...
The way I did this, is:
- create an empty Excel spreadsheet
- add 5 headers in the first row: DeviceName, SerialNumber, IMEI, MEID, UDID
- in the next rows add your devices and specs (for the iPhones and iPads I only added DeviceName, SerialNumber and IMEI specs)
- IMPORTANT: save the file as a Windows CSV file.
If you import the CSV file now, all should go well.

Can't select files to import

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for