IMovie' 11 quits unexpectedly - New Problem (Worked fine before). How ?

Question

Hi guys,
Alright .. So iMovie'11 was working just fine for me (I bought it a week back). No problems whatsoever. Until today, that is.
When I imported a file, iMovie crashed just when the importing was about to finish. I tried this with files of different sizes and formats but the same problem kept popping up.
Next, I googled this and looked for solutions (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3143?viewlocale=en_US). Here's how it has worked so far:
1) Software Update
--> None. It's up to date
2) Go to /Library/Quicktime and disable some component files -
--> There is no Quicktime folder in my Library!
What I can't understand is that why has this happened a week after I purchased this software ? How could it work good and then start having problems ?(AFAIK, I have not tampered with any files or anything else).
Alright people, I need help on this.
Much appreciated.

Answer 1

Hi
Not knowing the origin to Your problem - General approach when in trouble is as follows.
• Free space on internal (start-up) hard disk if it is less than 10Gb should rather have 25Gb
• Delete iMovie pref file
iMovie pref file resides.
Mac Hard Disk (start-up HD)/Users/"Your account"/Library/Preferences
and is named. (one or more of these)
com.apple.iMovie.plist
com.apple.iMovie3.plist
com.apple.iMovie7.plist
com.apple.iMovie8.plist
com.apple.iMovie9.plist
com.apple.iMovieApp.plist
com.apple.iLife.App.plist
and find
com.apple.iApps.plist
While iMovie is NOT RUNNING - move this/these file/s out on to desk-top.
Now restart iMovie.
• Hard disk is untidy. Repair Permissions, Repair Hard disk (Apple’s Disk Utilities application)
• Garageband-fix. Start it, Play a note and Close it. Re-try (Corrects an audio problem that hinders iMovie)
• Screen must be set to Million-colors
• Turn off Mac and disconnect Mains/Power for 20-30 minutes - will at least re-set FW-port
• Third party plug-ins that doesn't work OK (not relevant for iMovie’08 or 09 or 11)
• Problems in iPhoto Library can affect iMovie to crash on start-up. Re-build this first then try to re-start iMovie.
This You do by
_ close iPhoto
_ on start up of iPhoto - Keep {cmd and alt-keys down}
_ now select all five options presented
_ WAIT a long long time
• iMovie updated ?
• QuickTime updated ?
• Mac OS version ?
• Program miss-match. iMovie 4 - will not work under Leopard
• Program miss-match. iMovie 5.0.2, up to Mac OS X.4.11 AND QuickTime 7.4.1 - is OK
• Program miss-match. iMovie 6.0.3 or 6.0.4, Mac OS X.4.11 AND QuickTime 7.4.1 - is OK (will work under Leopard and Snow-Leopard)
• Program miss-match. iMovie’08 v. 7.1.4, Mac OS X.4.11 AND QuickTime 7.5.5 - is OK (will work under Leopard and Snow-Leopard)
• Program miss-match. iMovie’09 v. 8.0.6, Mac OS X.5.8 AND QuickTime 7.6.4 - is OK (will work under Leopard and Snow-Leopard)
From LKN 1935. (in this case = iMovie HD (5), I tried it all, but nothing worked.
Your answer (above) has been helpful insofar as all the different trials led to the conclusion that
there was something wrong with my iMovie software. I therefore threw everything away and reinstalled
iMovie from the HD. After that the exportation of DV videos (there has not been any problem with HDV videos)
to my Sony camcorders worked properly as it did before.
Lennart Thelander
I run "Cache Out X", clear out all caches and restarts the Mac.
Yours Bengt W