IMovie Not Working - Video and Photos refuse to be added or removed

Question

Hello. I've been using iMovie without issue ever since I first got my MacBook Pro, but suddenly (and without any notable reason) it's not letting me do... well, anything.
I was in the middle of a project and went to add some photos, and while the program claimed to be inserting them, after 10 minutes there was no progress. I decided to put the photos into iPhoto and try to add them from there, but it was to no avail. The green insert line shows up, as well as the green plus sign on the side of the photo, but nothing happens. The photo isn't added.
Understandably frustrated, I decided to move on with the project and add some more video. Again, drag and drop didn't work. I then decided to delete some video from the project. It didn't delete.
I've restarted the program and my macbook a few times and tried to do all these things, but it never works. And a few times the program obviously crashed, although wasn't listed as not responding and closed immediately when asked to do so.
I'm completely baffled. What do I have to do to be able to get iMovie to work again? Scouring the internet didn't offer any solutions, although I did find a few other people who suffered the same problem and never received responses.
Can somebody help me? I'm running Mac OS X Version 10.6.4 and iMovie 8.0.6 (I've checked for software updates, it says I have the latest version).

Answer 1

Hi
What I suspect first is QuickTime 7.6.6
If You can - downgrade to 7.6.4
Else
*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
and find
com.apple.iApps.plist
While iMovie is NOT RUNNING - move this/these file/s out to desk-top.
Now restart iMovie.
• Hard disk is untidy. Repair Permissions, Repair Hard disk (Apple Disc Util tool)
• 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)
• 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 helpfull 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