IMovie won't import my video from USB, SD, iPhoto

I'm using iMovie on a Mac mini. I have videos for a school project on a USB drive. I can't drag them into iMovie for some reason so I got my SD card that also had the videos on them. I imported them into iPhoto and it still wouldn't work. I can get the USB and something called No Name (I'm assuming that's my SD card) on the side of iMovie in the Event Library but there is a little yellow triangle warning sign and when I click on the icons, nothing happens. If anyone has any suggestions, they'd be gladly appreciated.

Try moving the video onto your computer, then in iMovie: File>Import>Movies. Navigate to it and import it into an event.
Let us know if that doesn't work!

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IPhoto won't import .mov video from iPhone

I just got my wife a new Mac mini. It is running the latest versions of Mountain Lion and iPhoto.
She's recorded some short videos of the kids with her iPhone (4s), and wants to organize these in iPhoto alongside pictures of the kids (she's done this before).
However, since getting her new computer, when she tried to import the videos, she got an error message that said the files were an unrecognized format.
We were able to retrieve the videos and copy them to her hard drive using Image Capture; however, she would still like to import them to iPhoto.
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks.
-tri

There are many, many posts of this nature in these forums. See, for example:
iphoto won’t import mov video
For many, rebuilding the XPC helper cache solves the problem off the bat. In terminal try this, and reboot:
sudo /usr/libexec/xpchelper --rebuild-cache
The above posted by Andy Ball on a thread related to a similar problem with Aperture:
Re: Import video to Aperture library on Mountain Lion
Other things to try:
1. create a fresh iPhoto library and try that. (hold down opt while launching iPhoto)
2. create a new OS X user (in system preferences) and try there.
In my case – and many cases – neither of those things work either, which means the problem is system wide. Again suggesting that the xpc helper solution might work. But for me it did not either.
There are other suggestions that there are conflicts with Perian (on Yosemite) and flip4mac. In my case uninstalling both of those didn't solve it either.
So maybe one of those solutions will work for you, results apparently vary. But this is a huge unresolved issue many others are having as well. I have a case with a senior apple advisor open, still unresolved. His suggestion of course, at this point, is an archive and re-install. I'm not ready to go there yet.
BTW, another thing he had me try was to import the file with Image Capture (which works). Then open it in QuickTime Player X. Then try exporting to 480p. Does QuickTime crash? It does for me.
My summary:
1. Files successfully import with Image Player.
2. Files play with QuickTime Player X.
3. QuickTime Player X crashes when exporting to 480p.
4. Files import with iMove.
5. Files fail to import with iPhoto (unrecognized format as with OP)
6. iPhoto import failure/errors are system wide and not specific to a library or a user.
7. rebuilding xpchelper cache and rebooting in my case does not resolve issue.
8. same videos import fine in iPhoto on a totally different system (laptop running same versions of OS X 10.10 and iPhoto 9.5.1)

IMovie can't import any video (from Sony cam or iPhone or iSight)

iMovie worked yesterday with my camera (Sony HDR-XR200) just fine. Today imovie will see the camera and pull up the clip selection menu but no clips ever load. I tried to connect my iphone as well to see if it was the camera or the software and imovie also can not recognize my iphone (for importing video) or isight. Any ideas?
I have tried
-different cables
-complete shut down on macbook and battery pull from camera, reconnect everything, same problem.
-software update, restart.
-deleting the preference file (something recommended in this forum)
If I try to import video from isight, imovie stops responding and I have to force quit.
Thanks for any help, I'm stuck.
Sarah

I think iMovie is corrupted. I would like to try to uninstall iLife 11 but when I put in the disc there is no uninstall option. I tried trashing iMovie from applications and reinstalled all of iLife (I believe wasted space on my HD) but the issue remains. (Maybe because I didn't delete the receipts?) iMovie can not see any devices or use iSight for capture...

IMovie will only import short videos from my camera.

Hello,
I recently bought a Sony CyberShot DSC-HX50 camera. I filled one 8 GB memory card and have half-filled a 16 GB card (I was overseas and couldn't download photos to my MacBook Pro, which was at home). I have the most recent version of iMovie but this is the first time I've used it. My MacBook has a new solid-state hard drive and plenty of memory.
iMovie does not "see" ANY of the videos on the 8 GB card; the videos are all either about one, three, or seven minutes long. On the 16 GB card, it only "sees" the videos that are under one minute. I have imported those videos to iMovie, but I can't get it to "see" the other, longer ones. I've tried unplugging and replugging the camera cable, removing and replacing the memory card, turning the camera on and off, and shutting off and restarting iMovie. I've gone through all of the options in the toolbar and haven't found the answer, and the "help" option isn't helpful at all. The videos play fine on the camera screen.
All iMovie does when I try to "import from camera" from the 8 GB card is show the little icons that look like a piece of old-fashioned camera film; no indication at all that there are any videos on the camera card. When I try to import from the 16 GB card, iMovie just shows the three short videos and no indication that the longer ones exist.
Interestingly, iPhoto can "see" the same movies iMovie can. I understand iPhoto is not set up to download longer movies (although it has downloaded movies from my iPod that are several minutes long). But I have no idea why iMovie isn't cooperating.
Help, please! Thank you!

OK thanks. I downloaded the Simple Transfer app but not too sure how to use it to transfer pics back to PC. It asked me to go to a website but I couldn't get it to transfer anything - it seemed to only want to transfer from my PC to the Ipad and not the other way around.
I'm very new to apple products so big learning curve for me.
Any suggestions?
Thank you for your help.

IMovie won't import MPEG movies from Sony Handycam

My Sony Handycam DCR-SR45 is connected to my Macbook pro via USB. After clicking iMovie's File Import, I can see the "No Name" device as well as the various mpg files that I want to import. The mpg files correctly show the date created, file size, etc. However, the mpg files are grayed-out and I cannot select them to import. Does anyone have a suggestion?

I have exactly the same issue. I think that iMovie must have a limitation on the length of the clip you can import. My 45 minute clip will play with VLC, but won't import inot imovie.

My iMovie won't upload my videos from iPhoto or even from my desktop, how do I fix this?

I need to do some editing on my short movie for an A.P. Literature final that is due tomorrow. I took the video using my iPhone and then uploaded them to iPhoto. When I went to upload my videos from iPhoto to iMovie it wouldn't work. I tried moving all of the videos to my desktop, but that still didn't work. How do I make it work?! Please, I would very much appreciate it if someone could help me with this problem tonight.

This is a forum for the MacBook Pro hardware. I would suggest taking your question to the iMovie forum where you will get faster, and better, service.

IMovie won't import my Videos!

Need some help with iMovie. Converted a number of .avi files on my PC to mp4 format suitable for iPad3. When I open iMovie it says that I have no videos but if I go to Videos app I have heaps of video/movies/podcasts. Location services are turned on already so not that. Videos aren't appearing in camera roll or iPhoto either. Any advice to get these clips in so that I can create a movie would be much appreciated.

iMovie iOS was designed to edit video shot on the iOS device, so it cannot edit videos in the movies / videos app.
You need to import the video to the photos app.
Do this via the photos tab in iTunes, once you open the iPad.
MAke sure to tick the import videos button.
OR via the camera connection kit.
There are many explanations of this in this forum, do a quick search and you will see detailed descriptions.

Receive an error message when trying to import any videos from iphone to iphoto on my desktop. Help?

I have 6 videos on my iphone, varying in length from 24 seconds to 11 minutes, that will not import to iphoto. I have tried to import them as a group and individually but get a message that 'there was a problem accessing the file.' I had no difficulty importing over 300 photos from the phone to the desktop. Any suggestions/help would be appreciated. Thanks. Anne

See if you can use Image Capture to upload the video files to a folder on the Desktop and then import from there into iPhoto.
OT

IMovie won't import gameplay files from Elgato.

I recently got an HDPVR (The Elgato Game Capture HD) to record gameplay from my Xbox 360. I recorded about an hour of gameplay and used the Elgato's software to import the file into iMovie. It began it's import but got hung up on a part that said "Generating thumbnails." It would say that it would take about a minute but this estimate would climb until it said "about an hour." I've left it overnight and still no import. I tried to close out iMovie (eventually having to force quit it) and start again but now everytime I reopen it, it returns to that same point, refusing to continue on and I have to force quit out of it everytime. Any suggestions on how to fix this problem? Please help.

bobebaba wrote:
… It is MP4 file, 275 MB, 20 minutes.…
iMovie is by concept for camcorder imports.
20min crunched into tiny 250MBs means highly compressed - iM has to convert it into an editable intermediate.
20min crunched into tiny 250MBs means 'exotic' codecs - mp4 is a container, or media-wrapper, no 'format'. when it comes to DivX and stuff like that, you have to manually convert BEFORE import into iMovie.

Importing larger videos from iPhone to iPhoto not working

When trying to import videos taken on iPhone 5 or 5S that are longer than 1 min, iPhoto stops importing and ejects iPhone. Help!! Need to get priceless video off my iPhone and saved.

Use Image Capture to upload the movies to a folder on the Desktop and try importing from there.
Happy Holidays

I can not import large videos from iPhone to iPhotos

The longer videos will not tranfer to iphoto all other videos and photos will transfer. Its from a iPhone 5 to a mac.

I got it to work my hard drive was too full. I never thought i had it that close to full.

IMovie won't import video

I'm trying to import a video from my camera to iMovie. I saved it to the desktop but now I can't bring it intp iMovie. It is saying "The operation could not be completed. No other information is available about the problem." Everything was working fine earlier. I turned off the computer and restarted but it still wont work

get for 20$ the Apple mpeg2 plugin
and for free the tool Streamclip
http://danslagle.com/mac/iMovie/tips_tricks/6010.shtml
http://danslagle.com/mac/iMovie/tips_tricks/6018.shtml
you'll realize some (dramatic) loss in quality, because a video-dvd uses a very lossy compression codec (mpeg2)
<center>ignore this line: 101010</center>

Can I import avchd videos from canon into Imovie'11

can I import avchd videos from canon into Imovie'11

actually the only error in the system logs I see is..
11-02-27 10:59:49 AM iMovie[90311] NSEnumerateMapTable: map table argument is NULL

IMovie Won't Import MP4 Files

For some reason iMovie '11 won't let me import videos. Specifically, I'm trying to add MP4 files that I copied to my hard drive from my GoPro HD 960. For GoPro users, I used the R2 (720p) format. They open properly in QuickTime and VLC but can't be imported into iMovie (or iPhoto). When I select File-->Import-->Movies and browse to the directory where I saved all the .mp4 files on my hard drive, they're all greyed out. And actually, it seems that just about no video files at all on my computer can be added (all greyed out)--even other MP4 files.
I downloaded MPEG Streamclip but that says "unrecognized file format" when I try opening the videos. I also installed Perian and rebooted.
In case it helps:
- I have an Intel MacBook running OS X 10.6.8 with iLife '11
- QuickTime info for the video format says "H.264, 1280 x 720, Millions; AAC, 2 channels, 48000 Hz"
- VLC says "Stream 0 (Video) - Codec: avc1" and "Stream 1 (Audio) - Codec: mp4a"
Any ideas? This is incredibly frustrating!

Why iMovie Won't Import MP4 Files?
Technically, iMovie does import MP4 video. However, iMovie only import MP4 files that are encoded with MPEG4/AAC or H.264/AAC data. And yet, MP4 is a video container format that may contain various audio and video codec (and sometimes even subtitle streams included). If the MP4 file is not encoded with iMovie support codec, iMovie will refuse to import this kind of MP4 video.
How to Solve Can't Import MP4 into iMovie?
In order to successfully import all kinds of MP4 files to iMovie, a recommended solution is to convert iMovie unrecognized MP4 to iMovie supported video format.
iDealshare VideoGo is just the right MP4 to iMovie Converter which can convert various MP4 to iMovie supported MPEG-4, MPEG-2, MOV or DV. Besides converting MP4 to iMovie, iDealshare VideoGo also helps to convert other video formats including AVI, WMV, MPEG, VOB, MOV, AVCHD, MTS, M2T, M2TS, TOD, MOD, XAVC, FLV, MKV, SWF, 3GP, MVI, ASF and etc to iMovie video format.

LR 5.3 won't import .mov files from iphone 5s

I'm running Mavericks and LR 5.3 and have had trouble importing video files from my iphone 5s. All of my software is up to date. It seems that LR is having trouble connecting to the dynamic link server. It doesn't work even when I disable my firewall. I've already purged my video cache in LR. Is there anything else I should try?

There are many, many posts of this nature in these forums. See, for example:
iphoto won’t import mov video
For many, rebuilding the XPC helper cache solves the problem off the bat. In terminal try this, and reboot:
sudo /usr/libexec/xpchelper --rebuild-cache
The above posted by Andy Ball on a thread related to a similar problem with Aperture:
Re: Import video to Aperture library on Mountain Lion
Other things to try:
1. create a fresh iPhoto library and try that. (hold down opt while launching iPhoto)
2. create a new OS X user (in system preferences) and try there.
In my case – and many cases – neither of those things work either, which means the problem is system wide. Again suggesting that the xpc helper solution might work. But for me it did not either.
There are other suggestions that there are conflicts with Perian (on Yosemite) and flip4mac. In my case uninstalling both of those didn't solve it either.
So maybe one of those solutions will work for you, results apparently vary. But this is a huge unresolved issue many others are having as well. I have a case with a senior apple advisor open, still unresolved. His suggestion of course, at this point, is an archive and re-install. I'm not ready to go there yet.
BTW, another thing he had me try was to import the file with Image Capture (which works). Then open it in QuickTime Player X. Then try exporting to 480p. Does QuickTime crash? It does for me.
My summary:
1. Files successfully import with Image Player.
2. Files play with QuickTime Player X.
3. QuickTime Player X crashes when exporting to 480p.
4. Files import with iMove.
5. Files fail to import with iPhoto (unrecognized format as with OP)
6. iPhoto import failure/errors are system wide and not specific to a library or a user.
7. rebuilding xpchelper cache and rebooting in my case does not resolve issue.
8. same videos import fine in iPhoto on a totally different system (laptop running same versions of OS X 10.10 and iPhoto 9.5.1)

IMovie won't import my video from USB, SD, iPhoto

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