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PaulMoore

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 3, 2007
224
6
I am running iMovie '09 (8.0.6) and iPhoto '09 (8.1.2) running on a late 2007 iMac with Snow Leopard (10.6.3).

I have dozens of avi format videos imported from my point and shoot digital camera in the iPhoto library and iMovie used to be able to see them. Not any more. It now recognizes only a handful from a couple of years back.

Does anyone know how to fix this problem quickly and simply? It is very frustrating.
 
I am running iMovie '09 (8.0.6) and iPhoto '09 (8.1.2) running on a late 2007 iMac with Snow Leopard (10.6.3).

I have dozens of avi format videos imported from my point and shoot digital camera in the iPhoto library and iMovie used to be able to see them. Not any more. It now recognizes only a handful from a couple of years back.

Does anyone know how to fix this problem quickly and simply? It is very frustrating.

What are the differences between the ones that ARE visible and the ones that are not?

Are they all accessible in iPhoto, or did something happen to your Library perhaps?

iMovie will ask you to generate thumbnails for the iPhoto videos when you start the program, if you don't do this, those movies won't be visible. Did you not allow this step to proceed?

(a couple things just off the top of my head.)
 
Thanks for the quick reply. I can't see a pattern to which ones are showing and which ones aren't- only that it is a small fraction of the total- and they are still showing in iPhoto.

And yes I was expecting the 'generating thumbnails' message when I launched iMovie (I rarely use it so there have always been new videos added to iPhoto since the last time I opened it) but didn't get it this time around, and in fact not only were the new ones missing, but dozens which had been there last time I used iMovie.
 
Sorry I didn't get back to you yesterday.

Only other thing I can suggest is restarting the computer and see if that helps. Maybe the good-old standby of repairing disk permissions after that? Who knows?

I haven't encountered this issue and I find it odd that some of your videos are there and some aren't with no rhyme or reason as to why some are and some aren't.

Maybe someone else knows this: Is there a 'library' file that iMovie uses to know what videos are stored where...and can this get corrupted and lead to something like this?
 
Actually I found a work-around purely by chance. I created a smart album in iPhoto just for videos (so at least I could see them all there in one place) and when I next launched iMovie it 'saw' all the videos it had missed.

Odd.
 
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