Have you tried using something other than iMovie? It’s pretty bad in my experience. I use multiple other video editing apps on my m1, (16gb, I assume you have more than 8?) mainly Davinci Resolve and a bit of FCP and Premiere - they all fly.
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Macbook Pro M1 lagging while editing movie. What are my options?
- Thread starter Gogogosia
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What OS are you on? Are you running the latest instalment together with patches?
Maybe you are running an iMovie version created for intel thus running it through Rosetta...
Just thinking here...
Maybe you are running an iMovie version created for intel thus running it through Rosetta...
Just thinking here...
MajorFubar
macrumors 68020
There's something odd here. I edit 1080p videos in iMovie for my YT channel on an M1 Mac and have zero issues. It burns a hole through my 2011 iMac.
MajorFubar
macrumors 68020
Yep. I edit 1080p movies for my YT channel in iMovie and have no issues. The timeline doesn't redraw while I'm playing a project. That's just about the only thing I don't like. But it's been the same in iMovie since forever.
hello, no I haven't. I don't have or know how to use another software. Now on such a short trial of equipment it's a bit of a stretch to learn a new editing software and be able to to judge the results. Tough spot.
thanks for your response. Me too for YT!
What do you mean the timeline doesn't redraw? is that the same thing I'm describing? The delay in response as I clickl through and track. To me it feels that the playback rolls in preview while the timeline doesn't respond without a lag when I stop, cut, resume etc. What did you mean?
yeah, good thoughts. I'm kinda wanting to give it another chance cos I need a a good laptop 🤔
What do you mean by my specific environment or configuration? Mac is straight from the box - even imovie was preinstalled.
No one’s telling you to change your phone, people are just asking you what format your phone is recording in.
IE: what is the extension at the end of the file names.
Is it .mov?
MP4?
I use samsung recorded mp4 files. From the local drive. Just as I was doing on my older macs
not sure what you mean by "installation is still so new that the OS is doing its disk-based optimization tasks in the background?" sorry I'm very non-technical - all i want is to use my mbp 😉
I am using just a few gb of clips in 1080 from a local drive. All seems pretty basic as I do the same stuff of my 2014 model
This new M1 came with preinstalled ventura and a preinstalled imovie. I literraly just sat down and worked off a fresh mac on some basic stuff. That's why I got a bit freaked out when I couldn't put my finger on what's going on
Hmmmmm interesting, my suggestion would be to go to the Mac App Store, and make sure iMovie is up-to-date, then go to the system preferences/system settings of your Mac, and make sure that macOS is updated to the latest version.
The M1 MBP shipped with macOS 11.0.1, but the latest version of iMovie requires 11.5.1
The latest update is macOS 13.2.1
I would update everything and see if that fixes the issue.
Others are asking you to try other clips not in an attempt to change your workflow but to help diagnose the problem. It could very well be that there is a bug in Samsung‘s codec or how iMovie handles it, but if this is happening to all videos regardless of format/resolution, we would be looking at very different problems. So using other clips would actually be extremely wise 😀
Spotlight indexing is usually not finished on new Macs as it can’t be preconfigured without your personal data actually being on the Mac. This always seems to take a while on new computers so I assume is disk intensive. Hence try checking the other tabs of Activity monitor for any RAM or disk read/write logs.
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Perhaps. But you seem to have pretty basic usage, so you hardly need to learn it straight away to test. Download davinci resolve (it’s free) watch a you tube clip on how to use it to do basic iMovie style edits and there you go. The fact of that matter is, is that first of all you will see that the computer is faulty or not, and secondly be on the road to a much more powerful editing system.
I've been doing editing in FCPX on a 13" M1 2020 till fairly recently and i can't say there was any lag, and it was better than any intel mac i've worked with before.
it should run circles around a 2014 intel mac
it should run circles around a 2014 intel mac
Chrysalis99
macrumors newbie
The Samsung mp4 might be in some odd container or format. Wondering if there is a way to import that video in a different file format or convert to MOV or M4V before importing? Have you looked into that? Like everyone else says, it’s odd. I use FCP and it blows through 1080p video edits and renders very very fast. Call Apple support and see if they can help diagnose the issue.
MajorFubar
macrumors 68020
I can't describe it another way. iMovie doesn't redraw the timetime while it's playing your project. You just get blue frames where the image previews should be. But that's by design. Press pause or stop and it instantly re-draws. Presumably this is not what you're on about because iMovie has been like this since forever and would have behaved the same on your 2014 laptop.
Personally i find FCPX few times faster then davinci when working on similar footage, although i'd much rather work in davinci FCPX just appears to be more optimised.
Admittedly i never tried iMovie
do you think i should set up anything - like install any update (system / imovie - i din't do that, just assumed they were up to date) as i do another try?
very helpful suggestion. I completely didn't think of that. Some people here mention some rosetta thing that could be at play - would you suggest anything I should do to hmmm.. eliminate that problem? Clearly I have no idea what I'm saying so hope you can read between the lines?
Yeah rosetta would definitely impact the performance.
You can check OS version by going to the symbol top right and clicking "About"