Cannot create new project

Trying to start a new project in iMovie and get this message:

"CANNOT CREATE NEW PROJECT Please check the disk to ensure there is enough free space and you have permission to write projects."

Never saw this before. Any suggestions?

Thank you

poppi

Without knowing what model of mac or year of your computer or version of OS X you are using or version of iMovie you are using....I will be guessing.

I will assume you have checked your hard drive and there is plenty of free space. Also is there a possibility that you may have been storing and/or saving iMovie projects on a drive that is no longer available or attached to the computer?

If all the above is not applicable thy this - Open Finder, find your Movie folder and right click on it, select "get info". Go to the bottom of the window that opens to Sharing and Permissions. Make sure the account you are using has read and write permissions - if not you can change them by looking under the privilege column, click on the privileges for the user name and change it to read & write. You will have to click on the little lock in the bottom right corner and put in your admin password.

Hope this helps.

Lisa

lclev said:

Without knowing what model of mac or year of your computer or version of OS X you are using or version of iMovie you are using....I will be guessing.

I will assume you have checked your hard drive and there is plenty of free space. Also is there a possibility that you may have been storing and/or saving iMovie projects on a drive that is no longer available or attached to the computer?

If all the above is not applicable thy this - Open Finder, find your Movie folder and right click on it, select "get info". Go to the bottom of the window that opens to Sharing and Permissions. Make sure the account you are using has read and write permissions - if not you can change them by looking under the privilege column, click on the privileges for the user name and change it to read & write. You will have to click on the little lock in the bottom right corner and put in your admin password.

Hope this helps.

Lisa

Click to expand...

Thanx Lisa

Please excuse if this is confusing - I am not a wizard in this area. A short history:

I thought my iMovie activity was being housed on an external hard drive (Called G drive). This morning I looked at my project list in iMovie and deleted 5 old projects to free up space. I thought (but not certain) they were on the G drive. After I created this thread this morning I tried again to create a new project and it worked but it was in the iMac hard drive, not the G drive. After reading your response I looked at the iMac hard drive, right clicked the movie folder, and saw (next to my name) read and write permission. I then looked in the G Drive where there is no "Movie" folder but there are 2 folders "iMovie events" and "iMovie projects". Clicking on the events folder reveals all the events I see when I go to the iMovie program but there was nothing in the projects folder.

I then right clicked the "iMovie projects" folder, get info and saw a read only next to "unknown" (not my name). I changed that to Read and write. and then tried (in iMovie) to drag the project from the hard drive to the G drive but got an error message.

Next I went back to the G drive iMovie project folder permissions and saw a "staff' listing which was also read only. Changed that to read and write and was then able to drag the project in iMovie from the hard drive to the G drive.

This raises a few questions

1) Why is there a Movies folder in the iMac hard drive but not in the G drive?

2) Why are there a iMovie events and iMovie projects folders in the G drive

3) Why under the permissions on hard drive > Movies is there a listing with my name but in G drive > iMovie projects it is called "unknown" and why a listing called "staff"?

I know this is very confusing. It appears I now have a project in the G drive > iMovie projects folder but I don't know why. Also, how does the program know where to create a project the next time i want to create one?

Thank you for your help and especially for your patience

poppi

1. IMovie defaults to the Movie folder that is created by OS X automatically on the main hard drive. To have a Movie folder on your G drive you would have to create it.

2. You can change where a project will go when you save which is probably how the G drive got project files on it.

3. I am not sure where the Unknown and Staff came from. Are you the only one on the computer? Is this computer on a business network? Staff almost sounds like a generic share account. Are there others that could have created projects? If not I would go to your System Preferences -> Users and Groups -> and see who is listed there. Be really careful if you delete anyone - make sure you know the name of any accounts that you need to keep. There should be only be accounts you have created.

As far as I know iMovie always defaults to the Movie folder on the main hard drive unless someone saved the project to a different location.

Lisa

Thank you Lisa for the reply. Answers to some of your questions:

lclev said:

1. IMovie defaults to the Movie folder that is created by OS X automatically on the main hard drive. To have a Movie folder on your G drive you would have to create it.

2. You can change where a project will go when you save which is probably how the G drive got project files on it.

3. I am not sure where the Unknown and Staff came from. Are you the only one on the computer? Is this computer on a business network? Staff almost sounds like a generic share account. Are there others that could have created projects? If not I would go to your System Preferences -> Users and Groups -> and see who is listed there. Be really careful if you delete anyone - make sure you know the name of any accounts that you need to keep. There should be only be accounts you have created.

As far as I know iMovie always defaults to the Movie folder on the main hard drive unless someone saved the project to a different location.

Lisa

Click to expand...

Thank you for the reply Lisa. Answers to some of your questions:

Yes I am the only one on this iMac

It is not on a business network

There are no others who could have created projects

I went to System preferences but could not find Users and groups. Is that buried in another category?

Thanks again

poppi

I have attached two pictures to show you how to find users & groups and how to make changes.

Lisa

2) Why are there a iMovie events and iMovie projects folders in the G drive

Click to expand...

I have an iMovie Events Folder in my external drive(iMovie) because that's where I choose to save all my imported video footage.

If you look in your Projects Library, if you have an external drive connected it will show up there. I have two: iMovie and M Lion.

They also show up in the Events Library.

In the Screenshot of the Project Library, the MacintoshHD drive is highlighted. That is where the next Project will be saved to. If I want it on the iMovie external drive, I would click on that before creating a New project. I would imagine that that is what you have done to get those folders on your external drive.

It is advisable to use an external drive as it prevents excessive wear and tear of your Macs internal drive during the constant reading and writing that is carried out during video editing.

lclev said:

I have attached two pictures to show you how to find users & groups and how to make changes.

Lisa

Click to expand...

Thank you Lisa

In my version of Mac OS (10.6.8 the Users and Guests (two heads icon) is called Accounts. Clicking on that opens the accounts folder showing "My account"> john hendrie administrator and "Other accounts" > Guest account which I have disabled (same as off?). I tried to delete the guest account but nothing happens.

All of this is a mystery to me but I think I can now work around it now hat I understand how to work in the desired hard drive. Thank you for all your help

poppi

Yes, disabling guest is the same as off. We got into discussing iMovie and I forgot to ask what version of OS X you were using. But it is all good, you got it figured out.

Lisa