all projects in iMovie 09 become uneditable after some time

Hi,

I have quite a fatal issue with iMovie 09 (8.0.4). When I am working on any project, after some time it becomes "uneditable". The issue is quite hard to describe, so I created a video with audio comment. please watch it and advise if you have any idea why this is happeninng.

You can watch video on Vimeo or download it from Rapidshare:

iMovie issue on Vimeo
http://rapidshare.com/files/263103962/iMovie_issue.mov.rar

To summarize the issue:

- it happens with any project (newly created as well) I am working on
- it started happening approx. two weeks ago
- it occurs randomly
- no message appears when the project becomes uneditable
- It occurs in version 8.0.4 and 8.0.0 as well
- it occurs on another computer in iMovie 8.0.4 (Mac Pro) as well
- the project source file has right file size (the project data are physically on the HDD)
- It occurs when I am not running any other applications (just iMovie and Adium)

I am using iMovie 09 since February. I have made several projects of similar size but have never experienced this issue. I have no idea why it is happening.

I will appreciate any advice. I can provide further info or generate some special output if requested.

Thanks in advance.

The actions being disabled appear to point to a permission problem. As if some of your files had their permissions changed. The fact that you can temporally fix (most of?) it suggests I'm wrong. Still, it might be worth looking into.

When weird things happen, one of the common suggestions is to delete the application's preference file. In this case, com.apple.iMovie8.plist found in your personal "Library/Preferences" folder. Close iMovie and either delete the plist file, or rename it. (Yes, I too am running iMovie 09)

You may want to provide that video link to Apple. I'd suggest using the 'iMovie' menu selection; 'Provide iMovie Feedback'.

The other place to post this is in Apple's own iMovie forums. Perhaps someone there will recognize it.

I'm not sure from your description but if the data giving you trouble is always stored on the same HD, there could be a problem with that HD. I'd suggest you repair permissions, trash preferences, and retry. If you still have the problem, store the data on an (different) external HD. In any case, perhaps the data should be stored on an ext HD anyway. In Final Cut, to draw a parallel, the program does a whole lot of scratchpadding and workspacing on the internal drive regardless of where I tell it to put the scratch pad. While the internal disk is being accessed for the data, it is also being accessed for workspace. It is just too busy. That slows the machine down a bunch. Putting the data on an ext HD solves the problem.

thanks for advice guys. I've just repaired permissions on my HDD. I have renamed preferences file as well, though I didnt find "com.apple.iMovie8.plist", just "com.apple.iLife09.plist", so I have renamed that one. Also I have submitted feedback to Apple through iMovie.

I have posted my issue simultaneously on this forum and Apple official forum, there some guy posted this reaction:

"I've seen this issue a few times on these forums. You are likely getting output like this from iMovie in the Console:

iMovieXXX NSMutableRLEArray objectAtIndex:effectiveRange:: Out of bounds

The issue is specific to the affected project and is related to using the four corners title. I'm not aware of any way to recover the affected project."

I don't know what he means by "Console", I was never troubleshooting anything on my Mac, so my skills are quite weak in this matter But it still might be connected to one of the issues you guys have mentioned, it might be more issues combined, who knows :]

In reaction to Dave's parallel to Final Cut: It might be caused by insufficient space, since I am struggling with not enough space lately, have like 5 - 10 GB free.

So I just ordered new external HDD (I was thinking about it for some time already), later this week I will set iMovie to use new HDD and start from scratch. That way I will eliminate most factors (repaired permissions, lot of free space, new preferences file, new project). Hopefully the issue will not happen again after that. And if it will, at least I will be quite confident by iMovie itself, so I can call Apple push them to help me solve it :]

I just have one question regarding the usage of external HDD. My MacBook doesn't have Firewire (sucks, I know), I will buy new Macbook Pro with FW in September, but till that time it leaves me with no other choice than to connect HDD over USB 2.0. My question is:

is USB 2.0 fast enough for comfortable working with iMovie projects stored on the external HDD?

wolfik said:

I have posted my issue simultaneously on this forum and Apple official forum, there some guy posted this reaction:

"I've seen this issue a few times on these forums. You are likely getting output like this from iMovie in the Console:

iMovieXXX NSMutableRLEArray objectAtIndex:effectiveRange:: Out of bounds

The issue is specific to the affected project and is related to using the four corners title. I'm not aware of any way to recover the affected project."

I don't know what he means by "Console"...

Click to expand...

In the Applications/Utilities folder you'll find the Console app. OS X outputs many messages to system files and the Console can read those.

I'd at least try removing that title style, if you are using it, to see if that fixes your issue. The guy is suggesting thought that this tactic will not work because of some project corruption.

wolfik said:

In reaction to Dave's parallel to Final Cut: It might be caused by insufficient space, since I am struggling with not enough space lately, have like 5 - 10 GB free.

So I just ordered new external HDD ...

I just have one question regarding the usage of external HDD. My MacBook doesn't have Firewire (sucks, I know), I will buy new Macbook Pro with FW in September, but till that time it leaves me with no other choice than to connect HDD over USB 2.0. My question is:

is USB 2.0 fast enough for comfortable working with iMovie projects stored on the external HDD?

Click to expand...

If it was a HDD space issue, I would expect a delay, not an out right breakage of the tool. To test that, you need to wait, maybe several minutes while the tools works its magic with the drive. If it does, then that would be the likely issue.

Since you are planning to buy a Mac with firewire, buy a drive with both USB and Firewire ports.

I've seen people say USB can't handle HD material, at least easily. But I think that was in discussions regarding Final Cut. I haven't tried it so I don't have a personal experience with it.

I too have this problem.
I recently upgraded the hard drive on my macbook.
I copied all projects to a brand new external drive and now when I copy them back I can't open them in imovie (09). They show up in the finder window ghosted and i can't select them

I have deleted the plist file at the top of this post and restarted imovie but no luck. Any other suggestions?

richieg, your problem sounds different. I suggest you start a new thread. And describe the folders you are using, because it sounds like you didn't use the right folders.