iMovie 10.1.14 | Cannot Share Completed Videos
Ever completed editing a movie in iMovie and then click on the Share link either in the iMovie Menubar File drop down menu or the Share icon on the top right of the iMovie interface and nothing happens?
No system alert beep. Nothing.
As though iMovie just suddenly decided to totally ignore you and disregard your menial existence?
Well, after much effort, we have a fix!
This troublshooting tip is brought to you courtesy of iMovie 10.1.14 and macOS, Catalina 10.15.4.
Full disclosure; in our case, the resulting lack of response when we tried to Export our iMovies is probably also owing to the fact that we were using a freshly cloned user Home folder on an external hard drive (but we’re just guessing, because everything was working fine before it).
There are 2 troubleshooting remedies you can try but before anything, its best you make a backup of your hard drive beforehand, just in case something doesn’t go the way you expect it. At least you can rollback to where you were previously.
The first, less destructive, remedy to try is to delete iMovies’ preferences. Apple Inc has made this incredibly easy in this version of iMovie and can be accomplished by simply using the following steps:
- if iMovie doesn’t already appear in your Dock, open your Applications folder and drag your iMovie icon into your Dock so it becomes a resident member of your Dock parade;
- whilst holding down both the Alt/Option + Command keys, click on the iMovies icon in your Dock;
- iMovie should now launch into a window prompting whether you would like to delete your iMovie preferences;
- Click “Delete Preferences”
After doing this, check and see if the Share function works now?
If it doesn’t then we need to move on to the second remedy. This next remedy totally resets iMovie to its factory default setting by creating a new iMovie Library, following these steps:
- whilst holding down Option, click on the iMovie icon in your Dock;
- iMovie will now launch and display the Open Library window;
- Click “New” and let the system choose the new iMovie Library for you or you can edit the iMovie Library name to your preference and click “Ok” to proceed;
- iMovie will now launch using the newly created Library and greet you with the default Welcome Screen
Check and see if the Share features work now? In our experience, creating a new iMovie Library was the solution that solved this issue.
If you find the same in your case, that would indicate that your existing iMovie Library might contain errors or is corrupted. Its best to delete the existing iMovie Library and continue to use this newly minted one we have just created.
If you would like to go back to your previous iMovie Library, whilst holding Option click the iMovie icon in your Dock and click “Locate” and choose the previous iMovie Library and click “Ok” to tell iMovie to launch from this Library instead.
