The day before, an Apple employee in the sales department actually sold me iMovie v9.0 (2011 version) and was very helpful/ confident about it. He knew my operating system limits and knew that Mavericks and the current iMovie v.10.0 would not work on my macbook. Even the order confirmation/ receipt said 'iMovie '11 single unit'. Upgrade you may purchase iMovie 10.0.9, or view our instructions for using iMovie 9.0.9, available on the previous page. Please note that links to third-party software are provided by Pearson as a courtesy, and do not constitute an endorsement of any third-party products or services you may access. If you do access a third-party site and/or.
As part of the transition to 64-bit technology in macOS, you may see an alert in iMovie about media files that won't be compatible with macOS Catalina.
Before you upgrade to macOS Catalina, you can use iMovie to detect and convert all incompatible media files so they'll be compatible with future versions of macOS. After you upgrade to macOS Catalina, the option to convert the incompatible files will no longer be available.
To make sure new media you create is compatible with macOS Catalina, use cameras and media formats supported by iMovie.
In macOS Catalina, you might see an incompatible media message in the viewer when trying to play incompatible media if you haven't converted it before upgrading to macOS Catalina.
Detect and convert incompatible media files in iMovie on macOS Mojave
When you import media or open a library in iMovie 10.1.11 or later on a Mac with macOS Mojave, a window appears that lists incompatible media files in your library.
To convert incompatible media files immediately, click Convert in the window. iMovie creates copies of the media files in the H.264 format. The original files are moved to an iMovie Incompatible Media folder, located in the same folder as the library. Your original media is not modified.
If you want to convert them later, you can use iMovie to scan the library and convert the incompatible files:
- In iMovie choose File > Check Media for Compatibility.
- In the window listing incompatible media files, click Convert.
Learn more about how iMovie detects and converts incompatible media files.
Formats compatible with macOS Catalina
These video, audio, still-image, and container formats are compatible with iMovie on Mac computers with macOS Catalina:
Video formats
- Apple Animation Codec
- Apple Intermediate Codec
- Apple ProRes
- AVCHD (including AVCCAM, AVCHD Lite, and NXCAM)
- DV (including DVCAM, DVCPRO, and DVCPRO50)
- H.264
- HDV
- HEVC
- iFrame
- Motion JPEG (OpenDML only)
- MPEG-4 SP
- Photo JPEG
- XAVC-S
Still-image formats
Audio formats
Container formats
Media formats affected by the transition to 64-bit technology
Examples of media that will be affected by the transition to 64-bit technology include video files from early Flip Video cameras that use the 3ivx codec, early web videos encoded with the Sorenson codec, and media converted from DVD to the DivX format.
Third-party developers may continue to offer compatibility with some formats by building support directly into their apps. Contact developers of third-party apps for more information about media formats supported in their apps.
Here are some examples of media formats affected by this transition:
- 3ivx MPEG-4
- AV1 / VP9
- AVC0 Media AVA0 Media
- BitJazz SheerVideo
- CineForm
- Cinepak
- DivX
- Flash Video
- FlashPix
- FLC
- H.261
- Implode
- Indeo video 5.1
- Intel Video 4:3
- JPEG 2000
- Microsoft Video 1
- Motion JPEG A
- Motion JPEG B
- On2 VP3, VP5, VP6, VP6-E, VP6-S, VP7, VP8, VP9
- Perian collection of codecs (Microsoft MPEG-4, DivX, 3ivx, VP6, VP3, and others)
- Pixlet
- Planar RGB
- QuickTime files encoded using still image formats (SGI, TGA, PNG, and others)
- RealVideo
- Sorenson 3
- Sorenson Sparc
- Sorenson Video / Video 3 / YUV9
- Streambox ACT-L2
- Windows Media Video 7, 8, 9
- Xiph.org’s Theora Video
- ZyGoVideo
Convert incompatible media not contained in an iMovie library
To convert an incompatible media file, open it with QuickTime Player (version 10.0 and later) in macOS Mojave or earlier, then save a copy with a new name. This method isn't supported in macOS Catalina.
You can also use Compressor to transcode one or more media files into a format such as H.264, HEVC, or Apple ProRes. These formats will be supported in versions of macOS after macOS Mojave. H.264 and HEVC preserve image quality with the smallest file size. ProRes preserves the best image quality and provides better performance when editing in iMovie, but creates much larger files that use more storage space than H.264 and HEVC files use.
Major User Interface Changes
Apple iMovie 10 is a major revision to the flagship video editing program from Apple. This new version has many major design and user interface changes. Below is a quick start guide.
iMovie ’11 is now iMovie 10
It sounds confusing to have iMovie 10 be a new version that replaces iMovie ’11. Here’s an explanation as to why this is. Over the years, companies have been fickle about the naming system to be used for software. So, in some years, software is named by the year it was released. In other years software has been named by its actual version number. In this case, iMovie Version 9 was released in 2011, and it was more popularly known as iMovie ’11. This new version of iMovie is Version 10. Presumably it could be called iMovie ’13, but Apple no longer uses the year as a designator. So, it’s called iMovie 10.
This confusion is similar to Microsoft Windows having changed in naming from version, to year, to product name, and back again. There was Windows 3.11 and then Windows ’95 (in 1995), then Windows XP (around 2002), then Windows 7, and now Windows 8. This continual changing around confuses consumers, but unfortunately it’s how these companies operate.
New File/Folder System
The most major change with iMovie 10 is in how the file/folder structure works. It’s similar to how iPhoto and iTunes create a single library (a ‘package’ or folder) to contain everything. So, you won’t be using separate iMovie Events and iMovie Folders anymore in your Movies folder. Instead, you’ll see a single iMovie Library file (actually a ‘package’ – similar to a folder) inside of your Movies folder. This has all of your media in it.
This new folder/file system is beneficial because it protects critical project files. For example, in the past you may have explored through your iMovie Events to move, delete, or rename things. That generally would break project files that depend on the event media. By hiding all of this content behind the scenes, Apple is constraining people to do their file cleanup within iMovie so its media database can maintain the proper linking of projects and events.
Events and Projects on External Hard Drive
Video projects will quickly fill up just about any notebook or desktop computer hard drive. For this reason, if you’ve not been doing so already, you’ll want to be using external hard drives for your video editing projects. This allows you to archive events and projects on older drives and keep them on the shelf just in case you need them again.
With iMovie 10, you’ll no longer see the hard drives listed in the event/project navigation column on the left of the screen. Instead, you’ll need to go to the File menu and choose Open Library > New to create a new Library (media database and file system) on the external drive. You’ll see the new iMovie Library listed in the left column media content navigation window.
Events and Projects Combined
There is no longer a distinction between events and projects to keep the separate. This is actually a nice improvement. It means you can keep your events, projects, and other relevant items all within the same folder listed in the iMovie Library.
The Content Library That Isn’t
In the lower left corner of the window in the Library navigation area, you’ll find the Content Library. You might imagine this is where your content is. The name is misleading. This is where you’ll find Transitions, Titles, Maps & Backgrounds, as well as iTunes, Sound Effects, and GarageBand. So it’s a mix of things.
Converting Projects and Events from iMovie ’11 or iMovie 9
When you first open iMovie (version 10.0 or later), the dialog below appears and asks “Do you want to update your projects and events?”
Imovie 9.0 Dmg
If you choose Update Later, you can update projects and events by following these steps.
Imovie 10.0.9 Dmg Windows 10
- Open iMovie.
- From the menu bar, choose File > Update Projects and Events.
- Click Update in the dialog that appears.
To update events and projects on an external drive…
- Verify that the iMovie Projects and iMovie Events folders are stored on the top-level of the drive.
- Open iMovie.
- ChooseFile > Update Projects and Events.
If updating is interrupted or takes an extended period of time…
Some users have encountered reliability issues when updating projects and events with iMovie version 10.0. In these cases, iMovie appeared to stop responding while updating or quit unexpectedly. iMovie version 10.0.1 addresses these issues.
Before updating your projects and events, verify that the latest iMovie update is installed.
- Open the Mac App Store.
- Click the Updates tab.
- Click Update All or the Update button that appears next to iMovie.
After verifying that you have the latest version of iMovie, you can update your projects and events by following these steps.
- In the Finder, click the Go menu and choose Home.
- Open the Movies folder.
- Move the “iMovie Library” file to the Trash.
Note: If you have imported content or created projects with iMovie version 10.0, do not delete this file. - In the iMovie Projects and iMovie Events folders, you’ll find a file named “UpdatedtoiMovie10.” Move this file to the Trash from both folders.
- Open iMovie.
- Choose File > Update Projects and Events.
Imovie 10.0.9 Download
iMovie will update your projects and events. You can repeat these steps for projects and events stored on external drives.
The iMovie Sidebar
After updating, your projects and events are placed in a new library which you can see in the iMovie sidebar.
- Each event is marked with a star.
- Your updated projects are in the Updated Projects event.
- If you previously shared or finalized any of these projects, those video files will appear in the Finalized Movies event.
In the Finder, an “iMovie Library” file is created alongside your original “iMovie Projects” and “iMovie Events” folders.
These folders will continue to work with the previous version of iMovie, but you can delete them if you no longer want to work with them. To learn more, visit Removing old libraries after updating.