Exporting Your Creativity: IMovie Videos for YouTube Audiences

How to Upload a Video from iMovie to YouTube?

Liza Brown

Aug 18, 2022• Proven solutions

“Is iMovie good for YouTube?”

The iMovie is not only good for YouTube but various other social media platforms. The thing is, you have to compromise with the quality offered by Apple’s video editor iMovie. Well, iMovie is perfect for getting started for beginners. But, the professionals and ones who want a bit high features than basic ones should look elsewhere. Thus, we always recommend alternatives to a particular software for our audience. In this article, there is a mention of Wondershare Filmora to overcome the drawbacks of iMovie.

Without further ado, let’s begin with how to upload a video from iMovie to YouTube. We want to lead with the best iMovie export settings, specific troubleshooting issues, and our alternative intro section to overcome iMovie’s limitations.

Part 1: How to Upload a Video from iMovie to YouTube?

iMovie is ideal for making YouTube videos if you are too basic and are not looking for advanced features. Remember that professionalism pays in these platforms and helps you stand better among others. If you’re still interested in making introductory videos, here is a step-by-step guide on uploading a video to YouTube from iMovie on Mac first and leading with iPhone.

Step-by-Step Tutorial on how to upload a video from iMovie to YouTube on Mac

Step 1: Create a Project

On the first step, go to iMovie on Mac and click the Create New tab below.

Step 2: Import Media

Click the Import Media button and browse the files on your computer, as shown below.

Step 3: Edit Clips

It’s time to edit video footage. Drag your video to the timeline, as shown below.

Then, you can trim and drag the edges of video clips to allow editing.

Step 4: Add Titles

You can add titles by clicking the Title tab and further drag the Title’s template into the timeline.

Step 5: Export the Video

Click the Export button as follows after editing is over.

Select YouTube to upload your video over the platform directly.

Step 6: Save

After selecting the desired platform, click the Next tab to proceed with saving the file.

At last, save your video as shown below.

Step-by-Step Tutorial on how to upload iMovie to YouTube from iPhone

Step 1: Share the iMovie Project

Go to iMovie on your iPhone. Open the iMovie project on your iPhone and tap the Share button to select YouTube. Enter the information of Title, Description, Size, Tags, Privacy, and Location (optional).

Step 2: Upload iMovie Files

For ease of use, you can upload saved videos in Photo Library on your iPhone. Then, you can upload iMovie videos via the YouTube iOS app. Sign In to YouTube and click the Camera icon at the top of the Home page. Select your iPhone Photo Library file and set the video Title, Description, Size, Tags, and Privacy. Then, hit the Upload button to confirm.

Part 2: The Best iMovie Export Settings for YouTube Videos

As we all know that iMovie consists of a bit long procedure to export projects. Here are some tips on the best iMovie export settings to avoid an unnecessary headache.

Set small resolution: Small resolution plays a more significant role, especially while uploading. Thus, you can set the smallest resolution in the Email tab of the Export button.

2. Change Export settings in the File tab: There is a File tab under the Export button. Click it and find various settings that you need to change to get the best export settings for YouTube 2021. Make the Title of the video as small as possible. Set the resolution at 1080P than 4K.

However, it isn’t going to upgrade the resolution if your video is already in the 1080P definition. Now, the last setting that will crazily offer you the best quality and lots of space-saving. You have to select Best (ProRes) in quality settings for this purpose. These settings also take less time to upload to YouTube.

3. Compress is not for speed: Various options you see in the Compresstab are not for speed. They are for how you save the video on a desktop. Thus, always choose the Better Quality tab than Faster.

Do not export directly to YouTube: iMovie is pretty basic and doesn’t offer great settings to upload your video instantly. You may have to make changes to the uploaded video even if you do this as per our step-by-step guide mentioned above.

Part 3: How to fix the “Failed to Upload to YouTube” Error on iMovie?

The “iMovie to YouTube failed” problem occurs when you directly upload a YouTube video from iMovie. The issue will result if you upload from any third-party uploader. That is why the direct upload doesn’t work, especially in iMovie. You can opt to share your video to the desktop first and then drag it to upload to the YouTube platform.

Part 4: Upload Videos to YouTube with the Best Alternative to iMovie - Wondershare Filmora

“What can I use instead of iMovie to overcome its limitations?”

When you see that iMovie is not uploading to YouTube or iMovie upload to YouTube got stuck, go for a better alternative. In this section, we’d like to recommend Wondershare Filmora that offers the best export settings compared to iMovie. It is the go-to solution if you can’t upload video from iMovie to YouTube directly. Filmora further provides intuitive editing tools that professionally make your YouTube video projects.

Export Key Aspects of Wondershare Filmora in comparison to iMovie:

It offers a long list of export resolutions to choose from.
You get separate video and audio settings such as Encoder, Channel, Frame Rate, Bit Rate, Resolution, etc.
It is further compatible with export to various devices including the iPhone, Samsung, iPod, Apple TV, iPad, Google Pixel, PSP, Smart TV, etc.

Step-by-Step Guide on how to upload a video from iMovie to YouTube via Wondershare Filmora

Step 1: Click the Export button and select resolution

After your project in Wondershare Filmora is over, click the Export tab and select video resolution from the Local tab, as shown below.

It has a list of formats. You can also edit the Name and saving location here.

Step 2: Select Quality

Select the Settings button and choose from three quality levels of Best, Better, and Good. You can also adjust video and audio parameters, including the Encoder, Frame Rate, Resolution, Bit Rate, etc.

Step 3: Select platform

Select the YouTube tab, Sign In to your YouTube account, and hit the Export button after modifying the Title and Quality if needed. Also, make sure to check the Enable GPU accelerated video encoding tab.

Select Wondershare Filmora as the ultimate solution even if iMovie upload to YouTube not showing up.

Conclusion

Hopefully, we’ve informed you of the relevant facts on how to upload a video from iMovie to YouTube. We have also examined the number of troubleshooting issues involved in the iMovie video editor. Well, you will get to face similar kinds of export difficulties in the iMovie editor. Also, the entire procedure to end the exporting task is a bit long in iMovie compared to any other video editing software. Thus, it’s crucial to check out what other alternatives the technological world has today. We can’t state to you a better beginner-friendly yet advanced editing option than Wondershare Filmora that rightly outtakes the iMovie video editor in all aspects.

Liza Brown

Liza Brown is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Liza Brown

Channel Elevation Strategy – Quickly Reach Your 10K View Quota

How to Become A YouTube Partner

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

Navin explains this issue really clearly.

YouTube announced changes to its Partnership Program for some time. For a long time, anybody who had an account in good standing could monetize their videos and start earning ad revenue, but now you need to have 10,000 views to qualify.

My first thought was that this isn’t fair. Small channels shouldn’t be barred from trying to earn money.

I was prepared to go to war over this. Or do an angry blog post. One of those.

However, when you consider YouTube’s reasons for imposing this milestone, it actually starts to make a lot of sense. Here are 4 reasons why this will be a good thing for creators.

1. 10,000 isn’t a crazy number

This is actually a very do-able number for a smaller channel if the creator works hard at growing their audience. Remember that this is cumulative – you don’t need to get 10,000 views on a single video.

Say you receive about 100 views per video and post once a week. It would take you about 2 years to reach 10,000 at that rate, except that it wouldn’t because if you’re putting out good content on that reliable a schedule your channel will be growing (even if it’s slow).

If you get 500 views per video and post every week, you’ll reach 10,000 in about 5 months.

2. 10,000 views aren’t worth much money

Earning money from ad revenue has always been tough. This is just a little extra weight.

How much money could you earn off of 10,000 views, anyways? Not much.

You need to earn $50 in ad revenue to be paid out, and 10,000 views wouldn’t have gotten you there. You would have had to have passed this milestone anyways to actually see any money.

It’s too hard to put an exact number on the money you could have earned from your first 10,000 views – there are too many variables – but considering that smaller channels get lower-paying ads we’re probably talking about pocket change.

3. Inappropriate content won’t be monetized

YouTube has been having issues with advertisers lately. A lot of brands have been justifiably miffed that their products are appearing next to some violent, threatening, objectively offensive content. Anyone could monetize, and some pretty bad eggs took advantage of that.

Now that channels will be applying for YouTube’s Partnership Program instead of simply activating the feature, there can be a real screening process. Channels with content that violates YouTube’s Community Guidelines can be barred from monetization.

4. Thieves won’t profit

There are people out there who want views, subscribers, and nice comments but who do not want to put any real work into getting them. It isn’t uncommon for someone like this to download a video they like and post it to their own channel.

This reposted video will steal views and ad revenue away from the real post on the creator’s channel.

Having a review process for the Partnership Program will help ensure that these content thieves are caught before they can make any money.

YouTube also recently made it easier to report users for impersonation, regardless of how many views they have.

TheGamingGuy looked into people who had stolen his logo and found out they had also stolen whole videos from other YouTubers.

There are clear benefits to this new milestone, but there are also some questions remaining.

How does this change stop content thieves from taking views and ad revenue from creators?

It will help stop them from making money themselves, but not from siphoning away views from other channels. The impersonation rules only apply if somebody is pretending to be another creator. You can steal and repost someone’s content without pretending to be them.

This new rule does take away money as an incentive for stealing content, but a lot of people doing this probably aren’t in it for the money. They might just be misguided fans who want to repost videos they enjoy.

Could this affect your CPM?

Competition plays a huge role in how much YouTubers earn from ad revenue. Some genres are bigger on YouTube than others and, the more popular your genre is, the more options advertisers have. The more competition there is for higher-paying ads, the larger your channel has to be to get them.

Could this new milestone decrease competition in some genres?

Leave a comment to let me know what you think. Jayaprakash, one of our members here, also started an active forum thread on this issue so make sure to join that discussion too!

Touch Up YouTube Videos with Effects in Filmora

You can check our tips and tricks about how to get more views, and here is one thing that need to remember that content is the king. To polish your video content, you can use some YouTube video editing software to remove unwanted clips, add texts and titles, apply filters, create attractive channel arts such as banner and thumbnail. Here, I recommend Wondershare Filmora .

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

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"[Updated] In 2024, Exporting Your Creativity IMovie Videos for YouTube Audiences"

Exporting Your Creativity: IMovie Videos for YouTube Audiences

How to Upload a Video from iMovie to YouTube?

Liza Brown

Part 1: How to Upload a Video from iMovie to YouTube?

Part 2: The Best iMovie Export Settings for YouTube Videos

Part 3: How to fix the “Failed to Upload to YouTube” Error on iMovie?

Part 4: Upload Videos to YouTube with the Best Alternative to iMovie - Wondershare Filmora

Conclusion

Channel Elevation Strategy – Quickly Reach Your 10K View Quota

How to Become A YouTube Partner

Richard Bennett

1. 10,000 isn’t a crazy number

2. 10,000 views aren’t worth much money

3. Inappropriate content won’t be monetized

4. Thieves won’t profit

How does this change stop content thieves from taking views and ad revenue from creators?

Could this affect your CPM?

Touch Up YouTube Videos with Effects in Filmora