Add another feature to the list of things broken in iOS 16. A bug in Apple’s “latest and greatest” iPhone operating system apparently affects videos recorded in Cinematic Mode, which are no longer recognized by iMovie and Final Cut Pro.
Users on the Apple Support forums and on Reddit reports that Apple’s video editors iMovie and Final Cut Pro can no longer open Cinematic videos recorded with an iPhone running iOS 16. Reports consistently say that these apps show an error when users try to edit a Cinematic video.
“It seems that iOS 16 broke this feature in FCP, which will show a ‘The cinematic effect cannot be activated’ error,” said a Final Cut Pro user. Another user reports they experienced the issue when using iMovie – Apple’s free video editor.
Apple has yet to acknowledge the bug, and there’s no software update available to fix it. A workaround suggested by some users is to edit Cinematic videos on the iPhone and only then share these videos to the Mac over AirDrop.
macOS Ventura is expected to be released to the public in October. It is likely that Apple will wait until then to update its Mac apps.
Cinematic Mode is a feature that allows users to record videos using a Portrait effect, automatically combining artificial intelligence and depth data gathered by the iPhone cameras to blur the background of the video while keeping the person or object in focus.