Le-Terrible
Level 1 (7 points)

Q: migrating imovie events to new Mac without using Migration Assistant

Hi,

 

I'd like to do the following:

 

Migrate iMovie Events from an old MacBook Pro (10.6.8 Snow Leopard) created using iMovie '08

 

to

 

an iMac (10.10.5 Yosemite) with iMovie 10.1.1

 

All the events are stored on 3 external discs (nothing on MBP internal disc). The discs have FireWire interfaces, I can't connect them directly to the iMac.

 

The destination is a different external disc, with Thunderbolt interface. I've copied the events to that disc into 3 separate directories, but not attempted opening them with iMovie. Wasn't sure if there was any data stored elsewhere (under ~/Library for example) that might be needed; plus I wasn't sure if I could manually merge the 3 separate iMovie Events folders with Finder, or need to do that somehow with iMovie.

 

I manually moved everything else a while ago - I didn't use migration assistant ; I didn't have sufficient disc space attached to the iMac when I moved everything else, so I carried on using iMovie on the old MBP.

 

I've googled and read several articles on moving events to an external disc / to new Mac, but none of these fully covers my starting position, and desired end result.

 

Would appreciate any insights into how to go about this, and how & where exactly iMovie keeps all the data it needs.

 

Articles read (amongst others):

 

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202853  "Update projects and events from previous versions of iMovie in iMovie (2014)"

 

http://help.apple.com/imovie/#mov3ac6d42c "Copy or move video from your Event Library to an external hard disk"

 

https://support.apple.com/kb/PH2302     "iMovie ‘11: Copy or move video from your Event Library to an external hard disk"

 

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203049 "Move your iMovie for Mac (2014) library"

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Mar 8, 2016 2:02 AM

by Le-Terrible,Solvedanswer
Le-Terrible Le-Terrible
Level 1 (7 points)
A:

Thanks Geoff for the inspiration. I did what I wanted, and it was much easier than I'd anticipated (too much time on Windows systems at work perhaps!).

 

Here's what I did:

 

1. Mounted the 3 discs containing iMovie events from MBP onto iMac.

 

2. In Finder, copied the iMovie Events folders to the thunderbolt external disc on the iMac. This took 6 to 8 hours per disc (5 TB total).

 

My discs were called Video1, Video2, Media01. So on my iMac external disc I had video1_imovie/iMovie Events, video2_imovie_iMovie Events, media01_imovie/iMovie Events

 

It was here I made my original post.

 

3. Moved video1_iMovie Events to the top-level of the iMac external disc. (Geoff's advice of try one or a few events was wise, but I threw caution to the wind and did the whole disc).

 

4. Opened iMovie 10 on the iMac. It found the iMovie Events folder by itself, and proposed to update it.

 

It only took 1 or 2 minutes - I was surprised how quick it was. Looking at the directory structure using Terminal, I could see that iMovie had made hard links of all the clips into the iMovie 10 library (so the clips were still present in the iMovie Events folder, and they were linked in the folder "iMovie Library 1.imovielibrary".

 

5. I tried File --> Update Projects and Events to see if it would let me choose the other iMovie Events folders, but it just said "Couldn't find any events" or something like that.

 

Given that it had created hard links, I thought the iMovie Events folder was most likely superfluous - so I decided to try to rename it.

 

6. Quit iMovie

 

7. Renamed "iMovie Events" to "Video1.iMovie Events"

 

8. Opened iMovie again - nothing amiss, it could access all the events - so it didn't need the iMovie Events folder.

 

9. Quit iMovie; Moved 2nd disc iMovie Events to top level

 

10. Opened iMovie

 

11. File --> Update Projects and Events

 

This was successful, and again fast - completed within 2 to 3 minutes.

 

12. Repeated steps 6 to 11 for the 3rd disc.

 

Et voila, all events from 3 discs merged onto 1 disc, and updated for iMovie 10.

 

So it seems to me the iMovie structure has been well thought out.

 

regards, Ivan

Posted on Mar 8, 2016 12:07 PM

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Le-Terrible

Q: migrating imovie events to new Mac without using Migration Assistant

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  • Helpful answers

  • by GeeD,Helpful

    GeeD GeeD Mar 8, 2016 12:09 PM in response to Le-Terrible
    Level 5 (7,723 points)
    Video
    Mar 8, 2016 12:09 PM in response to Le-Terrible

    If your iMovie '08 projects contain media from outside the events folder (eg. from iPhoto or iTunes) then it is important first of all using iMovie '08 on your old computer to 'consolidate' your media so that everything needed is copied to the events folder.  Details for iMovie version '11 are at: http://help.apple.com/imovie/#mov3ac6c7c9

    I don't have the version '08 help files but I think it will be the same - you can check using your old Mac.

     

    "The discs have FireWire interfaces, I can't connect them directly to the iMac."

    Firewire to Thunderbolt adaptors are available for about 30€ that would allow you to use these hard drives on your new Mac. 

     

    In fact you can copy the events and projects folders with the Finder from an old external drive to the root level of the new new external drive (that must be Apple - formatted), but it is probably better to do this from within iMovie '08 as described in the Apple help.   Do 'copy' and not 'move' - this way you still have a backup of the originals on the old drives in case of problems.


    I would convert the event and project folders from each of the 3 drives one at a time, creating 3 separate iMovie 10.1.1 libraries.  You can always re-organise these from within iMovie 10 after you have got everything updated and checked out.  Some people have reported the update process stalling at some point so updating in small batches of events and projects is much better than trying to do everything at once.


    In fact I would try at first just copying one (or a small group) of projects and its associated events to the new external HD with iMovie '08 then updating it to make sure that it is going to work - going from iMovie '08 to iMovie 10.1.1 is a big jump.

     

    Best of luck!

     

    Geoff.

  • by Le-Terrible,Solvedanswer

    Le-Terrible Le-Terrible Mar 8, 2016 12:07 PM in response to GeeD
    Level 1 (7 points)
    Mar 8, 2016 12:07 PM in response to GeeD

    Thanks Geoff for the inspiration. I did what I wanted, and it was much easier than I'd anticipated (too much time on Windows systems at work perhaps!).

     

    Here's what I did:

     

    1. Mounted the 3 discs containing iMovie events from MBP onto iMac.

     

    2. In Finder, copied the iMovie Events folders to the thunderbolt external disc on the iMac. This took 6 to 8 hours per disc (5 TB total).

     

    My discs were called Video1, Video2, Media01. So on my iMac external disc I had video1_imovie/iMovie Events, video2_imovie_iMovie Events, media01_imovie/iMovie Events

     

    It was here I made my original post.

     

    3. Moved video1_iMovie Events to the top-level of the iMac external disc. (Geoff's advice of try one or a few events was wise, but I threw caution to the wind and did the whole disc).

     

    4. Opened iMovie 10 on the iMac. It found the iMovie Events folder by itself, and proposed to update it.

     

    It only took 1 or 2 minutes - I was surprised how quick it was. Looking at the directory structure using Terminal, I could see that iMovie had made hard links of all the clips into the iMovie 10 library (so the clips were still present in the iMovie Events folder, and they were linked in the folder "iMovie Library 1.imovielibrary".

     

    5. I tried File --> Update Projects and Events to see if it would let me choose the other iMovie Events folders, but it just said "Couldn't find any events" or something like that.

     

    Given that it had created hard links, I thought the iMovie Events folder was most likely superfluous - so I decided to try to rename it.

     

    6. Quit iMovie

     

    7. Renamed "iMovie Events" to "Video1.iMovie Events"

     

    8. Opened iMovie again - nothing amiss, it could access all the events - so it didn't need the iMovie Events folder.

     

    9. Quit iMovie; Moved 2nd disc iMovie Events to top level

     

    10. Opened iMovie

     

    11. File --> Update Projects and Events

     

    This was successful, and again fast - completed within 2 to 3 minutes.

     

    12. Repeated steps 6 to 11 for the 3rd disc.

     

    Et voila, all events from 3 discs merged onto 1 disc, and updated for iMovie 10.

     

    So it seems to me the iMovie structure has been well thought out.

     

    regards, Ivan

  • by GeeD,

    GeeD GeeD Mar 8, 2016 3:19 PM in response to Le-Terrible
    Level 5 (7,723 points)
    Video
    Mar 8, 2016 3:19 PM in response to Le-Terrible

    Glad to hear it worked OK.  I was advising being cautious because quite a number of people have reported getting in a mess with such an update but you obviously know what you are doing.  Yes, hard links are used to avoid having to have duplicate copies of your media.  You can therefore delete the iMovie '08 events and projects files once you are sure that everything has transferred to the iMovie 10 library without loosing your media.

     

    Geoff..