Moving iMovie09 Event/Proj directories to larger hard drive
Does anyone know if there is a way to move the default Event/Proj folders that iMovie creates to have it look elsewhere (as in a larger drive with far more hard drive space)? In FCP I can assign the directory where my projects are saved and it is across any one of my drives. There doesn't seem to be a way to do that with iM09. I attempted to just move the folders and then try to access them from the Event/Proj Library option window. No dice... anyone with an idea of how to get this to work? Is it possible?
iMac 07 24",
Mac OS X (10.5.7),
4GB memory; 250gb internal HD (and shrinking)
This can be done, but if must be done from in iMovie. This is because all the raw video is located in the event. The Project file is a text file with information about the paths to clips used in the project, in and out points, transitions, music information, titles information, etc. This is just a text (hexadecimal) file that is a "recipe" for what happens when the project it rendered.
Therefore, you cannot move events using the Finder. iMovie will lose the links in the project file and will not know where to find the asset.
So the solution is to move events and projects from within iMovie so iMovie can update all these links.
First, you will need an external drive that is formatted MacOS Extended (journaled) - not FAT32. FAT32 drives are not recognized by iMovie.
Then,
1) In iMovie, click View/Group Events By Disk (so there is a checkmark beside it). This will allow you to see the icons for the internal and external disks in the Project Linrary and Event Library.
2) To Move an event, Command-Drag the icon for the event to the icon for the Disk in the Event Library.
3) To move a Project, Command-Drag the icon for the Project to the icon for the Event in the Project Library list.
note: if you drag rather than Command-Drag, you will create a Copy, not a Move.
Also, on the import from Camcorder Screen, you can select an external drive.
[More info here|http://www.kenstone.net/fcp
homepage/imovie_09stone.html#Projects-Events]
Thanks for this information, but I am terrified to try. I spent a long time making three family movies. My iMovie events folder is taking up 55.65 GB, my iMovie Projects folder is taking up 64.3 GB, and the iDVD files are taking up 14.84 GB. All together, the three movies (about an hour long each) are filling up about 135 GB on my hard drive. I need to move them. I have a 1.5 terabyte external drive with lots of space, but I'm afraid I'll lose stuff. I'm not so worried about the clips (events), because I have them all on DV tapes from my camcorder. But I spent hours on captions, transistions, editing and so on. I'd hate to lose all that work.
After all that preamble, my question is - if I move the events and projects to the external drive, will they remain intact with all the editing done?
I assume the iDVD projects will be OK, because those iMovie projects have already been exported to the media browser, so I should be able to burn more copies of the finished product regardless of what happens to the events and projects from iMovie. Is this assumption correct?
I'm also worried about backups. Time Machine must have these things backed up for me right now, but if I move them to an external drive, and take them off my boot disk, then I'll have them in only one location, and not backed up by Time Machine.
Don't be terrified. You can try copying first instead of moving. It can actually also be done via Finder, and iMovie will pick up all the changes, as all the metadata it needs are in the iMovie Events and iMovie Projects folders. The important thing is that the two folders must be moved to the external drive's root.
But yes, you're right, once you move them to the external HDD Time Machine will not back them up, unless you tell it to back up the external drive itself (by removing the drive from the exclusion list in the Time Machine preferences).
Thanks. I'm almost ready to go. I have a 500 GB hard drive formatted and ready to become my iMovie drive. I'll back it up with time machine to the 1.5 TB drive I'm using for that purpose.
I hope this isn't dumb, but I don't know what you mean by the external drive's root.
A drive's root is the top-level folder of a drive. But you can follow AppleMan1958's directions and do it from iMovie, and you'll see where iMovie moves/copies your files.
