Trouble updating from iMovie 9 to iMovie 10 - timestamps, external HD

Question

Level 1

124 points

Trouble updating from iMovie 9 to iMovie 10 - timestamps, external HD

Years ago I gathered all of my home movies into iMovie 9. I have a mix of .dv and .mov clips which all have filenames that include the date and time of the clip (clip-1995-04-11 08;29;12.dv). My old iMovie Events and Projects folders are on an 8 TB external drive and take up just about 3TB of space. I haven't touched these files for years, but I have time now and wanted to get them moved into a current program.

I currently have a 2017 iMac with up to date software and OS. I just can't find a way to transfer my existing files into the latest iMovie. First, when I try to do the automatic update of events, iMovie will only look at my main drive, not my external. I can't move my entire events folder to my main hard drive due to space constraints, but it looks like I could break it up into smaller pieces and do it in parts.

My second problem is that iMovie ignores the timestamp information in the name of the clips and instead uses the creation date. I fear this is going to be the real trouble for me unless there is an easy workaround either to tell iMovie to use the filename or to somehow change the file creation dates to match the filenames. I probably have thousands of clips to process.

If you can point me in the right direction on either of these issues, I'd appreciate it! Many thanks.

iMac 27" 5K, macOS 10.14

Posted on May 1, 2019 4:15 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Rich839

Level 8

48,156 points

May 1, 2019 4:39 PM in response to fan28

Your iMovie 9 Projects folder and Events folder must be located at the root level (i.e, not in any other folder) of the external drive or iMovie will not be able to find them. Check your external drive. If the Projects folder and Events folder are located anywhere but the root level of the drive, drag them out of whatever folders in which they reside and move them to the root level. Both of the folders must be moved, not just the Events folder. Now see if you can update your projects and events.

Some users have reported that they have difficulty if they try to update a massive amount of projects and events at one time. So perhaps doing it in increments would make sense.

I'm not sure what to do about the time stamp issue. Clips imported into iMovie should be bearing the date on which they were recorded. You can change this on a batch basis by selecting the clips in the browser view and doing a Modify/Adjust Clip Date and Time. A dialogue box will appear showing your options, like below, showing that 4 selected clips will be adjusted:

-- Rich

Reply

Answer 2

Rich839

Level 8

48,156 points

May 1, 2019 9:25 PM in response to fan28

What actually happens when you try to update projects and events from iMovie 10? Do you get a message that there are no projects to update? Or does nothing happen?

What format is your external drive?

When you open your Projects folder and your Events folder, to you see a marker that says "Updated to Imovie10"? If so, delete those markers in both folders and try updating again.

-- Rich

Reply

Answer 3

Rich839

Level 8

48,156 points

May 2, 2019 9:24 AM in response to fan28

Hmmmm. My iMovie 9 Projects and Events folders are stored on an external drive, and they both bear the extension .localized.

They also contain the "Updated to iMovie10" markers. However, they were updated before I moved them to the external drive. I don't know whether the .localized extension is foiling your update efforts.

I am wondering if copying your iMovie 10 app to your external drive, and then updating from there, would work. I've never tried it so I don't know the ramifications that might exist.

-- Rich

Reply

Answer 4

fan28 Author

Level 1

124 points

May 1, 2019 5:32 PM in response to Rich839

Thank you so much for your reply. The folders do appear to be at the root level of this external drive, but if I look at it in Terminal, the folder is called iMovie Events.localized. That .localized doesn't appear in Finder, but perhaps that's the problem? I don't think that size is the issue at this point or I would at least get the update prompt before I ran into difficulties.

Earlier versions of iMovie recognized the date and time from the filename. I understand why that default may have changed. It seems to me that it might be better long term though if I change the file properties rather than using the adjustments inside of iMovie. Either way, I can't see making these adjustments manually for a few thousand clips.

Reply

Answer 5

fan28 Author

Level 1

124 points

May 2, 2019 4:37 AM in response to Rich839

The message I receive is Do you want to update your projects and events on the hard drive “Macintosh HD”? This is my internal hard drive. The updatedtoimovie10 file exists only on that drive, not on my external drive. If I rename the folder on my internal hard drive, I get no response from iMovie when I try to update. The external drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). I haven't yet figured out the .localized extension on the Events folder on my external drive.

Reply

Trouble updating from iMovie 9 to iMovie 10 - timestamps, external HD

Similar questions