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I have a MacBook Pro 13” Early 2015.
So, my movie library size is big (25GB), even when I almost completely deleted all the movies in iMovie that I don’t need.
It was once 32GB, now it’s only 25GB.
The remaining movies in the Movie Library isn’t big in size, but somehow it’s 25GB.
How do I decrease the size? Is it a bug?
Please don’t say “Get an external hard drive” or “Delete all the remaining movies”.
Thanks.
MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.15
As you edit, iMovie creates render files which are probably 10 times bigger than normal video files.
Once you have finished editing and have exported your movie you can delete the render files.
Should you need to re-edit the project, iMovie will recreate the files.
To delete them, follow these instructions.
Go to iMovie > Preferences and click "Delete" next to Render Files.
It will warn you about deleting data, and that it may have to be regenerated in the future.
As you edit, iMovie creates render files which are probably 10 times bigger than normal video files.
Once you have finished editing and have exported your movie you can delete the render files.
Should you need to re-edit the project, iMovie will recreate the files.
To delete them, follow these instructions.
Go to iMovie > Preferences and click "Delete" next to Render Files.
It will warn you about deleting data, and that it may have to be regenerated in the future.
Actually never mind, I solved it.
I searched "Movie Library", right clicked it, clicked "Show Package Contents" and one of the movies is big in size. I opened the movie's folder > Render Files > High Quality Media and then inside it is a lot of TextEdit documents, taking 25GB. I deleted all of them and now is solved.
What steps did you take to delete the Movies from iMovie? Deleting a project alone from the project browser will not free up significant space in your iMovie library, because projects contain only reference files and not the originals. Deleting the project from the project browser sends the media to an event, that you then need to delete to remove the files from your iMovie library. Deleting the original media files can be risky, as they would then be deleted from all projects that may be referencing them, thus disabling the project.
If the above applies to your situation, here's an online help link that explains how to delete events:
https://help.apple.com/imovie/mac/10.1/#/mov74d7d370c
-- Rich
Never delete anything from the Show Package Contents folder, particularly when you don’t know the function of the files you are deleting. You run the risk of corrupting your library. Hopefully you dodged a bullet this time. However, glad that you were able to solve it.
— Rich
One of the uses of render files is to help playback whilst editing. Without them, effects and transitions etc. would not play back properly and you would get lots of dropped frames or at worst, no playback at all.
You can follow Ian's suggestion on how to delete render files. I would be surprised if you had 25GB of render files, but maybe so. And, although you didn't want anyone to say it, if space is your problem then getting an external hard drive to store your iMovie library is the answer. OWC and Digital Western make external hard drives. You might want to check their websites. External storage is fairly inexpensive. I would get at least 500 GB of storage. The drive needs to be formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled) in order to properly store an iMovie library.
Also, refer to my earlier post that describes how to delete projects and files from the iMovie library.
-- Rich
I already solved it. Thanks but, what does the render files do?
I solved it already now. Please see my other post in this discussion to see how I solved it. Thanks.
What am I supposed to do? They’re the cause of the 25GB.
Delete the render files using the process I described earlier.
Oh ok, thanks.
Ok thanks :)
Oh ok, got it.
Movie Library Size is Big (25GB)
