Media File Aliases Taking Up Space in iMovie Library- Why?

Question

Level 1

14 points

Media File Aliases Taking Up Space in iMovie Library- Why?

I'm starting a new project and when importing, I chose the option of keeping the files in their places, rather than copying them in the iMovie library. The reason I did that was to save space and not have two copies of all the media files I'm planning to use.

You can imagine my shock when I saw my iMovie library holding 80Gb space. I can't for the life of me figure out why the alias files are taking up that much space when they aren't even supposed to.

Any help?

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.14

Posted on Nov 26, 2020 5:04 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Leanne_68

Community Specialist

Dec 4, 2020 2:27 PM in response to ShaikhaEisa

Hello ShaikhaEisa,

It sounds like you would like to know what is taking up space in iMovie. We understand how important this is for you and we're here to help.

You may have some render files that are taking up space on your Mac.

Open iMovie and select preferences. Towards the bottom you will see an option to delete render files. Select this option.

Deleting render files will free up storage space on your disk. Performance may be impacted temporarily until needed render files are re-generated.

For more help with iMovie we would recommend reviewing: iMovie User Guide

Cheers!

Reply

Answer 2

Joseph_S.

Community Specialist

Dec 21, 2020 2:26 PM in response to ShaikhaEisa

ShaikhaEisa,

Thank you for clarifying. We would recommend reviewing this article to manage your render files: Manage render files in Final Cut Pro

Keep in mind, original media files are not deleted, so you can always regenerate render files from the original media.

Take care!

Reply

Answer 3

ShaikhaEisa Author

Level 1

14 points

Dec 17, 2020 5:48 PM in response to Leanne_68

Hello Leanne,

Thanks for replying to my message!

The problem is actually related to Final Cut pro. I imported videos and chose "leave files in place" as to not duplicate the files and take up space. It didn't work. The library is at 100 GB right now and I don't even know why.

I tried preferences in FCP and couldn't find anything on deleting render files.

Any further tips or ideas?

Edit:

I figured out what's taking so much space. It's Render files - High quality media. Can I delete the file "high quality media" or will that affect my editing? I'm still working with the media, I'm not done yet.

Thanks.

Reply

Media File Aliases Taking Up Space in iMovie Library- Why?

Similar questions