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andynick Author

Level 5

4,955 points

Move media (not Copy)

Is it possible to move media to a new drive, rather than just copy it?

I'm trying to 'weed out' all my old 720p (and below) clips. Unfortunately, they are spread across several volumes (mostly on one drive).

I want to move them to a new drive to make room for more footage on my Raid0 Thunderbolt 3 drive.

I've studied Consolidating Libraries, but can't find a way around duplicating the media files. The problem with doing this is that it will be very laborious to find and delete the original files from their scattered locations.

Any helpful suggestions will be very welcome.

Andy

iMac Pro, macOS 11.2

Posted on Apr 8, 2021 6:20 AM

Top-ranking reply

Luis Sequeira1

Level 9

67,594 points

Posted on Apr 8, 2021 6:39 AM

Moving files from a drive to another is a formula for disaster.

It is much better to copy and then, after the copy is finished and you are satisfied that everything works, delete the originals.

If the media is NOT inside your libraries, the operation you describe is easy to do in the Finder.

Say you move all the video files that are 1280x720 or smaller, from drive A to drive B:

1) In the Finder, go to the top level of drive A

2) Press command-F

3) Select the following:

(yours would show the name of the drive instead of "Macintosh HD")

Optionally, click Save to create a smart folder so you can do this search whenever you want to without repeating the procedure.

Select everything and drag to the desired location in the other drive.

Once you are satisfied that everything copied over correctly, you can just select from this search and press command-delete to move to trash, and then empty it.

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Move media (not Copy)

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