Disc full full full - how to delete duplicate IMovie clips?

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Disc full full full - how to delete duplicate IMovie clips?

Hello all - I have a desperate problem. My mac is completely full and I mean completely.

I know I have many duplicates in my IMovie library, but cannot seem to delete them. I select them, mark them rejected and them try to move rejected clips to trash, but they option is "greyed out" an not available. Is there a keyboard short cut?

I have searched via Finder to see if I could delete them via that, but 1. the file names are not clear and 2. when I search one particular clip with a clear file name (which incidentally is in the IPhoto movies clip section) I find the three copies - one is in originals, one in modified files and one in data. Which ones do I delete and why do I have three copies?

I'd really appreciate any help anyone can offer - I can't save even simple docs the disc is so full.

IMac, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Sep 2, 2010 5:34 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,308 points

Sep 2, 2010 6:00 AM in response to hollyhogwash

I know I have many duplicates in my IMovie library, but cannot seem to delete them. I select them, mark them rejected and them try to move rejected clips to trash, but they option is "greyed out" an not available. Is there a keyboard short cut?

One for the iMovie forum I would think, no?

Which ones do I delete...

None.

Don't change anything in the iPhoto Library Folder via the Finder or any other application. iPhoto depends on the structure as well as the contents of this folder. Moving things, renaming things or otherwise making changes will prevent iPhoto from working and could even cause you to damage or lose your photos.

If you want to delete something from iPhoto work +only in the iPhoto Window+

In Events or Photos view drag the item to the iPhoto trash and empty it. This will remove it from iPhoto and the HD.

why do I have three copies?

You don't. The Original movie is in the Originals folder. A Screenshot is in the Modified and a thumbnail in the Data folder. All are necessary for iPhoto to work.

If space is an issue you can move your Library to an external disk formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

1. Quit iPhoto

2. Copy the iPhoto Library Folder as an entity from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.

3. Hold down the option (or alt) key while launching iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. From that point on this will be the default location of your library.

4. Test the library and when you're sure all is well, trash the one on your internal HD to free up space.

Regards

TD

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Answer 2

hollyhogwash Author

Level 1

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Sep 2, 2010 7:00 AM in response to Yer_Man

WOW, what an awesome, clear response and quick too! Thank you so much. I've posted the question to the IMovie forum too ( silly me, that's actually where I thought I was posting it!)

I will follow your suggestion about keeping the library on an external drive, but I'm sure the space problem comes from movies rather than pics. I'll have to investigate to see whether I can do the same with that.

Thank you for clarifying that I need the three files I found for each clip via Finder. I'm soooo glad I posted here before deleting anything.

I only hope I find someone so helpful on the IMovie forum too.

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Answer 3

Old Toad

Level 10

207,439 points

Sep 2, 2010 2:40 PM in response to hollyhogwash

FWIW it's strongly recommended you maintain a minimum of 10 GB free space on the boot drive to assure optimum performance from the system and the applications. If you use iDVD a lot then that minimum is 20 GB.

Do not lose any more free space or you could get into a situation where you won't be able to boot or perform any operation at all.

Some free space can be recovered by running Monolingual to remove all unneeded language modules except for English and your native language (if other than English). *Do not* use any other feature in Monolingual. The first time I ran it on my MacBook Pro I recovered 2 GB of space.

OT

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Answer 4

hollyhogwash Author

Level 1

0 points

Sep 2, 2010 10:33 PM in response to Old Toad

Thank you I will do that now, as before I followed some of the advice above, it actually said I had 0 space. NO wonder the computer wasn't working properly .......

I don't use IDVD much, but boy I have a lot of raw movie footage and I can't bear to part with it!

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Answer 5

Old Toad

Level 10

207,439 points

Sep 3, 2010 10:23 AM in response to hollyhogwash

When you get a little breathing room move your large size items, i.e. movies, iPhoto Library, etc., to an external HD. You won't be able to move without free space for swap files.

Then consider getting a backup strategy in place. There are two types of computers: those that have crashed and those that will. 😟

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Answer 6

Sep 4, 2010 12:48 AM in response to hollyhogwash

Similar issue -- I want to move my iPhoto library to an ED. My ED is formatted "MAC OS Extended" -- not "MAC OS Extended (Journaled)". Does that make a difference?

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Answer 7

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,308 points

Sep 4, 2010 12:51 AM in response to Frank in Japan

It's the Mac OS Extended part that's important - so that you're not working from a FAT, NTFS or NAS disk.

1. Quit iPhoto

2. Copy the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.

3. Hold down the option (or alt) key while launching iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. From that point on this will be the default location of your library.

4. Test the library and when you're sure all is well, trash the one on your internal HD to free up space.

Regards

TD

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