iMovie Preferences Files

• com.apple.imovie.plist - This is the .plist for iMovie '09 (pretty sure of that, iMove '11 uses it too)
• com.apple.imovie8.plist - Most likely left over from a previous install of iMovie '08 (possibly?)
• com.apple.imovie.LSSharedFileList.plist - Did some searches on Google. And it appears Apple has one of these for all their iLife apps, and some Pro Apps (Logic,Final Cut). It may be something relating to the Media Browser (Share>Media Browser). Where you can reuse iMovie projects in say iWeb, iDVD or Pages without having to export to the desktop and import them into the other program.

The preference files for various versions of iMovie are as follows:

⇒ iMovie 3 and iMovie 4 - "com.apple.iMovie3.plist"

⇒ iMovie HD 6 - "com.apple.iMovie.plist" (I think iMovie HD [version 5] also used this file)

⇒ iMovie '08 - "com.apple.iMovie7.plist"

⇒ iMovie '09 - "com.apple.iMovie8.plist"

⇒ iMovie '11 - "com.apple.iMovieApp.plist"

As you will note, it's all very confusing! This is mainly due to version numbers not matching the release name, or no number being allocated. For example, the iMovie '09 file is labelled with iMovie8 because the version number is 8 (the last release being 8.0.6). However, for iMovie '11 it's simply iMovieApp (with the latest version being 9.0.4).

It's difficult to see the logic with the naming protocols, but bear in mind, no harm will come if you delete the wrong file as iMovie (whatever version) will rebuild the .plist file with the default settings when next opened. You can then change settings if desired in the iMovie menu item "iMovie>Preferences".

John

Message was edited by: John Cogdell - added line for iMovie '08

Thanks for writing this up John, I'm bookmarking this post for future reference.

My pleasure! Just thought it would help to clarify things for anyone coming across this topic. It can be confusing - luckily I've been using iMovie since version 2 (originally on Mac OS 9), so have been able to keep track of the preference files.

John

Hi serenity99 - I think you are looking in the wrong place in Finder. The iLife .plist files appear under Macintosh HD/Library/Preferences. You will find the iMovie .plist files under your User name (the Home icon)/Library/Preferences. In Finder (multi-column mode) click on your User name in the very first column (under Places), then Library, then Preferences. Otherwise click on Macintosh HD, then Users, then your name, then Library/Preferences.

John