Moving iMovie to new Mac need advice

Question

Moving iMovie to new Mac need advice

Hey there,

I have a 2010 15" macbook pro which I've been using to make films with iMovie. I used to keep everything that I'm working on on the local hard drive on that macbook.

I now have a new macbook 15" and want to keep the iPhoto and iMovie files all on an external drive.

I understand how to keep the iPhoto stuff on the external.

I have no idea how to keep the iMovie stuff on the external...the project files and also the iMovie events. By iMovie events, I mean this: When I start a project, I choose file, import, movies, and import videos into an iMovie event (different from an iPhoto event). These show up in the left pane of iMovie.

So I have the old mac with all of my current iPhoto libraries and with all my current iMovie projects and iMovie events. I want to move the iMovie projects and events off of the old mac and onto an external drive. Then I want to use the new mac to access the iMovie projects and iMovie events from the external drive.

Can someone recommend the steps that I should take and educate me on where these iMovie projects and iMovie events are located and how is the best way to move them and start using them from the new mac and external drive?

Thank you for your help!

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.1)

Posted on Sep 4, 2012 9:45 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Sep 4, 2012 5:41 PM in response to medicinemanKE

See my post here. Read all the way to the bottom.

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4141

Reply

Answer 2

Sep 5, 2012 6:00 AM in response to AppleMan1958

Thanks! Great info. I used iMovie to move all of the projects and iMovie events to the external drive and then plugged the external drive into my new mac and opened an iMovie project. Everything looks fine. I'm not sure if I am fine or if I need to do it the way described in your last section at the bottom:

If you want to move Events, and copy photos, copy music, etc for editing on another Mac, you should use the FILE/CONSOLIDATE MEDIA feature after moving the Project as above.

http://help.apple.com/imovie/#mov3ac6c7c9

Also, now that I have my iMovie projects and events on the external, I am going to need to backup that drive to another external drive. So can I just copy one to another? And if the primary drive fails, will the backup drive work fine even though I didn't use iMovie?

Thanks.

Reply

Answer 3

Sep 6, 2012 12:43 AM in response to medicinemanKE

The File/Consolidate Media command is useful for putting copies of any photos or music on the hard disk without moving your whole iPhoto library or your whole iTunes library to the other Mac.

If you have moved these anyway and are satisfies that your projects are working correctly, there is no need to Consolidate Media.

I haven't tested your second question so I can't be sure. I think it will work if the projects and events are on the same drive. Just in case, I would jot down the name of your Volume that holds the Events and Projects. If you backup volume fails to work, I would try renaming the Volume to the one iMovie is expecting, but I doubt this will be the case.

Another way to be sure would be to do the backup from within iMovie.

If you are using SuperDuper! or Carbon COpy Cloner for backup, I suggest your test your backup in iMovie so you can see that everything is well.

Personally, I back up all projects. I backup original events of all my DV. For AVCHD, I back up the Archive copies, but not the Events. I can always re-create the Event from the Archive.

Always test your backup plans.

Reply

Answer 4

Sep 6, 2012 5:04 AM in response to AppleMan1958

Great, thanks! Good advice

Reply