Imovie export file missing and now hard drive is full.

Hello, I have exported two movies from through share using export movie and export using quicktime but I can't find them anywhere. Also my computer hard drive is full and I can't find the temp file in imovie to delete. Can anyone help me?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Mar 23, 2013 5:12 PM

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12 replies

Mar 25, 2013 1:03 AM in response to boobosh

If you use "Share > Export > Media Browser" the exported file will be located in the project's package contents folder. When exporting using "Share > Export > Movie" or "Share > Export using QuickTime" (as you appear to have done), you can choose your own location, such as Desktop. Have you checked in your Documents folder and Movies folder? - these are usually the default locations when exporting using the latter two methods.


To access package contents, in Finder go to your Home folder "<your user name>/Movies/iMovie Projects" and locate your project. Right-click (or Control-click) on the project name. From the pop-up menu select "Show Package Contents". In that folder you will see a folder named Movies (provided you have shared to Media Browser). Exported movies will be in the Movies folder within Package Contents. Exported movies will be named Large.m4v, 720p.mov or 1080p.mov and similar (depending on which size you exported as). These can be copied and pasted and then renamed if desired.


Note that projects stored on an external drive will be at the top level in the folder Movies/iMovie projects. Again, any movie shared to the Media Browser will be stored in the package contents folder for the relevant project, as described above.


Having said all this, it's unlikely that you will find your exported movie in the project's package contents folder, given that you exported as "Share > Export > Movie" and "Share > Export using QuickTime". As I described above, when sharing using these methods, you have a choice of locations (unless you've left the setting as the default location, which is possibly your Home folder "Documents" or "Movies".


John

Apr 17, 2015 10:00 AM in response to boobosh

Have you used View in Finder to locate your Shared videos folder and then, if you can find it, delete it from there the old-fashioned way? I have had space constraints related to iMovie 10 too and found that my largest video files seem to be saved within iMovie folders that I can only get to via View in Finder mode from within iMovie.

Mar 25, 2013 6:43 PM in response to John Cogdell

Thank you for everyones replies however none have them have worked. I do recall in the past when I tried to export a movie and it showed up as a file named multipass with funny characters following and it was in the trash can. It didn't show up as a exported file in the destination folder on my external drive either. I knew the file was related to my export because when you export you can choose single pass or multipass in the video settings. However this last time I used the same settings with the same outcome, except it didn't end up in the trash so I couldn't delete it. I have a mac book pro and I had over 30 gigs of space on the internal drive and I was exporting the project to a 1 tb drive which had 250 gbs available. My actual project was only 47 mins long. It used all the 30 gbs of space except for about 150 mbs and my computer almost didn't operate. I had to delete files just so I could continue to use my computer.

Apr 8, 2013 5:26 PM in response to John Cogdell

Thank you for everyones replies however none have them have worked. I do recall in the past when I tried to export a movie and it showed up as a file named multipass with funny characters following and it was in the trash can. It didn't show up as a exported file in the destination folder on my external drive either. I knew the file was related to my export because when you export you can choose single pass or multipass in the video settings. However this last time I used the same settings with the same outcome, except it didn't end up in the trash so I couldn't delete it. I have a mac book pro and I had over 30 gigs of space on the internal drive and I was exporting the project to a 1 tb drive which had 250 gbs available. My actual project was only 47 mins long. It used all the 30 gbs of space except for about 150 mbs and my computer almost didn't operate. I had to delete files just so I could continue to use my computer.

Apr 27, 2014 6:19 PM in response to Vig-vig

I have this same problem and there are several threads running about it. I have the paid-for version of iMovie, and cannot even get it to export a Quicktime movie. This makes it even more useless than I already find it to be. I spent the last two days working on a video, and for me to send it to my client, I would have to freight my computer to them so they could view it.


<Edited by Host>

Apr 2, 2015 9:14 AM in response to boobosh

I have found this problem using QuickTime and saving to a shared drive on another iMAC.

The file is exported properly, it is just "Hidden"


If you look at the folder through a terminal session the file is there, but even if you copy it

it will appear long only until the copy command is completed and then the copy becomes hidden.


If you export from QuickTime to a local folder and then drag and drop the file, it is fine, even on the shared drive.


It is only if you export directly to the shred drive the "Hidden" property of the file is set some how.


How to stop this from happening or un"hide" the file? Either solution would be helpful at this time.


Thanks!

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Imovie export file missing and now hard drive is full.

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