Moving imovie project. Confused. Appleman help?

I am so confused.....

I want to copy a project to an EHD and be able to edit it (and then eventually delete it from my IHD also).

What is the difference if I drag and copy the project to EHD and chose Copy Projects and Events.

vs. doing this and then File Consolidate Media.

Does't copy projects and events move all data to the EHD so that project can be edited from EHD??

Or do I need to do the second step (file/consolidate) after copying to EHD?

Thanks.

Thanks AppleMan. Your help is very much appreciated.

Let me see if I understand this:

1. If I drag to copy a project to EHD.

I choose copy project. Only thing that is copied is reference files (no media).

I chose copy projects and events. Reference file and everything in the event is copied. So if i use 10 seconds of video in my project, but from that event of 10 seconds in the project there is 20min of video... all 20 min is copied, not just the 10seconds used in the video.

Is the above correct?

2. If the above is correct... then copy projects and events does not bring anything such as photos, music, voice overs, etc to the EHD, right?

3. Now if I drag to copy a project and select only copy project (top option). But then after the project is copied to EHD, I then do file/consolidate media... then chose copy the clips (middle option), then that 10second clip only, plus all other media is copied (photos, music, etc).

Is the above correct?

If this is correct then I can plug this hard drive into a another Mac and render the video fully, right?

😕 Thank you for your help again.

Poor wording on my part. When I say reference file I just mean the iMovie language that it uses to say grab 10 seconds from this minute clip, grab this song from iTunes, grab these pics from iPhoto etc. Not sure what that is called. The recipe of putting project together. Is that called the data file? (Ie. I think these data files are located in home/movies/projects and then name of the project).

Another way of asking. What do you do? If you have 50 projects from several years, do you move them off your Mac? For the rare reason you would ever want to edit them again after you render them? It seems like having 50-60 projects with some dating back to 2008 stresses out iMovie.

Thanks again Apple Man.

Thanks again Appleman.

I too keep the majority of my events on EHD. I only keep the last 2 years on IHD.

Here is what I tested and found.

1. Connect my EHD with my events.

2. I drag my project that I want backed up to the EHD of my choice (in this case I have a EHD for projects that is separate from my events EHD).

3. I select Copy project only (top option).

4. From that Project (now copied to EHD), I select File/Consolidate Media.

5. I chose Copy clips (middle option). No need to copy events since I already have them and it is just duplicating work.

6. Once done, I delete the project from my IHD.

I then removed my Events EHD.

I left only my EHD that the new project and media consolidation was on.

I was able to render the video completely. Meaning that it pulled the movie clips and other data (music, pics) from the Project EHD since my Events EHD was not connected.

Also, the chances that I would ever go back and edit a video from 2010 are slim... but the option is there at least.

Once I render videos, I make sure they final copies are backed up in more than one place.

Thanks again.

BTW AM...

You said:

and i quickly realized that I needed to move them off the internal drive

Why do you say that? Was your imovie slow? Did it crash?

I freaked out the other day while editing a movie... I got a 'Kernal Panic' (which I had never heard of and had to look it up):

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3742?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

Have you ever seen/heard of this??

I had to delete my preference file to get things working again.

I had an EHD connected with my events.

I am hoping I never see this thing again and that imovie was just overloaded with so many projects.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

I did some testing. Wanted to follow up with you AM. You have been a big help and if I can share with you something, it would be my honor 😉

So.. I got a EHD and did my steps above (two posts above this one).

My question was this: What if I copied my project and clip outlined above... then altered the project on my IHD... then wanted to copy the new project to my EHD... what would imovie do? Would it copy the new project, overwrite the other one?

So.. picutre one below. It copied my TEST project and the media to render it to the EHD.

Next I altered the project on my IHD and then repeated steps above

Sorry... hit wrong button.

After altering it, imovie put a #1 after the title... everything was there. So I had two projects now.

Next, altered it again...

It then put a number 2 after it. So it maintaing all versions.

Finally, from imovie I deleted the Test Video 2.

here is final snap shot. It deleted the project file, but not the media associated with it.. that was still there.

Actually, the way I am copying is by usuing only clips in a particular project and not entire events.

So if you look at last screen shot (compared to the one right above it), you can see Test Video 2 is gone from projects, but the event media is left behind. So originally, each new project had its own set of events clips (these are not complete events, just event clips used in that specific project). So, my understanding is, the Test Video 2 event will just be clogging space on EHD because nothing will ever point to it to be used again since the Project Test Video 2 was deleted.

You agree?