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Can iMovie 10 and iMovie 09 apps and projects co-exist together?

Before I make the upgrade to iMovie 10, could anyone who's done it, answer some questions?


  • When I upgrade to iMovie 10, will the old iMovie 09 app still exist? I've already updated the other iLife apps (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) and their old versions appear in the /Applications/iWork '09 folder. I just want to make sure iMovie 09 will be be saved there as well
  • When I go through the upgrade process, will I be forced to upgrade my projects to the new iMovie 10 format, or will I be given the option to leave them alone?
  • Once I begin using iMovie 10 to create new projects, will I still be able to start up iMovie 09 and work on my 09 projects?

Posted on Oct 23, 2013 5:19 PM

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Posted on Oct 23, 2013 6:45 PM

When you download and install iMovie 10.0, and when you launch for the first time, it will prompt you to update your projects and events. If you click yes, it will update those projects and events to make them compatible with iMovie 10. You can also choose "Update Later." iMove will not prompt you again, but you do have the option to upgrade manually.


iMovie 9.0.9 will remain on the system, and you are able to access your old projects and events. Even if you do upgrade the projects and events folder, the old file structure will remain in place for iMovie 9.0.9 to access. Frankly, if you to update, and leave the old file structure of projects and events in place, you are taking up HD drive because there will be duplicates.

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Oct 23, 2013 6:45 PM in response to Jaime Villacorte

When you download and install iMovie 10.0, and when you launch for the first time, it will prompt you to update your projects and events. If you click yes, it will update those projects and events to make them compatible with iMovie 10. You can also choose "Update Later." iMove will not prompt you again, but you do have the option to upgrade manually.


iMovie 9.0.9 will remain on the system, and you are able to access your old projects and events. Even if you do upgrade the projects and events folder, the old file structure will remain in place for iMovie 9.0.9 to access. Frankly, if you to update, and leave the old file structure of projects and events in place, you are taking up HD drive because there will be duplicates.

Oct 23, 2013 7:25 PM in response to kfoggy1

I told iMovie 10 to go ahead and update my old projects and whatever when I launched it the first time. But I didn't have my external drive attached that has most of my iMovie events in it until after I had already told iMovie 10 to go ahead and update my projects. So I got an error message that not all the footage was available or whatever. iMovie seemed to freeze up, so eventually I force quite it. I relaunched it, and chose "Update Projects and Events" from the file menu. It brought over my events. But the projects section still seems to be empty. Anything I can do to fix this issue?

Oct 23, 2013 8:16 PM in response to bawill

I would recommend deleting your iMovie Library, and delete all files in that same folder and subfolders that have something to do with "updatedtoimovie10" or something similar. Empty out your trash.


Then try opening up iMovie 10 again, with your external plugged in. If it doesn't prompt you to update, then go to File > Update Projects and Events, with your ext. drive plugged.


Here is a Apple help document that sheds some light on the upgrade process: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT6012


However, after doing some research (as a person who has some projects on external and some on local drive), I decided to start from scratch with iMovie 10, and use iMovie 9.0.9 (which Apple allowed to be still installed on your system...i wonder why....) to access former projects on my local and external).

Oct 26, 2013 9:26 AM in response to Jaime Villacorte

This thread has been useful to me.

iMovie 10 works well, however doesnt feel as intuative, and clearly has bugs when it comes to backward compatibility.

When I updated to imovie 10 I realised that if I played back some of the projects had made in 9, they played smoother but the aspect ratio of all the photo's had gone drastically wrong and any clips that had black boarders (due to being shot in portrat) were being stretched.

I'm gonna wait a bit for a bugfixed version as I have medium sized SSD, so space is precious.


I have reverted back to Mountain Lion/iMovie 9 reinstalled using time machine. (Phew all working again.)

Can iMovie 10 and iMovie 09 apps and projects co-exist together?

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