iMovie 13 (10.0.2) - how to move movies to external hard drive?

See this section of the Help file.

https://help.apple.com/imovie/mac/10.0/help/index.html?localePath=en.lproj#mov3f a25bae7

Dustinwind wrote:

if moving iMovie13 projects and events are similar to iMovie11, then I'm still missing something.

It's a good bit different.

iMovie version 10 now uses Libraries instead of the iMovie Projects and iMovie Events folders used by version 9. These new Libraries contain Events. You can think of Events as folders within a Library. Events can contain both Projects and/or clips and other media. A Library must contain at least one Event.

You can have an iMovie Library on each hard drive (internal or external) connected to your computer.

You can move Projects and clips from one Event to another (or to a different Library) by dragging and dropping them within iMovie.

Matt

What about the Event folders those are still on the internal disk and are NOT moved to the external disk! It looks like it is moved in iMovie but when you look at the disks it is not.

Thanks

Do you mean the iMovie Events folder in your Movies folder?

That's for iMovie version 9.

iMovie version 9 is retained when you update to version 10 so the iMovie Projects and iMovie Events folders it uses are still there.

iMovie versin 10 doesn't use either of those folders.

Matt

Yes that the folders I revering too. If that is true what you are saying i will trough them away. That will save me a lot of space :-) (it's is about 700Gb)

Have you updated all your Projects and Events so that they are in in iMovie 10?

I wouldn't start deleting anything unless your certain everything has been updated and you're also certain you won't want to go back to iMovie version 9 for any reason.

Matt

I will be careful and thanks Matt for you help.

Maybe a redundant question...So if we move over a completed project to the external drive, we don't need to move over the events? They can then be deleted from the original library if we are happy with the final project?

Dustinwind wrote:

What's the easiest way to tell if Projects and Events have been updated from iMovie 9 to 10?

I gues first and foremost would be to make sure you see them all from within iMovie versin 10.

Matt

Deirdre5278 wrote:

So if we move over a completed project to the external drive,

I assume you're moving it from with iMovie.

we don't need to move over the events? They can then be deleted from the original library if we are happy with the final project?

No. Not true.

The iMovie Project is just a database of information regarding what clips were used, where the edits are etc. It doesn't contain any footage. It just points to clips in an Event.

So if you want your whole project in a Library on an external drive you've got to move both the Project and the clips it uses to an Event located in the Library on the external drive.

Remember that an Event is essentially a folder which can contain both Project and clips.

Once you've Shared your project to a file etc. and you're happy with it and no longer wish to edit it, then you can delete it from iMovie.

I get a bit nervous when everyone seems so eager to start deleting footage. It's fine to delete it as long as you are certain of what you're doing and that you don't need it anymore. I'd hate to see anyone lose footage they cannot replace.

Matt

OK we all seem a bit confused, and the help material isn't at all clear to me. Can we try again: I have iMovie'13 updated from iMovie'11. I want to move the entire data off my Mac hard drive and onto an external hard drive. I created New iMovie Library on the external drive, no problem. I copied all the Events(?) from the old iMovie Library to the new one. That seems to have worked fine, all the events are able to be viewed from the New iMovie Library.

But, the New iMovie Library file is only 25MB in size, so as noted above it is only pointing to the actual clips which remain located on my Mac hard drive. So how to get those clips, events or whatever the source data is called onto the external drive and free up the space as intended?

In iMovie, I now have five items listed under the heading "LIBRARIES" being (1) iPhoto Library, (2) All Events, (3) All Projects, (4) iMovie Library, and (5) New iMovie Library. The trick, I assume, is somehow getting all the events in All Events moved, as the Events contain the actual clip data (don't they?).

I tried to drag and drop them into the New iMovie Library, this doesn't work at all: the cursor just selects a rectangle of multipe events. There is no right-click context menu to Move or Copy. The menu option File > Move to Library remains greyed out. So how do I get them moved?

What does the "Consolidate Library Media" option do I wonder...?

I'm in the same boat here. What I'm "trying," since there seems to be no one with a definitive answer on this, is a simple drag and drop of the iMovie library (in Finder) from "Macintosh HD>Users>{Your User Name}>Movies" to my external drive. Same procedure was recommended and worked great for iPhoto. Of course, I'll verify that all my clips, etc. are available from the external drive before I delete from the Mac. I'll also update here when I have definite information.

Also, Matthew Morgan stated, "You can have an iMovie Library on each hard drive (internal or external) connected to your computer." This is true but a bit misleading. It suggests that you may have only one library to a drive. In fact, you may create (from iMovie 10.0.2) multiple libraries on a single drive, as long as they have discreet names. You simply have to go to "File>Open Library" and choose the one you want to open from the list, or click "New" to create a new one.

Acrually if you want to move files you should use the command-key in stead of the option key.

At least that is my experience. (So the instruction in the support documeny is not right) Option will just copy, so it will not diminish the size of your original library.

Ben