I plan to have all my photos and videos in iPhoto or Photos rather than keeping the videos in iMovie. How can I import my videos from an iMovie library to iPhoto or Photos library? Do I have to export then reimport? Do I have to do that one file at a time?
Any help appreciated
MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mavericks (10.9.4)
iPhotos or Photos only hold complete movie files in their libraries. So you have to export your iMovie videos to file then import them into iPhoto or Photos. You can't use iPhoto or Photos to store iMovie projects that you are still editing or want to edit further in the future.
Geoff.
GeeD:
When you say "projects", does that include any event? I don't really edit movies. I just store them mostly.
Do I have to export one file at a time? When I tried to mark multiple files then export it didn't work.
"I don't really edit movies. I just store them mostly"
So do you mean that you have a lot of (raw) video clips in iMovie events that you want to move to iPhoto or Photos? Where to find them depends on whether you are using iMovie 10 or iMovie 9.
Geoff.
Yes. I just import my home videos from my videocam to iMovie (I have iMovie 10) and don't do any projects. They are just saved in the iMovie library (I think as events) and would like to have them in their chronological order in my Photos (or iPhoto) library. The reason I don't import them directly to iPhoto or Photos is that they are MOD format which is not recognized by iPhoto.
So you are using iMovie just to transcode them. Apparently .mod files are actually mpeg and in some cases can be made 'acceptable simply by changing the extension to .mpg though this does not always work.
Have a look at the contents of your iMovie 10 library (right click > show package contents). In each event folder there will be an 'Original Media' folder. Do these files still have .mod extensions? If not you could try importing them into iPhoto/Photos, avoiding the need for exporting them.
Otherwise you need to find a way of converting them into a format that can be imported directly into iPhoto/Photos. If you google this you will find a load of paid third party apps that claim to be able to do this but you may be able to use free apps such as Mpeg Streamclip.
Maybe someone else more familiar with old movie formats can chime in here with details.
Geoff.
Great advice. They are actually MOV and I was able to import easily to Photos. My next question would be about the best way to geotag them during this process. Seems like iMovie doesn't geotag and Photos doesn't geotag -at least not yet-. My options would be:
1. Importing to iPhoto where I can geotag. I think I will have to export then import to Photos to have them in the same library with my other items.
2. Geotag them using another app then importing directly to my Photos library.
Please let me know what seems to be the easiest from your experience and what apps do u suggest?
GeeD
If u know the structure of the iPhoto library then I may be able to import from it without having to export.
I'm glad that worked out. I'm afraid I know nothing about geotagging, never used iPhoto and don't intend to use Photos (for years I have kept all my media in my own directory filed by shoot date - anything else seems too complicated!)
Geoff.
Hi GeeD:
I intend to try importing directly from the iMovie library on a large scale (150 home videos). It maintained the date of the video whereas exporting the importing lost the date of the video. Am I expected to loose any info by doing that? I guess not if I haven't done editing on them. Please let me know if u r aware of any possible data loss.
Yes, exporting them from movie would have given the files the date of the export. The 'original media' in the iMovie library should be just that (though it did change the extension in the case of your .mod files) so I don't think you will loose anything by importing them into an iPhoto or Photos library but I'm not sure. If you eventually want to delete the photos in your iMovie library, you need to make sure that Photos does not simply create links to them but actually copies them into its library. From this article:
http://admin.imore.com/how-import-images-and-folders-photos-os-x
it appears that the default for importing folders of images already in the computer is to create links and you need to modify Photos preferences.
Geoff.
importing from iMovie library to iPhoto or Photos
