Old iMovies with New Mac

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Level 2

269 points

Old iMovies with New Mac

I keep my iMovie files on an external hard drive. Last night I tried to import some new video footage into iMovie on my new 27" Retina iMac. Instead of saving it to my external hard drive like it did on my old computer, iMovie imported the video footage into the iMovie Library which is stored on my startup drive in the Movies folder. I'm confused as I don't seem to even have an iMovie Library file for my old movies on the external hard drive.

Questions:

• Is this iMovie Library file a new aspect of iMovie?

• How can I move the iMovie Library file to my external hard drive so future imports are saved there instead of the start-up drive?

• How can I merge my old movies with the new footage I imported last night?

Thanks in advance.

iMac with Retina 5K display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.2)

Posted on Jun 30, 2015 1:35 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

GeeD

Level 6

9,173 points

Jun 30, 2015 3:46 PM in response to Raymond Fox

• Is this iMovie Library file a new aspect of iMovie?

This is new in iMovie 10

• How can I move the iMovie Library file to my external hard drive so future imports are saved there instead of the start-up drive?

You can copy it withe Finder to your external hard drive then when you open iMovie File > Open library > Other then navigate to the external disk location.

The Movies folder is the default location for iMovie libraries but you can store them anywhere. You may need to consolidate your projects and events first so as to make sure all media is in the library. See: http://help.apple.com/imovie/mac/10.0.8/#/mov882dee351

• How can I merge my old movies with the new footage I imported last night?

With both libraries open in iMovie you can copt or move events between libraries - see: http://help.apple.com/imovie/mac/10.0.8/#/mov3fa25bae7

Geoff.

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Answer 2

Raymond Fox Author

Level 2

269 points

Jun 30, 2015 4:05 PM in response to GeeD

Thank you for your reply, GeeD, and for the informative links.

Since my old movies are not contained within an iMovie Library, would you suggest that I move the new iMovies Library file from the Movies folder and onto my external hard drive, then consolidate the old movies into the new iMovie Library? Would I be able to select my old movies in the "consolidate" process to bring them into the new library?

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Answer 3

GeeD

Level 6

9,173 points

Jun 30, 2015 4:15 PM in response to Raymond Fox

"my old movies are not contained within an iMovie Library"

Are you referring to movie projects and events from iMovie 9 (that are in separate projects and events folders at the root level of your external drive)? To use these in iMovie 10 you have first to update them from within iMovie 10 (File > Update Project and Events). They will then be added to the currently selected iMovie 10 library.

Geoff.

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Answer 4

Raymond Fox Author

Level 2

269 points

Jun 30, 2015 4:31 PM in response to GeeD

>Are you referring to movie projects and events from iMovie 9 (that are in separate projects and events folders at the root level of your external drive)? <

I am, indeed.

>To use these in iMovie 10 you have first to update them from within iMovie 10 (File > Update Project and Events). They will then be added to the currently selected iMovie 10 library.<

I will give that a shot this evening and report back. Thanks so much for the advice.

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Answer 5

Raymond Fox Author

Level 2

269 points

Jun 30, 2015 11:48 PM in response to Raymond Fox

Excellent! Your tip did the trick, GeeD. I managed to bring most of my old clips into my new iMovie Library. I am very grateful.

I do have a folder full of my earliest iMovie clips, taken back in 2007 or so, that didn't make it into the iMovie Library. They were in a separate folder on the same external hard drive as the other clips, but weren't included in the library. I can use "Import Media..." to manually get them into my iMovie Library, but for some reason, they get appended on to existing clips instead of remaining a separate clip. If you have any advice for this, I'm all ears. Otherwise, thank you for getting me this far! 🙂

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Answer 6

Raymond Fox Author

Level 2

269 points

Jun 30, 2015 11:52 PM in response to Raymond Fox

Sorry, I accidentally clicked on my own post for the *Solved* notification. That should have gone to you, GeeD. 😕

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Answer 7

GeeD

Level 6

9,173 points

Jul 1, 2015 1:59 AM in response to Raymond Fox

Only iMovie 9 projects and event folders at the root level of a drive (or in the User's Movies folder) will be recognised by iMovie 10 for update. To update those in a separate folder the enclosed projects and events files have to be moved to the root level. If they are from a very early iMovie version the update may not work - I don't know how far back it works.

If they are just clips then you can create new events in iMovie 10 and then either import them or drag and drop them into the events pane using the Finder.

Note that your iMovie 9 folders are not removed and can still be used with iMovie 9. I would not delete them until you have tried out and are happy with iMovie 10. It is very different and some features in iMovie 9 are no longer present. Not much extra space is being taken up because both iMovie versions are sharing the same original clips through the use of hard links.

Geoff.

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Answer 8

Raymond Fox Author

Level 2

269 points

Jul 1, 2015 8:17 PM in response to GeeD

Geed, thank you so much for your kind assistance. I was able to successfully drag and drop my older iMovie events into iMovie 10. I believe they're all within the iMovie Library now. Does that mean I can delete the old folder full of videos now that they're in iMovie 10?

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