Where does iMovie store video files?

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Level 1

7 points

Where does iMovie store video files?

Hi,

I have a question about where iMovie saves video files. It seems as if when I add some videos to iMovie they store on the iMovie Library but for some videos iMovie looks for the original file.

For example, if I add a file from the desktop and I delete it, the next time I open iMovie sometimes it says that it hasn't found the original files and other times it works okay.

Does someone have an explanation for this?

Thanks in advance

Mac mini (Late 2014), OS X El Capitan (10.11.4)

Posted on Dec 6, 2016 8:07 AM

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Answer 1

GeeD

Level 6

9,179 points

Dec 6, 2016 12:44 PM in response to Vicentelles

iMovie stores all imported (and dragged & dropped) media files in the library. Only in case of media from other Apple application libraries (iTunes, Photos etc.) does the iMovie library link to the file in the other application library (so as not to waste space with duplicates). When media are imported and depending on the format iMovie may transcode the media before storing it in the library and this process can take some time. If this is interrupted there will not yet be a library copy.

Geoff.

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