Transfer iMovie to External Drive, Consolidate Files, and Point to new iMovie

Question

Transfer iMovie to External Drive, Consolidate Files, and Point to new iMovie

Hi - I have an older iMac 10.9.5 with iMovie 10.0.5 and a newer iMac 10.12.5 with iMovie 10.1.6. I have a three-part question.

(The movies folder on the old Mac is attached in a screenshot)

1. Transfer

I would like to move the contents of the old iMovie to an external hard drive and point iMovie from the new Mac to those files. Just drag and drop the 3 libraries, iMovie Events folder and iMovie Projects folder to the external hard drive?

2. Consolidate

Besides for the 3 iMovie libraries, the pertinent folders are iMovie Events and iMovie Projects. How do I consolidate this libraries and all its content?

3. Point to New iMovie

There's already an "iMovie Library" on the new computer. How do I point the new iMovie to the older libraries?

iMac, macOS Sierra (10.12.5)

Posted on Jul 5, 2017 11:42 AM

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Answer 1

GeeD

Level 6

9,209 points

Jul 5, 2017 6:15 PM in response to Nathan Chicago

1. You can copy complete libraries to an external drive with the Finder or you can create a new library from within iMovie and move selected events and projects into it (I recommend copy rather than move so that you can check that the copied / created new library is working OK before you delete the old one).

However, your iMovie Events and iMovie Projects folders come from an earlier version (pre-10) of iMovie. If they have already been updated to iMovie 10.x.x and you are only using imovie 10.x.x then those folders are no longer needed.

If not they need first to be updated to iMovie 10 from within iMovie by selecting File > Update Projects and Events

2. It is advisable to select File > Consolidate Library Media... before moving / copying a library to a new location in order to make sure that all media is copied to the new location rather than links which may break.

3. You can give libraries whatever names you like in order to distinguish them. To open a library that iMovie does not list when you select File > Open Library simply select "Other" and navigate to it. Next time it will appear in the list.

Note that when you open a library with a later version of iMovie than the one used to create it it will usually ask to update the library (since library formats have been changed quite frequently with new updates). Once updated, a library will no longer be readable by earlier versions so if you want to continue using your older Mac with updated libraries you will have to update its version of iMovie to the latest.

I hope this helps.

Geoff.

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Answer 2

GeeD

Level 6

9,209 points

Jul 6, 2017 5:46 AM in response to Nathan Chicago

There is not a merge function but you can move or copy events and projects from one library to another from within iMovie. I would avoid creating one very big library though - it takes longer to load and you have more to loose if something goes wrong. Rather, I recommend having a number of smaller libraries. Only the library you are working on need be loaded and you can archive ones with old projects offline. Avoid having multiple libraries that reference the same events since this will result in duplication of media since a library cannot reference clips from a different library and has to make a copy.

Geoff.

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Answer 3

Jul 14, 2017 7:42 AM in response to GeeD

Hi - I performed "consolidate files" and copied my libraries over to an external drive. For the most part it was successful, however, not all media in a project copied over to the external drive. For example, 99% of a project copied over and 1 or 2 photos were missing when I opened it in iMovie on the new computer. Anything else I can do to ensure the complete transfer of all media files in a project?

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