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Moving imovie library to external hard drive and back?

Hi


Im running very low on storage on my MacBook pro. And i need to upgrade, but i also have unfinished projects and projects i dont want to loose. So i was wondering if its possible to move my library to an external hard drive. Upgrade the storage, and then move the library back again?


TIA

Posted on Apr 29, 2018 1:10 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Apr 29, 2018 9:23 AM

Yes, you can move an iMovie Library back and forth between drives. First make sure that the external drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). If the external drive is not already formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled) you can reformat it using the disk utility app on your Mac. Reformatting will erase all data on the drive, so make sure that you have backed up or moved elsewhere anything that you want to keep.


Then do a copy and paste of your iMovie Library from the Movies folder to your external drive. Make sure that the library is working O.K. on the external drive, and then you can delete the one on your computer's drive.


For safety's sake, it's a good idea to keep a Time Machine backup, or other backup, of your iMovie Library. Libraries can get corrupted, disks can fail, and if you don't have a backup you could lose all of your projects.


-- Rich

1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Apr 29, 2018 9:23 AM in response to PhotoAnnki

Yes, you can move an iMovie Library back and forth between drives. First make sure that the external drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). If the external drive is not already formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled) you can reformat it using the disk utility app on your Mac. Reformatting will erase all data on the drive, so make sure that you have backed up or moved elsewhere anything that you want to keep.


Then do a copy and paste of your iMovie Library from the Movies folder to your external drive. Make sure that the library is working O.K. on the external drive, and then you can delete the one on your computer's drive.


For safety's sake, it's a good idea to keep a Time Machine backup, or other backup, of your iMovie Library. Libraries can get corrupted, disks can fail, and if you don't have a backup you could lose all of your projects.


-- Rich

Moving imovie library to external hard drive and back?

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