Help! MacBook Pro running out of space because of iMovie?

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Level 1

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Help! MacBook Pro running out of space because of iMovie?

I have a late 2013 MacBook Pro, which is in pretty good condition. I use it nearly everyday for work. I do graphic design and motion graphics so I use a lot of editing programs (mostly Adobe Premiere, After Effects, Illustrator, Photoshop and good ol' iMovie)

I'm working on a project in iMovie (my Premiere is a little glitchy) and I find that it's been eating up all of my storage space. I get constant messages saying "Disk running out of space". I've seen it jump from 30 GB free to 315MB free. The computer also feels really hot and makes a loud whirring sound, which I think is the internal fan.

I'm not the biggest tech expert, but I know that iMovie always takes up a lot of space on the computer. However I don't want to delete the cache or render files, because I'm scared that could affect my project (I've spent hours on it and can't afford to lose it)

How can I clear all of those files without possibly affecting my project? Any other tip on ways to free up space on the computer would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you

MacBook Pro with Retina display, iOS 10.2, late 2013 model, bought in Feb 2014

Posted on Oct 25, 2018 8:53 AM

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Answer 1

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Rich839

Level 8

47,706 points

Oct 25, 2018 9:39 AM in response to CarlieBim

Hi,

Actually, assuming that you are using iMovie 10, the iMovie app does not take up much space. The iMovie projects and media are stored in the iMovie Library found in your Movies folder. The size of the iMovie Library depends upon how many projects and how much media you store in it.

The easiest way to save space is to move your iMovie Library to an external drive that is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). If your external drive is formatted something else (e.g, FAT 32), you can reformat it to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) by using the Disk Utility app on your Mac. Note: Reformatting a drive erases all data on it, so before you reformat be sure to back up any data that you want to keep. To move your library to an external drive, select it, do an Edit/Copy, and then Edit/Paste it into the external drive. Once you verify that it is working properly, you can delete the old iMovie Library on your computer if you want. Always good to have a back up Library, though, such as on a Time Machine backup.

In iMovie 10 you can delete render files by clicking on iMovie/Preferences and then Delete Render Files in the box that appears.

Deleting render files will not damage your projects. It may make them a little slower as iMovie recreates the render files after you next reopen the iMovie project. You probably won't notice it.

-- Rich

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Help! MacBook Pro running out of space because of iMovie?

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