I want to save my movies and projects on an external drive

Does anyone know how I can change the settings on imovie to save imported movies into an external disk? When you ase asked to select where to save the movies, it only gives me the option to save on my Mac HD and if you move the clips then you can't use your projects any more.
I don't want to take up all the space on my Mac and I like to save everything to a external disk. I do this with itunes and iphoto, so I can't see why I can't do this with imovie.
I am a new user, any help would be appreciated.

Welcome ssnyder to the  iMovie boards ...
step1) purchase an external harddrive
step2) launch Utilities/Disk Utility, select new drive, choose Erase, choose Mac/hfs as format
step3) .. no step 3, new and formatted drive will be noticed by iM automatically; when creating New Event, it will allow you to import straight to ext. HDD. iM also allows to 'drag n drop' existing Events from internal to external drive without loss of connection to projects.

Similar Messages

How do I move a project from an external drive back into Imovie

I recently bought an Iomega external hard drive to store documentary movies so that I wouldn't jam up my Imac's free space. However, after I moved an imovie/idvd project to it, and wanted to make changes, I could not move the project back into the Imac's drive. (It also would not burn from the external, giving me a multiplex error) When I tried to move the movie back into Imovie on the Imac it said Quicktime couldn't parse it. I saw various posts about parsing, but not about specifically about moving a project from an external drive. Can anyone offer any suggestions? It seems to me that I should be able to move a project back and forth without that much trouble.

Sounds like you have a DVD format (MPEG-2) and not an iMovie Project file.
The key phrases are "multiplex" and "parse". Both suggest MPEG-2 format when opened in QuickTime. It would also throw an error -2048 message if MPEG-2.
But another issue could be the file format of the external drive. Most ship pre-formatted for the Windows OS's but a Mac user should format using HFS+ (and others). If you didn't format the drive before moving the large iMovie Project onto it it may have become severely fragmented if the external used FAT 16 or FAT 32 (very common) formats. They have a 2 or 4 GB file size limit, respectively and would have made your Project unreadable when moved back and forth.
Use the Disk Utility app to find out the format of your external drive.

I really need to speed up my IMAC. I purchased a new external drive specifically formatted for apple. I also would like to move some other media (movies and music) to this external drive. What is the best method for this?

Please help...I need to delete iphoto pictures and back up to external drive without losing pictures. I have the external drive and would like to start this process. Can you help?

Formatted for Mac is not a format - for iPhoto you MUST verify that it is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled)
and putting your iPhoto library on an external drive is NOT a backup - you MUST have a good backup plan like Time Machine running or you are 100% guaranteed to lose your photos sooner or later
Moving the iPhoto library is safe and simple - quit iPhoto and drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity to the external drive - depress the option key and launch iPhoto using the "select library" option to point to the new location on the external drive - fully test it and then trash the old library on the internal drive (test one more time prior to emptying the trash)
And be sure that the External drive is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) (iPhoto does not work with drives with other formats) and that it is always available prior to launching iPhoto
And backup soon and often - having your iPhoto library on an external drive is not a backup and if you are using Time Machine you need to check and be sure that TM is backing up your external drive
other media questions need to be ask in the forum for the software you use for them - this forum is only for iPhoto and the above instructions are only for iPhoto
LN

How to move Event (not necessarily connected to Projects ) and projects to new external drive

I am running Snow Leopard 10.6.8 and iMovie11 9.0.4 have a had very stressful time trying to clear down the Movies folder from my internal drive and get it across to a new external hard drive, as my 700gb drive on my 2009 iMac is practically full. I have taken a full back-up and also created a new 1.5 TB partition on the external drive. However I do not know how to get the Events and Projects across, and for iMovie to know that every thing is now on the new drive.
Initially I copied the 2 folders using finder, which seemingly worked but then I discovered that iMovie did not display the the new events, so I deleted the 2 folders from the external drive and tried manually moving the events in iMovie. This was very slow, with lots of spinning wheels and eventually iMovie crashed. So I moved the new Event copies I did manage to create into trash, but still iMovie was crashing.
I then, thinking something had become corrupted, I tried to restore the Events folder and Projects folder from my backup, but that did not work as I got a message saying the there was not enough space to do the copies (why does it need extra space as I assume it would be overwriting the existing folders ?). So in desperation I did some forum searching and ended up deleting the com.apple.iApps.plist. Now iMovie seems to be working fine, and is displaying al the events from my internal drive (I have ejected all other drives), and I am back to square one (hopefully), however for some reason the 'month' folders I had previously created in each Event 'Year' have disappeared and all the, for example 2013 events, are now under the 2013 folder with no Month sub folders( I assume this is something to do with the preferences I had deleted ?)
I am hoping someone can direct me on the right path for getting the Events (not all of which are used in Projects) and Projects across to the new external drive, so I can free up space on the internal drive (and install Mountain Lion - my end goal).
I have been trying to do all this since 0600 this morning, so if anyome can help it would be very much appreciated.
Jim (now grabbing a much needed beer !)

Do the external drive show up in iMovie 11?? I just drag and drop in iMovie and don't touch it or change in finder.

Storing movies and tv shows on external drive.

I have moved my itunes music library to an external drive as i was runnig out of space. I'm i right in thinking this only moves my music files to this drive and keeps my movies and TV shows on my internal drive? After buying an apple tv and loading up more movies my hard drive is filling up fast.
Is it possible to store these file on the extrernal drive and still be sync'd with the Apple TV in the same way my music is?
I want to use the Apple TV as a library of my moves and don't want to stream

When you import something to iTunes you can decide whether or not to have files automatically copied to the iTunes Music library or just links to their location elsewhere.
As you probably know this is under iTunes>Preferences>Advanced>General
and selected with the 'Copy Files to iTunes Music Folder when importing' tick-box
When importing new CDs the imported files will automatically go into the iTunes Music library.
If you import pre-existing files from somewhere else on the hard drive either from the menus or by dragging and dropping, then they are governed by the preference set regardless of whether or not they are movies/tv shows or music files.
So if you had 'copy to iTunes Music folder' option set any movies you added will have been copied into the 'Music folder' which is now perhaps a bit of a misnomer and effectively a 'Media folder'.
Simplest way to check if your movies are in the 'iTunes Music folder' or not is to select one by right clicking and choose 'Show in Finder' for Mac or the equivalent Windows option which I've forgotten, but basically opens the folder where the movie is actually stored.
AC

How can I move an iMovie Project to an external drive in latest version (10.0.7)

I am trying to transfer an iMovie project from my desktop to my laptop to work on it anywhere. I have seen ways to do this in earlier releases but they do not work for the current version (10.0.7.)
I have a Mac OS Extended (journaled) USB drive. Previous threads have said that the external drive will show up in the "Events Library." This version of iMovie does not have an "Events Library" and the button to make it visible in previous versions is gone. I have looked at the Apple Support link iMovie '11: Copy or move a project to an external hard disk, but this won't work on the latest version release.
I can't seem to find any way to move my project to the external drive.
Any thoughts? Thanks

To make sure that all required media is in the library contain the project you need to "Consolidate media" see: http://help.apple.com/imovie/mac/10.0/#mov882dee351
You can then copy the library to your laptop with the Finder and open it with the same version of iMovie. The last phrase is important since Apple has made changes in the project format several times even between minor updates of iMovie 10. Earlier versions may not be able to read the library and later versions (not possible in this case) may cause the project to be updated so that it is no longer readable by the desktop version. iMovie on the laptop will not at first find the copied library - you will have either to double click on it or File - Open library - Other and navigate to its location.
Geoff.

Updated to 10.1, now can't find projects/events on external drives

Yesterday, I blithely updated my Final Cut Pro X to version 10.1. Now I am totally lost...
I have gradually got used to the way FCP operates and now, all my Events and Projects are on an external drive, organised in a series of folders; current, finished etc.
When I started FCP yesterday, instead of finding any of my events and projects, FCP created a new Library on my HD.
I use a Macbook Air and do not use my small HD for FCP... how do I tell FCP where all my files are?
I can create a new library on my HD but if I try to move it to the external drive, it is copied and if I delete the original, FCP creates another one on the HD...
Getting lost and confused as there appears to have been a wholesale change of the basic way in which FCP functions.
I don't want to use my HD library as a 'working' library, not least because I don't know how to then find the files, to transfer them to the external drive to back them up.
Also, the HD is far too small for this purpose.
How do I go about persuading FCP to set up and then use libraries on my external drives?

tootallTV wrote:
Yesterday, I blithely updated my Final Cut Pro X to version 10.1. Now I am totally lost...
I have gradually got used to the way FCP operates and now, all my Events and Projects are on an external drive, organised in a series of folders; current, finished etc.
How do I go about persuading FCP to set up and then use libraries on my external drives?
You have to let your projects and events sit in the expected folders in order to have FCP X 10.1 update them to new libraries. If 10.1 sees old events and projects in your external drive (they need to be in the places older versions required them, i.e. at the root level in "Final Cut Events" and "Final Cut Projects" folders) it will offer to update them to a new library.
You should heed Philip Hoggetts' advice about using Event Manager X (now free) to help with managing the transition. You probably don't want to gobble up all your previous projects and events in one mega-library, but give it some form of organization. See here: http://www.fcp.co/final-cut-pro/tutorials/1304-upgrade-your-events-and-projects- to-fcpx-10-1-libraries-the-smart-way

Moving iMovie Projects to an external drive

I cannot move iMovie projects to an external drive. I have followed the instructions. Help!

If it doesn't recognize the drag, then there is something else awry. You should be able to force a move instead of a copy by holding down the cmd key. Can you just plain copy?
If the destination does not become highlighted, the OS doesn't think it can accept the item for some reason.

IMovie 11 help needed. I want to move some iMovie projects and files to an external drive.

I want to move some of my iMovie 11 projects and associated files to my external hard drive. I tried copying the file and dragging it to the iMovie Library 1 on the external but I can't tell if it is there.

Hello SavannahAnn,
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
To properly move or copy an iMovie project to an external hard drive please follow the steps in the article below.
iMovie '11: Copy or move a project to an external hard disk
Take care,
Alex H.

To save hard drive space, can I put my iMovie projects and clips on an external drive?

to save hard drive space, can I put my iMovie projects and clips on an external drive?

Yes.
To preserve your projects, all moves should be done from within iMovie, (not the Finder).
First, the external drive must be formatted as Mac OS Extended (journaled). FAT32 will not work. You can reformat using Disk Utility if you need to.
When importing video from your camera, you can specify your external drive as the target on the import screen.
For existing projects, you should move using these instructions.
http://help.apple.com/imovie/#move7d66613
There is an error in the instructions where it says to drag the project icon to the icon in the Event Library. You should instead look for your hard drive icon in the Project Library.
You can move events using these instructions.
http://help.apple.com/imovie/#mov3ac6d42c
If you want to move Events, and copy photos, copy music, etc for editing on another Mac, you should use the FILE/CONSOLIDATE MEDIA feature after moving the Project as above.
http://help.apple.com/imovie/#mov3ac6c7c9

If i move my iphoto & iMovie source library / Events and Projects to an external hard disk, due to size, will my existing slideshows work ?

I need to move my photo library and Movies (Events and Projects) to an external hard disk as my 700gb drive on my iMac is now full (*see note below)
I have brought 2 Samsung External drives (3TB each) which I plan to partition each for Photos and Movies i.e 2 partitions on each drive, and will use one for use with iPhoto and iMovie, and the other drive for a dedicated backup. I will backup the remainder of my iMac hardisk to a seperate disk.
What has just occured to me is that after I have moved the libraries I cannot see how existing iMovie projects and iPhoto Slideshows will work, as each Application will be looking for the source files on the original iMac hardisc (I assume).
I am running Snow Leopard v10.6.8 ( I did not want to upgrade to Mountain Lion as I was told the iPhoto and iMovie changes were a 'backward' step. However I now want to upgrade to Mountain Lion, for security updates reasons mainly, and so need to free up my hard drive.
Can anyone advise on the best way to proceed ?
* - the iMac hard disk become full very suddenly, possibly due to duplicates, as I have noticed duplicate events and clips in my iMovies event library. I have noticed that some events are also now not showing, with message 'No video clips match the current selection' (I have not search criteria set).
Thanks

I was planning on manually backing up my external to the time capsule - but is there a way to set it up to back up automatically instead?
Time Machine will backup up automatically - you can not have your iPhoto library on the same volume as the TM backup (it will not work and it would not be a backup)
Dragging the iPhoto library to any external drive will backup it us also
I was also thinking about having the library copied to another external (I mean we're talking about irreplaceable photos here) - would i just drag a copy of the library to that drive as well?
Yes - that is a good idea - I run TM giving me hourly backups and a daily clone of my entire system giving me a bootable backup - plus do an occasional TM backup at our second home so I have one off site
is it possible to deal with my imovie library in the same way? so all my movies and photos are on my external?
Probably - but I use iMovie very little - better question for the iMovie forum
LN

IDVD crashed folder with movie and project gone/invisible

I just created a movie with iMovie 6 and had it saved on an external Firewire drive, then I exported to iDVD 8, again saving the project to the externa drive and same folder, then as I was adding media to the menus iDVD suddenly quit. I navigated to the external drive in the finder, and the folder is gone!
When trying to open/save a project from iMovie or iDVD, the folder name shows up with a blank rectangle icon, but there's no directory.
Any ideas on how I can restore the folder?

Disk Utility and Repair Disk restored the folder and all it's content - from now on, I'll put my iDVD projects in a separate folder!

I have just started using WD external hard drives, I use it to save my movies and music on. On more than one occasion, when I connect to my MacBook it erases everything on had on there. Can someone please help with this problem?

I have just started using WD external hard drives, I use it to save my movies and music on. On more than one occasion, when I connect it to my MacBook it erases everything I had save on the hard drive. Can someone please help me with this problem? I am super tired of having to put all of my movies and music on the hard drive just to have it erased again. The products I am using are WD 4TB My Book and 2 TB My Passport external hard drives. When it happens, there is always an icon that reads, EFI, along with the My Book icon. Thank you for your assisstance.

dwgar1322 wrote:
I have just started using WD external hard drives, I use it to save my movies and music on. On more than one occasion, when I connect it to my MacBook it erases everything I had save on the hard drive. Can someone please help me with this problem? I am super tired of having to put all of my movies and music on the hard drive just to have it erased again. The products I am using are WD 4TB My Book and 2 TB My Passport external hard drives. When it happens, there is always an icon that reads, EFI, along with the My Book icon. Thank you for your assisstance.
Yes, you have WD software installed REMOVE IT !!
WD has warned its customers about their huge mistake that their software doesnt work on Mavericks and causes data loss.
(also dont use WD drives anymore)
Read all about it here:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5475136?start=255&tstart=0
See their website on removing the destructive WD software here:
http://community.wd.com/t5/External-Drives-for-Mac/External-Drives-for-Mac-Exper iencing-Data-Loss-with-Maverick-OS/td-p/613775
Western Digital External Hard Drives Experiencing Data Loss On OS X Mavericks
http://www.cultofmac.com/252826/western-digital-external-hard-drives-experiencin g-data-loss-on-os-x-mavericks/

If I back up iMovie projects to an external drive does it take the media with it? I want to free up space and remove pictures that were in iPhoto...that were used as media by iMovie when project was under way. In short I want archive iMovie stuff

If I back up iMovie projects to an external drive does imovie take the media with it? I want to free up space and remove pictures that were in iPhoto...that were used as media by iMovie when project was under way. In short I want archive iMovie stuff. If I pull pics out of iPhoto, and later want to drag an archived projet bac into iMovie and the pics are no longer in iPhoto, will I be able to keep working in the project in iMovie?

Very likely not, as the iPhoto's can be used for something else.
More like it took a copy, or it's referencing that spot on the drive in the editable files and most likely made a copy to create a new permanent export file.
Sample one picture and a iMovie file and see what happens.

If i have to get a new iphone but i want to save my pictures and video, what is the beve way without uploading them all to my computer

if i have to get a new iphone but i want to save my pictures and video, what is the beve way without uploading them all to my computer

Set up DROPBOX account on computer and upload pictures to computer.

I want to save my movies and projects on an external drive

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