Moving imovie projects to external hard drive

To save space on my hard drive, I moved all my imovie projects to an external hard drive and then deleted them on my laptop. When I tried to import them again, imovie did not recognize them - they were grayed out and not importable. What did I do wrong? Is it possible that I needed to move all the event clips together with the projects?
I need to figure out how to remove movie material to keep memory open, but am not clear how to do it. . . What do the experts do about this?

Let's assume you have raw MP4 clips in an event.
You start a project and select portions of the clips to be in the project. You add titles, music, etc.
Then you Share/Using QuickTime in MP4 format. At this point, the movie is rendered by using the Project file as a roadmap to go our and get the right clips from the Event files, add the titles, add the music etc. and produce a single MP4 movie that you can play.
You may get better results if you use a variant of MP4 called h.264.
You can also adjust the color of the movie using the video adjustments. Also, if your raw material is MP4, you should realize that this is a highly compressed format. You may get better results if you use a free app like MPEG Streamclip to convert the MP4 file into Apple Intermediate Codec, then import this into iMovie. Then you create your movie as always. Then you can share it as an MP$ (h.264).
The MP4 codec has one full frame for every 24 or so frames. The rest of the frames contain information about what has changed from the prior frame, so iMovie must resolve and compute what all the frames are as it is adding the titles, adding music etc at render time - then reconverting to mp4.
If you convert it to Apple Intermediate Codec, every frame is converted to a full frame.
If your source material is low resolution, editing in MP4 is fine. But is your source material is high definition, you will definitely get better results by converting to full frames before editing.
That probably isn't very clear, but come back with additional questions if you like.

Similar Messages

IMovie Project from External Hard Drive not Opening?

Please help!!
Fairly new to MACs, iMovie and iDVD, I didn't have a clear understanding of how saving iMovie projects worked. Reading various tutorials, I thought I had a clear understanding of how they work. Apparently not with my recent frustration with iMovie.
I created several iMovie Projects but needed more space in order to make more projects for my internship thus I did what I thought was common sense -- get an external hard drive.
I exported iMovie projects into my user account and from there, dragged the saved projects into an external hard drive and then deleted the iMovie projects from my user account.
However, when I needed to retrieve these projects, I simply turned on my hard drive and clicked on them to open. However, whenever I tried opening them, they wouldn't open. Is it because I didn't export them to the hard drive in the first place?
What I don't understand is why iMovie is not opening or recognizing the saved iMovie projects from the external hard drive when the size and kind clearly indicate that it should open with iMovie automatically.
What is the proper way of saving my iMovie projects and events so that I can always have access to whenever I need to open up an old project or simply edit?

Freeing up space on your Mac hard drive in iMovies ’08.
The application iMovie ‘08 has two main libraries displayed in the iMovie window: Events and Projects. Events are the main imports from your video camera, say. These files are big and you have the option to save them on an external hard drive and so iMovie knows to find them there. Projects are your editing instructions like what clips you want and where. The files are small and you save them on your Mac hard drive. They are NOT the clips only signposts where to find them (in Events on your external hard drive). You can move Projects to your external hard drive as back-up but iMovie will not find them there. If you then delete Projects from your Mac, iMovie can no longer make use of them unless you manually export them back into iMovie from your external hard drive. See Apple Article HT1026 iMovie '08: Moving iMovie footage to another drive (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1026). Here the external hard disk is used for moving Projects from one computer to another and, by implication, back to the source computer.
Sharing the projects to iTunes for syncing with Apple TV creates (publishes) movies that take up the same amount of space on your Mac as the source Projects. You can still burn DVDs in iDVD using the iTunes Movies as your Media so provided you have iMovie Projects backed up on your external hard drive you can delete them from your Mac and just use the iTunes Movies (for Apple TV and iDVD). In addition, publishing iMovie Projects in iTunes for syncing to Apple TV results in these files being duplicated in both Movies/iMovies Sharing/iTunes AND in iTunes/iTunes Music/Movies so delete them from here and get even more GBs back! Tell iTunes in Advanced not to save these iTunes published movies anymore in order to stop further duplication ocurring.

MOving IMovie to a external hard drive to free up space

I am trying to figure out how to move Imovie and Iphoto to my external hard drive and not have all the storage on my computer to help free up space. I was told by some one that it could be done but am trying to figure out how.

For iMovie 08 you need to leave the iMovie application and the iMovie Project folder where it is. But these are rather small. The big files are in the iMovie Events, and these can be moved.
You will need an external drive that is formatted as MacOS Extended (journaled). The drive can be USB or Firewire.
In iMovie, click VIEW/EVENTS BY VOLUME.
You should see your external drive in the event list. You can drag and drop the Events in the Event list onto the small icon for this drive, and they will be moved.
If you do this move using the Finder, it will break the links to all your projects. So be sure to do it in iMovie.
All this is in iMovie Help, so if you need some details and pictures, check the Help.

IMovie projects on external hard drive not visible

Thanks for the help. I recently received a free upgrade to iMovie 10 (I think that's what it's called) and now I can no longer view any of my existing projects or events that I had saved on an external hard drive that's connected via Thunderbolt. Is there anything that you can advise me to do before I condemn the new iMovie any more than I already have!??? Thanks again!
Chris

I wish I could help. I found the same thing when I "upgraded" to the new version. When I launched iMovie 10, I allowed it to update my movie library and in the process it seems to have copied everything to my Mac's hard drive. I had all my events stored on an external drive and I don't want those files on my internal drive.
Here's the best part: In case you have't figured it out yet, iMovie 10 will reset ALL of your iMovie '11 preferences, so when you decide to go back to using the old version (as I have) you'll have to go through every page of prefs and "fix" them.
I may eventually try using the new version, but only after they've replaced most or all of the functionality of iMovie '11. This is almost exactly how things played out when Apple replaced iMovie HD back in 2009. It's like they have no beta testers at all.

Transfer iMovie project to external hard drive

I have a huge video project in my iMovie08 that is too large to even put in the browser. I've tried to transfer it all to an external disk, so I can work on it in pieces from there, but it doesn't seem to transfer or even copy it to the hard drive. The project shows up on the hard drive, but it just opens the one that's on my computer. There's plenty of space on the external drive. How do I go about transferring it properly - I really don't want to lose it as it was very time-consuming to get it on my machine in the first place. Thanks in advance for any help.

Hi
Moving Event's and Project's
Connection - Either connect one Mac in Target mode to the other via FireWire. Or use an external hard disk !
(Target-Mode - Start one Mac e.g. laptop - BUT keep T-key down during full up-start - Now a FW-symbol is jumping around the screen and it will work as an external hard disk when connected to the other Mac)
A. The External Hard Disk - MUST BE - Mac OS Extended (hfs) formatted to work for Video. UNIX/DOS/FAT32/Mac OS Exchange works for most other things but not for Video whatever program is used (iMovie or FinalCut)
B. Should be a FireWire one as USB/USB2 performs badly to me and especially when filling up
C. Do never Move or Alter any folder named
• iMovie Event's - or -
• iMovie Project's
on DeskTop/Finder - as this will result in iMovie losing connections to them and repair can be anything from hard to impossibly
D. Moving and Copying must be done within iMovie application and Events to Events - and - Project's to Project's.
E. Moving Project's to Event's - Do not work for me - I have to export project as a QuickTime movie then Import this intoEvents.
Event's window can show two faces
Like this
or like this
from one hard disk Event - You can move it to the other hard disk
You can not (at least not me) move Event to Project or other way around only
Event to Event and Project to Project
Yours Bengt W

Opening imovie project from external hard drive

I get this message: The project “last duly noted” was saved with an older version of iMovie. Opening it in this version will cause it to be upgraded, which will make it unreadable by older versions. Are you sure you want to open it?
How can I edit this item?

Hi Harmless - I do not think that your problem has anything to do with the external drive. Your project must have been crreated on an earlier version of iMovie - iMovie 4 perhaps, and contained in a standard folder. It can be upgraded to an HD project - best to use a copy for this, just in case....!
When you upgrade, it will firstly be converted only partially into the new version, so you have to take another step to fully convert>
Here's a comment about what should happen:
"A project created by iMovie 5 is a special kind of folder called a package. It looks and acts like a file. The package contains all the files and folders you see, but they are all hidden inside the package. To open the project in iMovie you double-click on the package.
If your project looks like an iMovie 4 folder instead of a package — so you can easily see inside — my guess is it's probably a project you've converted from iMovie 4 to iMovie 5. Converted projects do not look or act like true iMovie 5 projects. They contain the same files/folders but are stored in a conventional folder, just like iMovie 4.
That's not necessarily a good thing, for a user can get inside too easily, and open the project by double-clicking on that tilde file. If you do that, iMovie opens the PREVIOUSLY-saved version of the project. And when you next save, iMovie creates a second tilde file. Then a third, then a fourth. It's all too easy for the user to get confused, open the wrong project file and create quite a mess.
So it's a good idea, after converting a project from iMovie 4 to iMovie 5, to do a Save As to save the project into a new project. Then iMovie 5 builds a true iMovie 5 project that looks and acts like a real iMovie 5 project. Lots safer, and it works better." (as described by Karl Petersen)
So, you should experience no problems if you follow that advice - go ahead and convert!

Moving projects between external hard drives lose clips

Sorry for the unclear subject line, but I really can't think of a quippy way to say what the problem is.
Short version--I moved project from external hard drive A to external hard drive B. Worked on A. Worked on B. Moved it back to A (still have copy on B). No longer works on A. Clips show up in the timeline, but on screen is white. Transitions, titles, audio don't work. Still works on B.
Ideas?
Long version--I'm using 10.3.9 on my old Powerbook. iMovie 6.0.3. I am using Lacie Porsche 250GB external and a Mercury Elite Pro 500 GB hard drives. When I started, the Lacie, which I was using for my speaking career videos, was NOT formatted for Mac OS Extended (Journaled). So, while working on another project, I had issues with the infamous Ken Burns bug with pictures.
After consulting with the experts here (thanks Karl), I determined that I must reformat. So, pain and anguish, I moved the various movies off of the Lacie (Drive A) to the Mercury (Drive B). On both, the movies worked fine--all transitions, everything. The Mercury was and is Mac OS Extended (but NOT Journaled).
So, I wipe the Lacie with Disk Utility so it is Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Once finished, I begin the process of moving projects (3 in total) back to the Lacie. Two of the projects are completed works with transitions, audio file, titles and the like. One is just clips in the clip pane, none in the timeline. I moved them all at once.
When I did, I checked them before I would delete them off the Mercury. When I did, both of the completed projects loaded properly--the clips do show in the timeline. But, in the preview window, all I have is a blank white screen. When I play, nothing happens.
I have not erased anything, changed anything, thrown anything away--nothing. And, they still work perfectly on the Mercury (same computer, obviously).
This one really has me stumped. I am really irked that iMovie has apparently become such a messed up program. Worse, this has been out for some time now (I had not used it yet, but I got iLife last year some time). I can't believe there are all these issues all this time later and obviously Apple has done nothing or little to correct these problems. I consider iMovie a real flagship program to model the ease of use and blah blah blah that we all know concerning Apple.
OK, sorry for venting---anyone with any ideas? Did I mess up the drive when I wiped it? Is this merely the program? Something between the fact that the Mercury is NOT Journalled? Any help will, as always, be appreciated.

Thanks David---
The Permissions are the same for both, on both hard drives.
I have not repaired permissions on either.
I did shut down the computer last night and this AM, upon starting again, had the same problem.
I did attempt a few fixes--I moved the clips from the timeline back to the preview pane. I had one clip already there and it would play perfectly. When I did that, with a clip from the timeline and then moved it back, it would show up and play. But, upon hitting the next clip, it would stop playing at the first transition.
Some of the transitions are from a Third Party (Gee). Remember, though, they played perfectly fine from Drive B. I have not attempted, however, to put the Gee effects into iMovie 6. As I said earlier, I haven't used the program on my computer since the Fall. Now, using 6.0.3, I don't see my GeeThree effects anywhere, nor have I tried to put them in. But, from the Drive B (and originally in the drive A), the movie plays fine even though the added clips are not present for me to use in any new project.

How to move an uncompleted iMovie project from one hard drive to another?

I want to move an uncompleted iMovie project form one hard drive to another. What do I move to make sure that all of parts of the project: movies, photos, sound, are moved?
Thanks, Bruce

Hi,
You can deploy the ADF Project as an ADF Library Jar file and reuse the taskflow from that jar file in another BPM Application.

How do I transfer an imovie from an external hard drive to my macbook pro iMovie 9

How do I transfer an iMovie from an external hard drive to my macbook pro iMovie 11?

The easiest way would be to just attach the external drive to the MacBook Pro. iMovie should see it next time you open iMovie.
If you are going for portability, you can attach the external drive to the MacBook Pro. Then open iMovie.
Then click VIEW/EVENTS BY DISK. You should see your external drive listed in the Project Library and the Event Library.
To make a COPY just drag the icon for your project to the icon for the external drive in the Project Library List.
To MOVE it, hold down the command key while you drag.
If you want to edit the project, you will also want any Events, Photos, or Music referenced in the Project. To get those, click on the Project to select it (it is now on the MacBook Pro) and click FILE/CONSOLIDATE MEDIA.

I moved itunes file to external hard drive and want to move the file on my pc to recycle bin. When I move i get an error message that it cannot delete ituneshelper.dll access is denied. Can I move that file to the recycle bin?

I am trying to free up space on my pc and moving itunes files to external hard drive. I have followed instructions and believe I have file copied to new drive, but I am having trouble moving file to recycle bin as the instructions say. I am getting the following error message: cannot delete ituneshelper.dll:access denied, make sure disk is not full or write protected and file not in use. I know the file is not in use when trying to move. Any help would be most appreciated. I am on Windows XP.

Yes. And you should not have moved that folder. Put it back. To move your iTunes library move the folder from User's Music.
tt2

How can I move my project from external hard drive to my macbook pro?

How can I move my project from external hard drive to my macbook pro? every time I try to do some editing, the sequence is very slow, thanks in advance

Try here...
Setting-up a new Mac from an old one, its backups, or a PC

I have a macbook air. I was unable to fit all my music onto it so i moved iTunes onto an external hard drive. How do I transfer my music (80GB) onto my iPod classic?

I recently bought a Macbook air. I had 80gb so I moved iTunes onto an external hard drive. How do i move that music onto my iPod classic?

You can only sysc with one iTunes library. The new computer is a new library. You have to restore your iPod on the new conputer and then sync.

IMovie 11 quits when moving projects to external hard drive

I am trying to move my iMove projects to my external harddrive to save space on my computer (MacBook white unibody 2010/11 running OSX 10.6.8 and iMovie 11 version 9.0.4 (1634). I used the instructions on Apple's iMovie 11 support page (see here http://support.apple.com/kb/ph2289). Every time I try to do this iMovie unexpectedly quits. Actually, the first time I try it says "Copy Failed: The copy could not be filed..." - when I try again the application quits and it gives me this message:
Process:         iMovie [3663]
Path:            /Applications/iMovie.app/Contents/MacOS/iMovie
Identifier:      com.apple.iMovieApp
Version:         9.0.4 (1634)
Build Info:      iMovieApp-16340000~2
Code Type:       X86 (Native)
Parent Process: launchd [104]
etc....
I have a ScreenCast video of exactly what happens when I try here: http://screencast.com/t/QWN6yWxN
Thank you in advance for your suggestions.
Kris

Here are the steps to move the library safely to an external hard drive. Okay. Make sure iTunes is open first. Hide it. Find the iTunes folder. Click and drag to external hard drive. Wait till it is copied then go to prefernces in iTunes. Go to the advanced tab and then hit the genral tab. Change the iTunes folder option to the folder within the titled "iTunes" folder to the "Music" folder. Also click the boxes "Keep iTunes folder organized" and "Copy Files to iTunes folder". This worked for me and did not effect the ratings. Let me know if it works. It should. Oooh. One more thing. Back up your library first incase you make a mistake or it doesn't work!

Photos not showing up in iMovie project after transferring project to external hard drive

I just finished moving my iMovie '11 projects and events to an external hard drive. In one particular project (the only one I've used photos in), the photos will not play back when I watch it in the preview window. The picture shows up in the project editing window, but during playback the computer seems to use the last frame of the last played video. All of the previous settings are the same, it will just not show the pictures. I've tried re-inserting them, even trying different pictures that were not used originally, but nothing seems to work. I've also tried closing iMovie and restarting it, but no luck.

Hi all
I am having the same problem - all a bit wierd. Yesterday I could drag and drop images from finder into my project. Today, I can drag andf drop the images from finder and they display in the project - but not when it is played.
I tried importing the images into iphoto and dragging them from the media selection window - still no joy - I can see them in the proejct - but they just don't show when played.
Is it because the project has been marked as finished in some way - although I haven't finalised it?
Any help appreciated.
Thanks

How to get iMovie '11 to recognize events and projects on external hard-drive?

Hello, my old iMac recently crashed and i bought a new one. I have restored all of my iMovie files from an online backup service to an external hard-drive. Now, I would like to add all of these events and projects into my iMovie library on my new computer.
So far, I have tried File->Import->Import Movies and then browsed to the Movies folder on my external hard-drive where all of my iMovie events and projects and videos are stored. However, iMovie will not recognize that this folder contains any iMovie files. Only if I browse down to each individual event folder will it then recognize and begin importing the file. Is there anyway to get iMovie to recognize all the folder, files and events as it was on my old computer and not have to re-import everything event by event? Thanks for any help you can provide!

Hi
You must do this the right way.
• EXTERNAL Hard disk - MUST - be Mac OS Extended formatted
Nothing else will do - for VIDEO !
• The Moving of Event's and Project's - Must be done within the iMovie Application
Folders named iMovie Event's and iMovie Project's - can not be moved via Desktop/Finder - as links back to iMovie will break and can not be mended.
My general note on this:
Moving Event's and Project's
Connection - Either connect one Mac in Target mode to the other via FireWire. Or use an external hard disk !
(Target-Mode - Start one Mac e.g. laptop - BUT keep T-key down during full up-start - Now a FW-symbol is jumping around the screen and it will work as an external hard disk when connected to the other Mac)
A. The External Hard Disk - MUST BE - Mac OS Extended (hfs) formatted to work for Video. UNIX/DOS/FAT32/Mac OS Exchange works for most other things but not for Video whatever program is used (iMovie or FinalCut)
B. Should be a FireWire one as USB/USB2 performs badly to me and especially when filling up
C. Do never Move or Alter any folder named
• iMovie Event's - or -
• iMovie Project's
on DeskTop/Finder - as this will result in iMovie losing connections to them and repair can be anything from hard to impossibly.
D. Moving and Copying must be done within iMovie application and Events to Events - and - Project's to Project's.
E. Moving Project's to Event's - Do not work for me - I have to export project as a QuickTime movie then Import this into Events.
Event's window can show two faces
Like this
or like this
from one hard disk Event - You can move it to the other hard disk
You can not (at least not me) move Event to Project or other way around only
Event to Event and Project to Project
Yours Bengt W

Moving imovie projects to external hard drive

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