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

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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.

I want to move imovie projects and events to an external hard drive. Where is the "move" command?

I want to move completed imovie projects and events to my external hard drive. I see in the "help" section that I should "move project & event" and they indicate that their should be such a selection. I highlight the project I want to move and attempt to drag it to my external HD but it won't stay. I never see "move project & event". I've tried holding the "command" key down while dragging and that doesn't work either. 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 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

How do I save my imovie '09 project and events to an external drive? I tried to drag it but it won't accept it?

I've been able to save/move things to my Western Digital Passpor beforet but this time it won't let me drag the project or event to the external drive.
Tons of space left on the drive. The prioject is not finished. Do I have to optimize it or something? Thanks for all replies.

external drives come out-of-the-box 'Windows'/fat32 formatted.
no prob for a Mac - except for iMovie.
use the Disk-Utility in your Apps/Utilities folder to format to 'Mac'.-
follow advice given here
http://help.apple.com/imovie/#mov3ac6d42c

Transferring projects and events to new external drive

I have been using a 2 TB external hard drive to create both personal and commercial videos using iMovie '11. Due to space limitations on the 2 TB drive, I now want to transfer the commercial video projects and events to a new 1 TB external hard drive. I started by copying one project (and associated events). I then copied a second project that uses clips from the same events as the first project. As a result, I now have two copies of the events--one copy associated with project 1 and a second copy associated with project 2. Consequently, the 1 TB hard drive is filling up fast with twice as many events as I originally had before starting the transfer process. I also have a third related commercial project that I want to transfer to the new drive, but I'm afraid I'm going to fill up the drive sooner than I expected with a third set of events. Ugh!
In effect, I want to move multiple related projects that use clips from the same events from one drive to another without losing associativity and without creating extraneous events. I would appreciate any help.

Hi
Yes there are somer IMPORTANT steps to take and not to take.
• DO NOT - Move or alter any folder named iMovie Events or iMovie Projects on Desktop/Finder.
If You do - iMovie get's confused and it might not allways be repairably.
• DO
The external hard disk
MUST BE - Mac OS Extended formatted - UNIX(DOS/FAT32/Mac OS Exchange will not work for VIDEO !
SHOULD BE - a FireWire one as USB/USB2 performs badly
Moving Events and Projects - ARE DONE in the iMovie Program/Application and in resp. window
Just drag from one hard disk HERE to the other one and new iMovie Proj/Event folders will
be created and iMovie will find them.
AND - answer the choise if You want a full Move or a Copy made.
(Event's window can be changed to view Yearly - or - Yearly per hard disk connected
top right hand corner of window - click small hard disk symbol.)
Yours Bengt W

Can I move my FCPX projects and events to an external HD?

I have moved my FCPX Events to an external HD in order to free up space on the internal HD. However, most of the space is taken up by the Projects. I am reluctant to move them onto the external HD (Raid 0) in case I lose data. I understand that the 'move' command cannot be reversed. Also, can I be sure that future imports and work will be saved to the external HD? I have tried Apple help but am still not assured regarding this. Can anyone out there help me please? I know enough to be dangerous!

Well. I have moved a lot of events and projects to a variety of hard drive locations and never had a corrupted file from doing that.
But that doesn't mean that you shouldn't back up – just in case. Do you run Time Machine or another BU utility like SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner? If you do and your projects are currently backed up, you can be pretty confident about moving them.
Good luck.
Russ

Import project and keep it on external drive

I have a 25GB approject on an external drive. I want to access the images in this project, but do not have enough space on my laptop to import the project. Is there any way to import the project but keep it referenced on my external drive?

If the Masters are in the Project (and at 25GB I would hope they are!), no.
Your best bet is probably to make a new, empty Library on the external drive, import the Project into it, relocate all the Masters to a new location on the external HD, and then export the new, slimmed down Project ready to import into the main Library on your internal HD.
Brad - this is an Aperture Project, not folders of images - there's no option to move the Masters out of the Project until the Project has been imported...
Ian

Should I keep both Projects and Events in same external drive?

I just updated to 10.1 lastnight and expected to see a few differences with the library system but prior to this version, I was always under the impression that it's better to keep events on one external drive and projects on another which would boost performance. That is how my system is currently setup.
After updating, I had one project being worked (which means one active event folder and one active project folder on both drives). The update modified my projects and events folders as expected, and now I have 2 libraries appearing in FCPX: "Hardrive 1: Updated Projects" and "Harddrive 2: Events".
Problem: The project that appears in the first library has an exclamation sign saying Proxy Files Missing so when I double click it to load into the timeline, the clips don't show.
Confusion: In that same first library that has the project, I also see a few clips from the event that it belongs to, so they all say proxy files missing. The Second Library that's on my Media drive (where I kept my events isolated from before) is showing all the clips that were there from before for that event as it should, so why are there also a fraction of clips inside the First Library where the Project file is? Are clips being duplicated in to where the Project files reside?
SIMPLIFIED QUESTION: Am I now supposed to keep both projects and events on the same single external drive and stop using two separate drives?
Thank you for reading and I appreciate any responses.
Reynaldo

I was always under the impression that it's better to keep events on one external drive and projects on another which would boost performance.
Unfortunately a surprising number of people have been doing this. It wasn't really any great benefit.
If you saved the original projects and events and the previous version of FCP, who should go back to it and sort out the projects and events. Use the application to move the projects to the drive that holds the corresponding events. Then update the projects and events in 10.1.
SIMPLIFIED QUESTION: Am I now supposed to keep both projects and events on the same single external drive and stop using two separate drives?
Absolutely.

How do I transfer imovie projects and events to new mac from external hard drive

bought a macbook pro retina. backed up 3yr old macbook pro to external hard drive. how do I transfer imovie projects and events to new mac? thanks!

Hi dalbatross,
Welcome to the Support Communities!
Did you set up your new computer by creating a Time Machine backup and restoring from it?
If so, the Events and Projects that were on your internal Macintosh HD would copied to your new computer.
Here is another way to copy the events & projects to the new computer from the external drive:
iMovie Help: Work with multiple libraries
http://help.apple.com/imovie/mac/10.0/#mov3fa25bae7
Copy or move projects, events, or clips between libraries or hard disks
Connect a hard disk that contains the target library to your computer, or copy the target library to your computer.
Choose File > Open Library, and choose an option from the submenu.You can choose from recently opened libraries at the top of the submenu, locate an existing library on your computer, or create a new library.
The selected library is opened in the Libraries list, with the first event selected and its contents displayed in the browser.
In the Libraries list, select the event that contains the item you want to move or copy.
In the browser, select the item you want to move or copy.Note: To select multiple items, hold down the Command key as you click the items you want to select, or drag a selection rectangle around the items.
Do one of the following:
To move items between events or libraries: Drag the clip or project to another event or library.
To copy items between events or libraries: Option-drag the clip or project to another event or library by first starting to drag and then holding down the Option key as you drag.
Cheers,
- Judy

Hi i have just completed an imovie project and tried to save a hard copy on the desktop so i dragged the project file from the home page then movies folder and now the prioject seems to be lost , how can i get it back ?

hi i have just completed an imovie project and tried to save a hard copy on the desktop so i dragged the project file from the home page then movies folder and now the prioject seems to be lost , how can i get it back ?

It's a Finder feature, related to Quick Look. You can hit the space bar in the file list to get a preview.
If that doesn't work, you may have an issue witha preference file or similar. I find rebuilding the launch databse works quite well resilving tis kind of thing, as does trashing Finder preferences

What format i should use for my external hard drive that can be used interchangeably between mac and pc?

What format i should use for my external hard drive that can be used interchangeably between mac and pc?

Usually Fat32/MS-DOS as mentioned, but that has several limitatiuns, like 4GB filesize limit.
One option is MacDrive for you PCs... allows them to Read/Write HFS+...
http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/
More options...
NTFS-3G Stable Read/Write Driver...
http://www.ntfs-3g.org/
MacFUSE: Full Read-Write NTFS for Mac OS X, Among Others...
http://www.osnews.com/story/16930

Once I finish an iMovie project and I publish it to various destinations (Dropbox iTunes YouTube etc) do I need to keep the original raw video on my MacBook or can I archive it to an external hard drive.

I have now finished 3 iMovie projects and have learned how to prepare them for sharing through various media like Dropbox, iDVD YouTube iTunes etc. but I now have produced a huge number of related files which are filling up my hard drive to the point that I can't import any further raw video until I archive or delete many of these files.
What files do I need to keep on my MacBook in order to be able to keep these various shared locations functioning, and what should I delete or archive?

iMovie works best with uncompressed audio. If your track is MP3 or AAC, you may get better results by converting your track to the AIFF format and then using that in iMovie.
You can do this in iTunes. Go to iTunes/Preferences and click the General button. On the General page, click the Import Settings button. Choose IMPORT USING: AIFF ENCODER.
(note: remember what you changed it from so you can change it back later, before you import another CD)
Now, in iTunes, select your track. Then click FILE/CREATE NEW VERSION/AIFF VERSION.

Hello.... I already loaded logic 9 on my laptop hard drive... I would to load all the samples and loops on an external drive... Do I need to reinstall from DVD's or can I drag and drop?

Hello.... I already loaded logic 9 on my laptop hard drive... I would to load all the samples and loops on an external drive... Do I need to reinstall from DVD's or can I drag and drop?

Thank you.... Would you know where they would be on my hard dive? Are they all together?

How can I save my iMovie Project to a DVD or Flash Drive which can be played on a PC and any DVD player

I have an iMac, purchased in January 2011. How can I save an iMovie project to a DVD or Flash Drive which can be played on a PC or any DVD player

I will give you a basic primer, not going to get to in depth, as far as parameters, size of project, or the storage size of your usb flash drive, etc.
1. you have your finished iMovie project. Under iMovie>Share menu. Choose export using quicktime.
2. make Movie self contained. This way your Mov, Mvi, etc files will be part of the movie and it can play without having to reference the events, because it is actually there.
3. so, now on your desktop ( or any where else set up quicktime to save your file) you will see a quicktime file.
Drag & Drop that file on to the icon of your USB Flash Drive, etc.
4. Details that I omitted because I admit I am not well versed. Most Likely that quicktime file is larger than your USB Flash Drive. You have to use one of quicktime compression work flows, also if you open the just created quicktime file. It will open quicktime player and under the File>Export you have to options. I have a Movie that was 42GB 1080P, I exported it as a 720P, so it would still be playable on a large screen and now the new file was less than 2.5GB.
5. Oh, no i just realized that the file should be playable on a PC, as long as the PC has quicktime for windows installled and you left that USB formated at MS DOS as it came originally, or a PC will not recognize it. Will it open up on your Blu-Ray Player that has a USB port, not sure. Since there is no menu. but, perhaps just pushing play will start movie.
Hope this is of some help.

Can I open an imovie project from an external hard drive on a different computer than my own? If so how?

Can I open an imovie project from an external hard drive on a different computer other than my own? If so how?

If you used the Finder to move the files, iMovie will have lost track of them. iMovie holds the locations of the Event files, and Project files contain references to those locations. If you move the files, iMovie has no way of knowing where they are.
If you can, first move all the files back to their original locations. Plug in the external drive. Open iMovie and move the files in iMovie's interface (help explains how, but basically, just drag and drop in the event pane).
Then you can connect the drive to the new computer, and iMovie will see them.

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

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