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I just started using iMovie today after watching a Youtube tutorial. I successfully created two short family movies taking clips from a larger home video *.mp4 file.
"Ice Skating Winter..." is in Project Media but "Dad and Jen Skating" is in iMovie Library (See screenshot)
1) What is the difference between those 2 storage locations?
2) Where should my movies be located?
3) How do I get them both to the right place?
MacBook Air 13″, macOS 14.6
Hi,
Best practice is never to delete anything from iMovie.
Here is an iMovie online help link that provides more info re deleting events and clips:
https://help.apple.com/imovie/mac/10.1/#/mov74d7d370c
One thing that you don't want to do is to delete media from the iMovie Library Original Media folder, as that will permanently remove the media from the iMovie system. Doing that would delete the media from any project that might be referring to the media, thus essentially disabling the project. You would also lose your original media unless it were backed up elsewhere outside of the iMovie system.
The Project Media is akin to an event in itself, so I don't believe that deleting clips from the original Event would affect any clips that are in the Project Media. However, you should experiment a bit to verify that for yourself.
It can be a little tricky sometimes to determine when deleting an Event or a clip from an Event will remove it from the Original Media folder or impact a project. To be safe, I don't ever delete anything from iMovie.
I tried an experiment whereby I created 5 clips named 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 respectively. Then I created a new iMovie Library and imported the clips into a created Event. Then I created a project and dragged (moved) clips #1 and #2 from the Event into the Project Media, and dragged clip #1 from the Project Media into the project timeline.
So, at this point the Project Media and the Project original media folder contained clips #1 and #2. The Event Original Media folder contained clips #3, #4, and #5, but not clips #1 and #2. I then Option-dragged (copied, not moved) clip #3 from the Event into the Project Media. Clip #3 showed in the Project Media but not in the project's Original Media folder. Clip #3 continued to show in both the Event and in the Event's Original Media folder.
I then deleted the entire event to see how that would impact the clips in the Project. What I found was that the Event was deleted from the iMovie Library. However Clips #1, #2 and #3 remained displayed in the Project Media and in the Project's Original Media folder. The project played fine with clip #1 in the timeline. Clips #4 and #5 were permanently removed from the iMovie library.
I tentatively conclude that one can delete an Event without impacting the project as long as the clips in the event have previously been copied or transferred into the Project Media. Any other clips in the Event that had not been copied or transferred into Project Media were deleted from the iMovie system.
My experiment was not exactly scientific, so don't rely upon my findings but confirm them yourself.
-- Rich
Hi Rich - Thanks for your quick response. To confirm my understanding, the "Dad & Jen Skating" video was the original full video that I imported as an event into the iMovie Library. Then, I selected clips from that and joined them on the timeline to create a shorter video I called "Ice Skating Winter".
To ensure that I retain all the videos I create and are stored in Project Media, I must also retain the events in the iMovie Library that the newly created videos come from. Is that correct?
I agree with your point about video backups. I will need to export my Project Media files and store them somewhere, Apple iCloud in my case.
Hi,
Everything imported into iMovie is stored in the iMovie library in an Original Media finder folder specific to the Project or Event into which the clips have been imported. Clips imported into a project are not the actual full sized clips but rather small referral clips that refer to the original media in the iMovie library. Same with events. In your case, you must have imported "Ice Skating Winter" into a project, and that's why it is shown as stored in Project Media. Your "Dad and Jen Skating" clip was imported into an Event, and thus is shown as stored in an Event.
Your movies already are properly located and there is nothing further that you need to do or can do. You can select any clip and do a File/Reveal in Finder, and an Original Media folder will pop up showing the highlighted file name of the clip that you selected. If you delete any clip from the Original Media folder it will permanently delete it from the iMovie system and from any project that might be referring to it.
For safe practice, it is prudent to have a back up of your clips kept separately outside of the iMovie system.
-- Rich
Thanks for your help! Very useful information.
You are welcome.
-- Rich
Where are my movies stored?
