Use This Trick To Manage Your iMovie Projects

By default every time you create a new iMovie Project it just adds on to your one and only iMovie Library. This makes it difficult to manage and archive your iMovie projects over the years. Instead, create a new Library each time you want to start a new project.

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Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Let me show you a better way to manage and archive your iMovie project.
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So when working in iMovie you may see something like this. Several different projects here. You choose the project you want to go into and there's that project. If you look under Project Media you'll see the clips you're using in that project. If you look under the Library here you'll see clips for all of the projects. So I have lots of clips here because I've got three projects saved in this Library. Now it's difficult for somebody new to iMovie to just keep adding more projects. This library will keep getting bigger and bigger. 
In the Finder use Go and Go Home and then go to the Movies folder. Chances are this is where your iMovie Library is. It's the default location. So, in this case, I see one just called iMovie Library. That's the default and it's one file. It's actually a package containing lots of files. But for the most part it's handled as one file and it's going to keep getting bigger and bigger the more projects you add. Eventually it will make it so big it's taking up too much space on your drive and you'd like to clear it out. But all those projects across all those years are tied up into one library file. You have to either keep them all or get rid of them all. The other option is to go into your iMovie Library here and maybe delete a project. Maybe go in here and go to your library and delete some clips. But there's a better way to do it. 
Instead just follow the rule of one project in one library file. Never have more than one project there. The advantage to having multiple projects in a library is you can use the same clips across the projects. So say you wanted to create a short vacation video and a long vacation video. You could put both of those projects in one library for all your vacation video clips in there and then use some of the same clips on both projects. But most of the time we're not doing that. We're creating a completely new project with completely new clips. There's no reason to store those both in the same library.
You can create a new library very easily in iMovie by going to File, Open Library, and then you'll see here New. So let's create a new library. Let's say we want to create a new project that is going to be from our most recent trip. So you call it something appropriate like that and you create it. Now nothing is going to change here because you're looking at All Projects in all libraries. But I can actually zero in on just one or the other. So if I go to Vacation right there you could see there is no library there. So let me switch to that. I'll create a new project. You can see it prompts you to choose which library. So I'll choose this one. Now to make things very clear I'm going to rename this to the same name as the library. So let's leave here and it's going to prompt us at that point to name the library. Even though we haven't done anything yet. Like that. 
So now I can see when I'm looking at All Projects very clearly that this is the one project in that one library. So it's very easy to associate the project and the library together. Now I can go and add what I want here. So I can, you know, drag and drop clips into this and I can see here that now both of these clips exist in this library. I still can look at my other one because I have both of them open at the same time. Now the important thing is that now I have two separate libraries. This one here that I have all of my old projects in and this one that has just that new project in it and its clips. So, when I'm done producing this project if I want I can archive that to another drive or maybe it's just something quick I wanted to do and I don't even want to save the project. I can just Delete this library here without effecting what is in here.
So the basic idea is to follow the rule, one project in one library. Keep going with that unless you have a good reason to, say, have two projects in a library like a short and long version of a video. This makes it easy to see how much space a particular project uses on your drive. It also makes it easy to delete or archive any of these. It also means you can easily transport it back so you can archive this and then a few months later decide you want to edit it. Bring it back to your internal drive so iMovie can access it efficiently. Work on it some more and then when you're done with it move it back to the external drive again. 
Now when you have multiple libraries open you can still bring clips in from the other libraries. So let me go here to the other one and let's say I want to bring this clip in to this project here. So what's happens now is if I go to my Project Media I'll see all three there. If I go to this library here you can see it imported this clip in there. So this clip now exists in both of these libraries. So it was easy to actually do it. I have two copies of it now but now my project's are independent of each other. So I can move this library to an archived drive and it is all self-contained. 
Now you can also access a lot of this by going to the Media tab here instead of Projects. Then you'll see your media just like you are in a project but you're not. You can just view what you've got here. You can choose an entire library. This is where you can close a library. You can select one right here, go to File, Close Library, iMovie Library and now I'm just using this one here. I go to Projects that is all I'm going to see under All Projects. I can get that other one back very easily by going to Open Library and you'll see the Recents up here. I can Clear Recents. I can use Other to find a library anywhere. So when you actually choose Other it brings up this interface here. You can use one of these or you can do Locate and actually find the library itself. Now I'm back to having two libraries open at the same time. 
Now what if you want to move some of these projects to its own library. Remember the ones here in iMovie Library, there's three of them, they are all in that original library. Let's say I want to move this to another one. I can click here. I can Move to Library and I can move it to another one if I want. So let's go and create another one. Open Library, New, and I'll call this library My Movie 3 just to match the name. Now I can click here. Say Move to Library and move it there. So now you could see it's not in iMovie Library anymore. It's in My Movie 3. If I look in the Finder here I've got this one right here and I've got this one right there. Note if I go to Media here and I look here in My Movie 3 there are the two clips that were moved and they are no longer here in iMovie Library. 
So you can use that method to untangle your existing iMovie Library which may have many projects in it, into several individual iMovie Libraries, each with its own project. Then from here on out create a new library for each new project you want to build.
Hope you found this useful. Thanks for watching.

Comments: 11 Responses to “Use This Trick To Manage Your iMovie Projects”

nick

2 years ago

Hey Gary, what's the file "iMovie Theater" that is located in the same folder? thx

Gary Rosenzweig

nick: That was old functionality in iMovie that let you export a video and then play it across your Apple devices. No longer supported. If you exported something to iMovie Theater and don't have a copy of it anywhere else, then be sure to check out https://support.apple.com/guide/imovie/if-youre-looking-for-imovie-theater-mov893a71a30/mac to get them out of there before deleting.

Dan

So I created a new library and moved one of my projects to the new library as you indicated. I then copied it to my NAS and deleted it from my locally attached SSD. I copied it back to the SSD to test. When I opened the library, there is nothing in the My Media section. The movie is there, just not the clips, etc. Did I miss something?
Thanks. And by the way this is a great tip!

Dan: Sounds like those clips weren't in the project to begin with. Move them into the project first.

Thanks. I believe when I opened the project the My Media section was empty. That was because I didn't click on the Project media on the left sidebar. It defaulted to the iMovie library instead. I think all is good now.

Ann Dresselhaus

How do I open a new library in iMovie 7.1.4? (Running on Yosemite 10.10.5)
My current library is 31 G.
iMovie 7.1.4 will not (under FILE, Import Movies) will no longer let me select anything to import.
I figure it is because this application cannot deal with any larger imovielibrary or perhaps my iMac can't?
Ideas?

I am trying to open new imovielibrary so I can make more movies!
I cannot IMPORT any more clips/movies unless I solve this.

Ann: Quit iMovie. Hold the Option key down and launch iMovie.

Gareth

Great selection of videos Gary. I think my query is related to the above. On my iMac I have a library for a recent holiday, with all the media. Several projects in here. I have started editing, arranging etc on the iMac. However I now want to work on same library on my MacBook Pro; I have not been able to figure out how to duplicate the projects with all associated media (if I use Finder to copy the library itself, only shortcuts to the media are copied, not the originals). Any ideas pls?

Gareth: It is hard to transfer an iMovie project from one Mac to another. You'll need to move the entire library over, and also the media files themselves. You just have to get organized and do all of that copying and maybe link the items. I don't think I've actually ever moved a project with external media and such. Is there a reason you can't just work on it on your iMac? That is probably the best way.

Kevin Killion

OMG, this video is TREMENDOUSLY helpful!! Questions:
Q: Can I rename a library "file" (e.g., "iMovie Library.imovielibrary" to "Fun trip.imovielibrary") or would that lose connections to other things?
Q: If I open an imovielibrary package, what is allowed and what is verboten? For example, is it safe to rename a folder "Adam Birthday" to "Eve Birthday"? Could I copy a folder to a different imovielibrary package? Or should I just never touch a imovielibrary and do everything within iMovie?

Kevin: You should be able to rename it, yes. I wouldn't ever mess with the contents of an iMovie Library directly at all. Only deal with it through iMovie.

Comments Closed.

Use This Trick To Manage Your iMovie Projects

Comments: 11 Responses to “Use This Trick To Manage Your iMovie Projects”

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