iMovie-library not visible in Finder

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Manetplanet Author

Level 1

8 points

iMovie-library not visible in Finder

Hi!

The iMovielibrary.imovielibrary doesn't show in Finder.

The folder "Movies" only contains four other folders named "Events", "Projects", "Archive" and "Edited".

These folders is usually in a package called iMovie Library.imovielibrary, right?

The iMovie app works fine and is able to find all the files in those folders but the problem is that I can´t copy my library to an external backup disc and import the library from it if the files are not in a package.

How can I solve this? Any ideas?

iMac 27", OS X 10.11

Posted on Jun 13, 2019 4:08 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Rich839

Level 8

47,730 points

Jun 13, 2019 7:24 AM in response to Manetplanet

Hi,

The four folders that you listed are not iMovie 10 library folders. They might relate to a previous version of iMovie. You would need to open them to see what's in them. In any case, they are not relevant to your issue.

We know that the library is in Finder because iMovie can open it. Sometimes the iMovie Library folder does not appear in the Movies folder that you can access from the Finder icon on the Dock. Try looking directly in Go/Home/Movies from the Finder menu. Your iMovie library should be in the Movies folder. If it is not in there, then do a spotlight search for iMovie Library.imovielibrary.

-- Rich

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Answer 2

Rich839

Level 8

47,730 points

Jun 15, 2019 7:13 AM in response to Manetplanet

O.K. That explains it. iMovie version 9 doesn't have a library and hence no iMovie Library folder. Instead it has a Projects folder and an Events Folder as you have found. To copy or back up your projects and events to an external drive, do an Edit/Copy, Edit/Paste, of the Projects Folder and the Events folder into the external drive. The external drive must be formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). If you need to reformat your external drive be aware that reformatting erases all data on the drive, so first remove any data that you want to keep.

Another thing is that the Projects Folder and the Events Folder must be copied to the root level of the external drive (that is, not in any other folder. Otherwise, iMovie will not be able to find them.

-- Rich

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