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Move all video from iMovies to Photos app

Several years ago we had a video camcorder. For some reason all the family videos we took got imported into iMovies (either the camcorder wanted to put them in iMovie or we mistakenly imported them into iMovie). There are several hundred videos. These videos should really be in the Photos app.


How do I move all of these videos (all the content in iMovie) into Photos?


I've gone to my user home > Movies > iMovie Library.imovielibrary > Show package content but to copy over the hundreds of videos, inside hundred of folders (and not copy over thumbnails and all the other stuff) would be a painstaking undertaking.


Is there an easier and more foolproof way of doing this?

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Aug 25, 2020 2:43 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 25, 2020 10:51 AM

Hi,


No real convenient way to remove a massive amount of videos

from an iMovie Library, particularly when the videos are spread

out over many projects or events.


One way of doing it is like you described. Go into the Package Contents

of the iMovie Library, open each project and event, and copy-drag

(copy, not move) the media out of each Original Media folder for each

project or event. That actually works fine. However, I always like to avoid messing with the Show

Package Contents if at all possible.   Making a mistake there can risk corrupting your

library, losing access to it altogether, and that could impair or even

preclude your ability to retrieve your Original Media files. 


Another way to retrieve Original Media files is to select the “Library” item in

the iMovie media screen sidebar.  That will reveal in the Media Browser

all the clips used in the projects and events, listed under each project or

event name.  When you click to select one clip in the project or event

display, and do File/Reveal in Finder, an Original Media folder will pop up

listing all clips in that project or event that are on your finder (iMovie

Library).  The clips can be copied (Option-Dragged) into a folder on your desk

top.  They are in their original format just as if you had imported them

with Image Capture into your Mac.  


-- Rich



5 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 25, 2020 10:51 AM in response to Rich839

Hi,


No real convenient way to remove a massive amount of videos

from an iMovie Library, particularly when the videos are spread

out over many projects or events.


One way of doing it is like you described. Go into the Package Contents

of the iMovie Library, open each project and event, and copy-drag

(copy, not move) the media out of each Original Media folder for each

project or event. That actually works fine. However, I always like to avoid messing with the Show

Package Contents if at all possible.   Making a mistake there can risk corrupting your

library, losing access to it altogether, and that could impair or even

preclude your ability to retrieve your Original Media files. 


Another way to retrieve Original Media files is to select the “Library” item in

the iMovie media screen sidebar.  That will reveal in the Media Browser

all the clips used in the projects and events, listed under each project or

event name.  When you click to select one clip in the project or event

display, and do File/Reveal in Finder, an Original Media folder will pop up

listing all clips in that project or event that are on your finder (iMovie

Library).  The clips can be copied (Option-Dragged) into a folder on your desk

top.  They are in their original format just as if you had imported them

with Image Capture into your Mac.  


-- Rich



Aug 26, 2020 9:18 AM in response to Sparky Marky

I may have misled you. I meant for you to click on the library's name in the sidebar, not the library item heading. When you click on the library's name you should get a display in the media browser of all the clips in the library organized by the name of the event. You can scroll the browser screen. Then, if you select one clip in the clips displayed for that event, and do File/Reveal in Finder, you should get an Original Media folder pop up showing the titles of all of the clips in the event, with the title highlighted of the clip that you selected. From the Original Media folder, select all the displayed titles as a batch and then hold down the Option key while dragging the batch to your desktop folder. Then scroll down and do the same thing with the next event.


-- Rich


Move all video from iMovies to Photos app

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