Delete unwanted video clips from an Event

You can delete unwanted video clips from an Event, which frees up space on your computer. To do so, you need to mark the video as “rejected,” move it to the Trash, and then empty the Trash so that the video is deleted from your hard disk. After it’s deleted, the video can’t be restored.

Deleting video from your project isn’t the same as deleting it from an Event. If you want to delete video only from your project while retaining it as source video in an Event, go to this topic: Delete video from your project.

To delete video clips permanently from your Event Library:

  1. In the Event Library, click to select the Event you want to delete video from.

  2. In the Event browser, select the frames or clips you want to remove from the Event, and then press Delete or click the Reject button (shown below) in the iMovie toolbar.

    (The Reject button also has a small “x” if you have Advanced Tools turned on.)

    Image fo the Reject button

    If you’ve chosen All Clips from the Show pop-up menu (shown below), which appears below the Event browser, a red line appears across the top of the rejected frames.

    If you’ve chosen Favorites Only or “Favorites and Unmarked,” the rejected clips disappear from view.

    Image of the Sho pop-up menu

  3. Choose File > “Move Rejected Clips to Trash.”

    All the clips that are currently marked as “rejected” in any Event or project are queued to move to the Trash. This includes clips you may have marked previously, not only those you just rejected.

  4. In the dialog that appears, do one of the following:

    • If you’re confident you know which clips you’ve previously rejected and you want to delete all of them, click “Move to Trash.”

      The video is removed from your Events, but it still occupies space in the Trash.

    • If you want to review the clips that you’ve marked for deletion, click View Rejected Clips.

      The Event browser shows just the rejected clips in the selected Event. Select any clips that you don’t want to delete, and then click the Unmark button.

      Image of the Unmark button

      To delete the rejected clips, click the “Move Rejected to Trash” button (A, below) in the upper-right corner of the Rejected Clips window.

      Image of the "Move Rejected to Trash" and Hide Rejected buttons

      Click the “Move to Trash” button in the dialog that appears; the video is removed from your Events, but it still occupies space in the Trash.

  5. Click the desktop outside of the iMovie window to see the Finder menus at the top of your computer screen, and then choose Finder > Empty Trash.

    The video is permanently removed from your hard disk.

  6. To bring the remaining clips back into view, click Hide Rejected (B, above) in the upper-right corner of the Rejected Clips window, or choose Favorites Only, “Favorites and Unmarked,” or All Clips from the Show pop-up menu, below the Event browser.