Copy or move Events to an external hard disk

Copy or move video from your Event Library to an external hard disk

To save space on your computer’s hard disk, you can move video in your Event Library to an external hard disk connected to your computer.

You can also copy Events to an external hard disk. You might do this, for example, to create a duplicate copy of your entire video library or to copy an Event to a friend’s hard disk.

Note:  To use an external hard disk with iMovie, it must be formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). iMovie doesn’t support network-attached storage or external flash memory drives.

To copy or move Events to another hard disk:

  1. Connect a compatible external hard disk drive to your computer.

  2. In iMovie, click the Hard Disk button to see all available hard disks, which are listed in your Event Library.

    The button is located in the upper-right corner of the Event Library.

    Image of the Hard Disk button

  3. Select the Events you want to move or copy.

    To select more than one Event at a time, press Command as you click Event names.

  4. Do one of the following:

    • To copy the Events, drag them to the icon of the hard disk, in the Event Library, you want to copy them to.

    • To move the Events, hold down the Command key as you drag the Events to the icon of the hard disk you want to move them to.

      The Events are moved, and they’re deleted from the original location. Any projects using clips from the moved Events refer to the clips at their new location. This means that the hard disk to which you have moved the Events must be connected to the computer where the projects are in order for you to play or further edit the projects in iMovie.

      If you’re moving a large amount of video at once, this process may take several minutes.