Move imovie library to external hard drive

Yes, it makes a difference. For most types of files the ExFat format is compatible with Mac and PC. However, an iMovie library is different and must be stored on a drive that is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Otherwise, you could suffer loss of data. Since you are running Catalina, your internal drive is formatted APFS, that also is O.K. for iMovie libraries. I prefer Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as it is compatible with operating systems previous to High Sierra. But either one should work. As I said, confirm that it works before deleting your old library. You can easily reformat your external drive with the Disk Utility app on your Mac. As mentioned in my earlier post, reformatting erases all data on the drive so you would first need to backup whatever data that you want to keep from your external drive.

-- Rich

If you or anyone else needs to keep the hard drive formatted for a Windows PC there is a workaround.

Create a Mac OS Extended partition on the drive using Disk Utility.

You can then dump the iMovie Library on that.

This link gives the details and the whole operation is a lot quicker and easier than the instructions might imply. . . . just a couple of minutes.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/disk-utility/dskutl14027/mac

Remember to backup anything valuable before partitioning. It is a safe procedure but you never can tell with computers!

Hi,

There is absolutely no problem with moving an iMovie library to an external drive. The external drive must be formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled) in order for the library to work properly. Just select the library in your Movies folder on your Mac (Go/Home/Movies) and Edit/Copy, Edit/Paste, it to the external drive. Or, you can copy the library to an external drive by holding down the Option key while dragging the library icon to the external drive. Once you have confirmed that the library on the external drive is working properly, you can then delete the original library from your internal drive, if you want. Be aware that if you need to reformat your external drive to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) you must first backup any data that you want to keep, because reformatting erases all data on a drive.

The reason that you initially want to copy, rather than move, the library is to avoid any mishap in the moving process that might damage the library. So you copy, not move, it to the external drive and then you can go back and delete the original library once you have determined that the copied version works properly.

For safety, you should make a second copy of the library onto a second external drive so that you have a backup to your library.

-- Rich

You are very welcome. :)

-- Rich