I recently noticed that the file at ~/Movies/iMovie Library.imovielibrary is taking up an awful lot of space:
Is there a way to make it smaller? I don't have anything important in iMovie – what happens if I simply delete it?
How to cut down on the size of iMovie Library.imovielibrary
fileimoviemovievideo
Related Solutions
iMovie only supports the H.264 format, and will only load videos from two places:
- Camera Roll
- Synced iPhoto Library via iTunes (Photos Tab → Sync Photos from iPhoto → Include Videos)
As you've noticed, videos in your iTunes → Movies folder will only sync to the Videos app, and will not appear in iMovie.
The process is not at all convenient, but here's a video detailing how to convert a video to the right format on a Mac, and then get it into iMovie on an iPad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oF8-sDmD_1Y. He uses an app called StreamClip Video Converter to convert to H.264. You might be able to get away with exporting that format from iMovie on your Mac instead. iMovie is picky about the format though. If you have trouble, try to reproduce the settings in the video exactly.
Don't forget the built-in Automator actions for encoding. The video plugin is very nice and has pre-sets starting with 480p (VGA size) and up.
The Encode for: Greater compatibility toggle keeps the audio and video at a lower bit rate. Depending on what your tolerance for "less degradation" is, you might experiment with Higher quality if you see too many H.264 artifacts on the default setting. It's unlikely as the encoder has a lot of room with 1.5 Mbps as the ceiling for the video data rate.
You could set up a few services to test the various settings and then make a folder action to apply your favorite encode setting to anything you drop in that folder.
Automation is fun—you might even be able to set up a folder action to do your uploading as part of this process.
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Best Answer
Sure — in iMovie, delete what you don't need and the size of the library will reduce.
If you're looking for more detail regarding what is taking up space in your library, you can browse the library with something such as DaisyDisk1 which will show what is using the most space.
You'll lose all your media from your iMovie library, including footage, projects and associated files such as render files (although if you don't have the media any more the render files are pretty useless).
Your iMovie settings aren't stored in the library, unless the settings are specific to the library or something in the library, such as project settings.
1 DaisyDisk needs a bit of prodding to look in packages — right-click the package and choose Show Package Contents.