Whether you simply want to cord together some family unit videos or you're trying to be the side by side Martin Scorsese, iMovie is easy to use and designed for everyone to be able to just dive in. It's native to macOS and somehow gets even more straightforward with each new iteration. Only video files are large and can take upwards a lot of infinite. This is why it'south a practiced idea to stay organized and manage your files, so you're not wasting storage space. Continue reading to see how iMovie handles your files and what y'all can do to optimize the storage on your difficult drive.

Does iMovie autosave?

Yep, as y'all're working in iMovie, it volition periodically save all of your movie assets into a library file. So, any videos, images, or audio you drop into your project volition be saved. But you lot should still get into the addiction of periodically striking command+South to salve your projects.

Because the autosave is based on time, it's possible you could practise a ton of work on a video and take iMovie crash in between autosaves. And then, ultimately losing all of that work yous did in the interim. Plus, the more video files you add together to a project, the heavier the file will be, and the more resources that projection will require to run. With that much strain on the app, it could crusade iMovie to become unstable and crash more frequently.

All that to say, autosave is a dandy backup. Merely in no fashion should it be used to supervene upon frequently saving your project on your own.

Where are iMovie projects stored?

iMovie acts in the same fashion that Photos does. It creates a library file that stores all your projects and the corresponding assets for each of them. You can find the library file in your Movies folder in Finder or by clicking Go > Habitation > Movies.

If you want to get into the library file, yous tin can exercise that by right-clicking or holding downwardly the Option cardinal and clicking on iMovie Library. There y'all'll be able to see each project and all of its assets. Merely I'd circumspection you lot non to motion, rename or delete anything in this file unless you know what you're doing. Y'all don't want to spiral up ane or all of your projects accidentally.

How to delete indistinguishable projects and videos

It's no surprise that video files are huge. They take up a lot of infinite on your hard drive. The last matter you'd want is to have a bunch of duplicates. But that can happen from time to time – especially the more than you start editing.

Thankfully, you tin use the app Gemini 2 to help you scan your difficult drive and quickly go rid of duplicate files of all types, non only videos. Once yous download Gemini 2 on your Mac, this is all you need to do:

  1. Open Gemini 2.
  2. Click + > Home folder > Scan for Duplicates.

Seriously, that's all at that place is to information technology. And then, you can either click Review Results to go through the files that Gemini found. Or, y'all can click Smart Cleanup to allow Gemini's algorithm select the best version of each file and automatically become rid of the rest.

How to manage video files on Mac

If you're concerned nearly cleaning up your Mac and trying to keep all your videos organized, and so you're going to want to observe ways to optimize the hard drive infinite yous do have. You'll definitely desire to cheque out these tips to manage those files meliorate.

1. Tag your files.

Yous tin can assign different colors or tags to your files, making it easier to identify specific ones at a glance. It'south really helpful, especially when you have a lot of video clips that yous want to edit. For instance, you can tag all the clips y'all want to use in a specific project as green. That style, when you go to import them into iMovie, yous tin can quickly encounter merely those files and import them. To tag a file, all yous need to do is:

  1. Right-click or concord down the Selection central and click on a file.
  2. Then, select i of the tags.

two. Use Smart folders.

Smart folders are a dandy way to search for specific files based on different criteria. This is actually handy when you want to see things similar all of your video files that are saved on your Mac.

  1. In Finder, click File > New Smart Folder.
  2. And so, click + in the right corner and gear up your search parameters.

3. Instantly delete files.

Nosotros all take files we don't want people to see. Maybe it's an embarrassing video or a actually bad edit to a video you made. Whatever information technology is, you tin can ensure no one will see it by securely deleting it. All you have to practice is:

  1. Open the Trash.
  2. Select the file.
  3. Right-click or agree down Option and click on the file and select Delete Immediately…

4. See more info about your files.

Sometimes the information y'all want to see nigh your files is missing. You might want to meet a video's length or fifty-fifty its resolution. Just you tin can change your view preferences in Finder.

  1. In a Finder window, click View > Show View Options.
  2. And so, you can select the metadata Finder displays.

Editing with iMovie can be a lot of fun. The learning curve isn't very steep, so you can practically hit the basis running. Merely all that comes to a cease when yous run out of storage space. Or if you tin't detect a video that yous're looking for. The better you manage your files, the more pleasant your editing experience is going to exist. Hopefully, after reading this commodity, yous accept some ideas on how you lot can better your own workflow.