Is there a way to delete unused media from an iMovie Library?

[l008com]

I'm a youtuber so I make new videos a lot.

Each video project has it's own library, and when I'm done I move the library to my big video storage drive.

But this is video production. Sometimes theres like 20 takes of one short scene. Sometimes you realize after the fact that a long clip doesn't actually need to be in the video.

It would save me a TON of space if there was a way to delete unused clips from the media in a library. My videos are how-to videos so they're generally made of hundreds of short clips per video. So many are left on the cutting room floor. How can I clean the cutting room floor???

(I do know about clearing rendering files in imovie prefs before you file away the library. That also saves me tons of space it does nothing for the unused clips that are just stuck in your library like a black hole.)

 

[R S K]

Simply select everything in the event with ⌘A and hit ⌘⌫. Done. Any media that isn't being used anywhere is deleted.

 

[l008com]

When I do that, I get the following error:

And nothing gets deleted.

 

[R S K]

Hm, that's weird. Version 10.4.4? When I do it with a test project I get:

As I would expect. But then I don't actually ever use iMovie, just Final Cut Pro where it also works that way. And where media management is of course more sophisticated.

And you're definitely just select the media, not anything else? If so, then… 🤷🏼‍♂️

 

[l008com]

Yup 10.4.4
When you say select the media, WHERE *exactly* are you selecting the media?

In your test you did above, did you specifically select both clips that are in your project's timeline, AND clips that are not in any timelines, and hit delete?

 

[R S K]

In your test you did above, did you specifically select both clips that are in your project's timeline, AND clips that are not in any timelines, and hit delete?

Yup:

As you can tell by the orange "Used Media Range" bar under the left clip it's in fact in use. Selected both and ⌘⌫ed.

Again, just as in Final Cut Pro, if I use both and hit delete for both, they simply disappear without any message but are in fact still in the library.

If compound clips or multicams were possible in iMovie I'd know what the issue is. But since they aren't… 🤷🏼‍♂️

 

[l008com]

Ok so my setup is similar, except that under the name of my library, I don't see a "Footage" subheading, I see one called :8-10-25" in the case of this specific library I'm testing. And when I click on "8-10-25", I get no media in the "My Media" tab. BUT if I click on the parent library name instead, I get the media.

But beyond that, its the same. I select all, I hit command-delete, and I get the error that some of the selected clips are in use.

Yeah I did more testing and I only get the "Delete from iMovie library" confirmation that you got, when I command-delete clips that are ONLY unused. NO USED clips. So I'm not sure how your iMovie is behaving so differently.

 

[l008com]

Ok so I kinda figured it out, somewhat.

If I MANUALLY drag all of my clips into the subheading under the name of my library, then drag them from there, to my timeline, THEN they show up the way they do in your screen capture, and THEN when I go to delete them, I get the message you did.

But if I add clips to a video normally, and by that I mean dragging from the Finder, directly in to a video's timeline, THEN they don't show up under the child heading, just the parent heading, and I can't delete them.
I don't really see logically what the difference is. This whole "My Media" tab seems like kind of a mess.