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Where are all the movies in Photos?

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My MACbook is grinding to a halt. Photos tells me I have over 1000 movies; in "about the MAC, storage" I see I have 96gb of movies - but when I search it seems to only located less than 1 gb. Where are all theses files?
 

chscag

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When you click on "Movies" in the Photos sidebar what do you see? And welcome to the Mac-Forums.
 

Rod


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How did you search for Movies? Are you sure these are camera movies not iTunes movies or perhapes you have downloaded movies somewhere?
I suppose you have looked in the Movies directory in the sidebar of the finder window as below; And welcome to this forum.

Screen Shot 2015-06-24 at 09.11.22.png
 
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Thanks Rod; I don't have any real movies downloaded, they are all juust videos I have taken on my phone or camera(s). When I am in finder and I go to movies in the sidebar I get 3 items - it says:
imovie events
imovie original movies
iMovie projects

also when i do a search in finder on This Mac or "all my files" that uses kind:movie or kind:movies or kind:videos it still only shows up 30 movies (they only add up to <1gb); BUT - when as per chscag's suggestion (thanks!) to look in photos sidebar under movies - I CAN see 93gb of movies!
So - great, I have located the movies - but why don't I see them in finder when i perform the search? Thank you for your help
 
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Hello and thanks, your suggestion showed up the files - however please see my response to Rod Sprague on this? why did it not turn up in my searches? Thank you
 
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chas_m

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The reason you don't see them in Finder is because they are in the Photos Library. DO NOT MESS WITH THE PHOTOS LIBRARY.

If you need to create a copy of a movie to work with it in some other program, just "drag" the movie out of Photos onto the desktop and it will create a copy. iMovie should already be updated to "see" movies inside Photos (as it did with iPhoto), but you may need to update iMovie for this to happen.
 
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Thanks, I do need to do something with iMovies as I can't see anything. Sorry to be such a thicko but why would I NOT see it in finder, if it is in photo library?
 
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chas_m

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Because the Photos library is a carefully-managed database, and stored as a package which is not normally examinable from the Finder. The package itself is visible, but not its contents -- and again, you are **strongly** advised not to go messing around in the Photos (or iPhoto) Library package unless you want to lose data!

See my above post for suggestions on how to "do something" with a video you have in Photos.
 
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just thinkg about this some more; the library is clogging up my hard drive - I wanted to move the whole load of videos onto an external drive to free up some space - is that the best option or are you saying I might lose data that way?
 

Rod


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poggles, you can use the export command under the file menu to move copies of you movies (you sure have a lot) to a folder of your choice. You can then use the Delete command in Photos to remove it from the Photos Library and Trash it. You can then put the folder you created onto an external HD.
That way you can always Import some at a later time.
Alternatively you can copy the whole Photos library to an external HD and start off with a new empty Library but I find this method to be hard to manage and it has some risks.

Incidentally at the bottom of the Photos Folder (not All Photos) window in the Photos sidebar you will see a the total number of Photos and Videos in the library at the bottom of the window.
 
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Hello I have been busy exporting the movies and then copying them over to an external hard drive and then deleting the original from photos once I am sure the movie is on the external hard drive. However even once I then empty the trash, the storage seems to be not freeing up - am I missing something? I was trying to get rid of all the movies so the MAC goes faster ...! Having moved 40 gb of photos the overall number hasn't got bigger - I still only have around 12 gb free (although this seems to fluctuate as I do stuff). Thanks for your help
 
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chas_m

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Did you check the "recently deleted" folder in Photos? I would bet that Photos is helpfully storing your deleted files there (similar to the way iPhoto had its own, not-obvious trash) because LOTS of people change their mind about deleting things when it comes to photos and movies. I believe (can't test this right now) that if you delete the files from there, they are gone and once the trash is emptied, the free space will be restored.
 
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My MACbook is grinding to a halt. Photos tells me I have over 1000 movies; in "about the MAC, storage" I see I have 96gb of movies - but when I search it seems to only located less than 1 gb. Where are all theses files?

Post snapshot
 

Rod


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Oops meant to mention you need empty the iPhoto trash, Clean My Mac does that for me.;)
As I run a lot of movies through iTunes (for Apple TV) I am aware that when deleting a movie there are two choices, you can remove it from the Playlist and/or you can move it to the Trash. I have encountered a few people who have for some time only been removing movies from the playlist. This effectively makes them disappear but they remain in the iTunes library. I just wonder how many other people make this mistake?
 
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