You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Error code 36 while trying to copy iMovie Library to external harddisk

I want to move my iMovie Library to a proper formatted external harddisk, because my project is getting to big to work on the main harddisk.


But I get an error code 36 when I try to move the library, sometimes after copying 1 hour, sometimes after a few minutes.


Been busy with this for days, but nothing helps. There is an earlier topic on this forum, with only 1 not so helpful answer.


Anybody?

iMac 27", macOS 10.13

Posted on Feb 11, 2020 4:11 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Feb 11, 2020 9:18 AM

There may be some corrupt projects in the library that is causing the error message. I believe that Error 36 is an input/output error. It can be caused by a corrupt file or possibly and incorrectly formatted external drive.


So you can continue working, try creating a new library on the external drive and then copying (not moving) this one project over to it. You can copy the project by moving your cursor over the project's title in the Projects browser view, and then selecting Copy to Library from the drop down menu that appears. Both the original library and the destination library must be open for the Copy option to be displayed. Before copying the project, click on its icon in the Project browser screen and do a File/Consolidate Project media. The external drive should be formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). If you need to reformat be aware that reformatting erases all data on the drive, so first back up anything that you want to keep.


You can do the above process with the rest of your projects until you find the one that possibly is corrupt.


-- Rich

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 11, 2020 9:18 AM in response to veldkamp144

There may be some corrupt projects in the library that is causing the error message. I believe that Error 36 is an input/output error. It can be caused by a corrupt file or possibly and incorrectly formatted external drive.


So you can continue working, try creating a new library on the external drive and then copying (not moving) this one project over to it. You can copy the project by moving your cursor over the project's title in the Projects browser view, and then selecting Copy to Library from the drop down menu that appears. Both the original library and the destination library must be open for the Copy option to be displayed. Before copying the project, click on its icon in the Project browser screen and do a File/Consolidate Project media. The external drive should be formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). If you need to reformat be aware that reformatting erases all data on the drive, so first back up anything that you want to keep.


You can do the above process with the rest of your projects until you find the one that possibly is corrupt.


-- Rich

Error code 36 while trying to copy iMovie Library to external harddisk

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.