How to Save Movies in iMovie

Last Updated: June 15, 2020

When you're working on an iMovie project on your Mac, the application automatically saves your progress whenever you make any changes. When you're finished with your edits and want to create a movie file that can be viewed in most video players, you can do so by exporting the file as an MP4. This wikiHow teaches you how to save your movies in iMovie in the MP4 format.

Steps

1
Create a new project in iMovie or open a video file. You can open multiple videos to include in your project by going to File > Open or you can right-click the video file and select Open With > iMovie.
2
Click File. You'll see this in the top left corner of the program.

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3
Hover your cursor over Share. A menu will pop out to the right.
- If you want to share the video, you can choose a method from this list using Facebook, Email, iTunes, YouTube, and Vimeo.^{[1]
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4
Click File. This is at the bottom of the sharing menu.
5
Edit any options in the pop-up window (if you want to). You can change the movie's name, description, tags, format, resolution, quality, and compression by clicking in their field.
6
Click Next. You'll see this blue button in the bottom right corner of the pop-up window.
7
Edit the file's name and save location. In the next window, you can change the name of the file (if you want it to display differently than the movie's title) and where it will save to.
8
Click Save. You'll see this blue button in the bottom right corner of the window. A progress indicator will display in the toolbar on the right as your iMovie saves as an MP4 file; it will disappear when the file is finished saving.
- Your file will save as an MP4 file that you can use in any software that can playback MP4.^{[2]
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