What is a "Render File"?

Asked by gondwanalon (23200

) May 24th, 2019

FYI: I’m a computer dummy that’s why I use an iMac. I can do a lot just knowing how to point, drag and click. Anyway…

While deleting movies and photographs from my iMac (macOS Mojave 10.14.4) I see files called “Render Files”. What exactly are they?

I use “OmniDiskSweeper” to delete old files (movies and pictures) because draging them to the trash can and emptying it does not remove the files from my start up disk.

I love making movies with iMovie and my GoPros (I have 8 of them). Of course I have to continually manage my startup disk storage space. I siphon off the movies that I want to keep to YouTube and or a 4 terabyte external hard drive. Been deleting a lot of Render Files. Thought that it might be a good idea to try to understand what they are.

Tried googling Render Files but didn’t find a definition.

Thanks!

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2 Answers

This is what I think: It’s associated with a video you made. It’s part of the process that your computer program uses to make the video. You have all the little parts that you put into the movie, and then the program renders it to a complete video. The render file is probably some sort of index file that was associated with the movies and it will tell your program what goes where in the videos. If you open the video project in imovie or whatever it will use the render file to tell it where all the parts go.

Now, I don’t know this for certain but I think I’m correct.

Here is a thread on the adobe forums I found
https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1085297

Caravanfan (13780

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