Value of mounting FCPX events/projects on external drive

Friends,
I'm wondering how much value I would get if I mount FCPX events and projects on an external drive? I have an imac i7 with a 2TB HD. The drive is less than half full. I've noticed that FCPX slows down while rendering, and it renders often when adding titles and music. I have a 1 TB FW800 external that I could use. Would I notice any speed benefit?
Thanks!
Steve

Most everyone here probably uses an external Firewire or several to keep their projects and events on. Of course, you can copy the Final Cut Projects folder and Final Cut Events folders from your system drive's Movies folder to the root (top) level of your external drive. You should make a backup first. Then you should remove the projects and events from within the same Projects and Events folders that you just copied from on your system drive. You need to only have one set of the same projects and events on your system so FCP X does not get confused. It is possible to "hide" your originals away in another folder other than the Movies folder or at the top level of your system drive, but that's another topic. Another point is that, generally, FCP X cannot work with an external drive that is also used as a Time Machine destination drive. Finally, the external needs to be formatted in Mac OS Extended Journalled to work with FCP X. A recent update to FCP X may have fixed the Time Machine restriction. There are a lot of threads on this forum that talk about these things. You can also watch this short tutorial about how to copy your projects and events to an external drive from within FCP X ...
http://library.creativecow.net/mcauliffe_kevin/FCPX-media-on-the-go/1
Best wishes.

Similar Messages

Should I keep both Projects and Events in same external drive?

I just updated to 10.1 lastnight and expected to see a few differences with the library system but prior to this version, I was always under the impression that it's better to keep events on one external drive and projects on another which would boost performance. That is how my system is currently setup.
After updating, I had one project being worked (which means one active event folder and one active project folder on both drives). The update modified my projects and events folders as expected, and now I have 2 libraries appearing in FCPX: "Hardrive 1: Updated Projects" and "Harddrive 2: Events".
Problem: The project that appears in the first library has an exclamation sign saying Proxy Files Missing so when I double click it to load into the timeline, the clips don't show.
Confusion: In that same first library that has the project, I also see a few clips from the event that it belongs to, so they all say proxy files missing. The Second Library that's on my Media drive (where I kept my events isolated from before) is showing all the clips that were there from before for that event as it should, so why are there also a fraction of clips inside the First Library where the Project file is? Are clips being duplicated in to where the Project files reside?
SIMPLIFIED QUESTION: Am I now supposed to keep both projects and events on the same single external drive and stop using two separate drives?
Thank you for reading and I appreciate any responses.
Reynaldo

I was always under the impression that it's better to keep events on one external drive and projects on another which would boost performance.
Unfortunately a surprising number of people have been doing this. It wasn't really any great benefit.
If you saved the original projects and events and the previous version of FCP, who should go back to it and sort out the projects and events. Use the application to move the projects to the drive that holds the corresponding events. Then update the projects and events in 10.1.
SIMPLIFIED QUESTION: Am I now supposed to keep both projects and events on the same single external drive and stop using two separate drives?
Absolutely.

How do I save my imovie '09 project and events to an external drive? I tried to drag it but it won't accept it?

I've been able to save/move things to my Western Digital Passpor beforet but this time it won't let me drag the project or event to the external drive.
Tons of space left on the drive. The prioject is not finished. Do I have to optimize it or something? Thanks for all replies.

external drives come out-of-the-box 'Windows'/fat32 formatted.
no prob for a Mac - except for iMovie.
use the Disk-Utility in your Apps/Utilities folder to format to 'Mac'.-
follow advice given here
http://help.apple.com/imovie/#mov3ac6d42c

What if you move events from one external drive to another?

I presently have all my iMovie events on one external drive, and I have some projects on my local iMac drive that use clips from the events on the external drive.
What happens to the projects if I use iMovie to move the events from the current external drive to another external drive? If I open one of the projects, will it ask me where to find the event clips, or will I break all my projects?

In theory, if you do it within iMovie, it should work. However, I would recommend that you test a single event first before moving everything.

I have an iMac about a year old. It has OSX 10.8.3 with iMovie 9.0.8. Is there a way to get iMovie to store and use iMovie Events on an external drive? Raw video is eating up my 1TB internal drive.

I have an iMac about a year old. It has OSX 10.8.3 with iMovie 9.0.8. Is there a way to get iMovie to store and use iMovie Events on an external drive? Raw video is eating up my 1TB internal drive.

Yes, you can import to an external drive by choosing it from the Import Screen.
Once an Event or Project is in iMovie, it is best to move it to the external using iMovie, so the Project does not lose links to the Event.
For full instructions on how to do this, see this link.
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4141

Can you edit fcpx directly through an external drive?

Hello everyone,
So I've been wondering recently but can't find much in the way of answers on the internet. Are you able to hook up an external drive and actually edit the project directly on the drive through Final Cut Pro x? I have been considering getting a couple g drives with thunderbolt to speed up my backup process but wondered if it's possible to edit right there. Don't know if it's practical or not. Has anyone done it? Thanks all!

Videorock1 wrote:
I'm trying to do just that, but I can't get FCPX to acknowledge any external drive, other than to import from one. The drive I want to use exclusively for FCP projects is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). But it won't show up in FCPX. What am I not doing right?
Are you using 10.1.1? Hard drives don't appear in the interface as they did in previous versions.
When you create a new library, you choose where you want to store it.

Events only to external drive best option?

Hi, I have read the following below on how to move events to an external drive.
karsten.schluter - iM08 tricks
I want to make room on my macbook internal drive and just wanted to make sure it was safe to just relocate my events only to my external drive and keep my projects on the internal drive.
Thanks,

once i started iMovie I just told all of my videos to be loaded on the External Hard-drive. So it automatically copies everything to my Ex. HD.

How do I move imovie 11 events to an external drive and then access through imovie?

How do I move imovie 11 events to an external drive and then access through imovie? When I copied to the external, it came through as clips and doesn't play using imovie...is there a way to do this? I have several imovie events and have no disk space left s trying to move them to free up space tp upload new photos and movies. Thanks.

joanne987 wrote:
So, then what do I do if I have files on the external and won't fit back onto my HD? How do I format it for imovie? any suggestions?
buy another HDD ... 500Gigs are ctually around 70-90€, saw yesterday a 1.5TB WD for 140€ ...
.... 9TB of harddrives in use here ... don't forget to have at last one backup/copy per drive

New computer - Can I open previous FCPX events/projects from an external hard drive on my new computer?

My old computer died - a Macbook Pro from 2011. Fortunately, I saved all of my FCPX events and projects on an external hard drive. Unfortunately, many of those projects were unfinished.
I have since bought a new iMac with FCPX, but I can't figure out how to open my old projects.
On my external hard drive, I have 2 folders: Final Cut Events and Final Cut Projects.
Under a specific event, there is an "Analysis Files" folder, a "CurrentVersion.fcpevent" file, an "Original Media" folder, and a "Render Files" folder.
Under a specific project, there is a "CurrentVersion.fcpproject", a "Render Files" folder, and a "Shared Items" folder.
Is it possible to open up my old FCPX projects? Thanks so much for your help!

It may have been an earlier version, but that doesn't seem to be working. See attached photo
Its not allowing me to click on my Events or Projects.
Any other ideas?

Unable to move project from external drive back to FCPX.

The HD was recently replaced in my iMac. Fortunately I had backed up my FCPX events and projects to folders on an external drive. I have down loaded FCPX again to the new HD but I'm unable to move my project back into FCPX. Having opened FCPX, I then open the project library, select the external drive, open the folder containing my project but the "current version fcpproject" is grey (not available). I was however able to drag the "fcpevent" file into the event library.
Any help will be appreciated

Since there is no disclosure triangle on your external showing in your project library, there are two possibilities:
1) There are no projects presently located on the drive.
2) Project files are on the drive but FCP can't see them because they are not at the root level of the drive.
So either way, to straighten this out you will have to move some files in the Finder – even though best practices (as both Tom and Luis have pointed out) are to stay within FCP to do that.
Move the existing CurrentVersion file to a temporary folder to hide it from FCP.
Unless you know that the Ball project is at a specific location on your external, do a spotlight search on Final Cut Projects. If something comes up, with FCP closed, navigate to it in the Finder and move it to the root level of the external drive. Then open FCP and it should now be accessible in your project library. Select it in the library; go to File>Move Project. Things should now work.
But if you don't have another copy on your external, open FCP and hot the plus button at the bottom of project library and create a new project. That will create a Final Cut Projects Folder in your Movies folder (which is where it should be in your home directory). Close FCP. Open the temp file and drag the CurrentVersion file that you hid to the Final Cut Projects folder.
Hopefully, you wil now be able to get back to work.
Russ

FCPX: How to import, transcode and keep an Event on an external drive

I was given 300 GB of media files, mostly Quicktime movies, on a read-only NTFS format Lacie drive. I tried importing into FCPX, checked the optimized and proxy transcoding options as well as import folders as Keyword Collections option, and it took hours for less than 1/3 of the media to render, then I got a warning that my startup disc was almost full.
I assume the best thing to do is start over, and move my files to another read-and-write drive so that I can keep the transcoded files off my Mac.
But my main question concerns the FCPX Events folder:
If all media and other project-related info is stored in the Events folder on my Mac, how can I keep the transcoded media on an external drive? Do I just uncheck “Copy files to Final Cut Events folder” in the Import dialog? (If I uncheck it, where are the transcoded files copied to, and how are they organized? What stays in the Events folder on the Mac, and what goes on the external drive?)
Also, should I not bother transcoding, or just select one of the options (which one, and why?) I’m editing a 12-15 minute narrative film – mostly cuts, probably no effects, but will color correct and add titles and sound fx/music.
Any insight for this process, as well as practical advice, would be greatly appreciated, as I’m trying to fully understand and start off the right way before I dive into this edit. Thanks in advance!

I would create a new Event in FCPX first so that I can choose which drive those files are going to end up on.
Then, Import your files. Choose the Event they should be Imported to. If you want it to copy the files to that Event onto the drive it was created on, then choose Copy Files to Events Folder. It will only copy, not just move the files. If you are copying them onto your MBP's hard drive...yeah, that's probably going to fill up unless you've upgraded that drive. And yes, 300GB of media can take a while to process and copy, especially if you are Optimizing and creating Proxies.
In my experience, Optimized files can get fairly large I'm not sure of the percentage) and Proxy files have ended up about 1/2 the size of the originals. If you are creating Optimized files, Proxy files, AND copying the original media...you have three versions of the files and that 300GB may end up being about 1TB that FCPX is creating.
If you want to work primarily with proxies, I would NOT copy the original file, but I would have FCPX create the proxies in the Event folder on your hard drive. If you just gotta have Optimized files for your final output...I would wait until you are ready for output to create those. If you only have the Proxy files on your laptop, with the original files on their original drive, then it should only take up 150-200GB on your laptop hard drive. At that point, you can leave FCPX in proxy mode (got to FCXP>Preferences>Playback>Use proxy files
If you detach the external hard drive, the original files will show up as missing, but proxy mode should recognize the Proxy files in the Event folder.
If you still want to create Optimized files, Proxy files and copy the Original Media, get a separate external drive that will have the room you need and one you can edit from.
For large projects where I have a lot of footage, I edit and add effects in Proxy mode and then switch to Original/Optimized>Highest Quality for final color grading, rendering and exporting.
Hope that helps! al the best!

Can no longer export projects to external drive in FCPX

I've been successfully using FCPX to edit original movies and export them to an external drive. After installing the latest FCPX updates I am suddenly now not able to export anything. The entire Share menu is greyed out. What's the problem?

Thanks David.
I have a hazy idea of all this stuff. For the matter, I have been using a single external drive [Seagate 2 TB, with firewire 800] having 3 partitions: I am using one partition [1 TB] for placing my camera footage [as FCPX is unable to make camera archives of the footage, I am resorting to making disc images of the footage and importing relevant files into my events which I am placing on another partition [500GB] of the external drive which I have named as 'scratch disc'. I keep my projects also upon this scratch disc.
Now my question is this: Evidently in time to come I would have this drive filled up with camera archives [in my case disk images], events and projects. Finished projects would have to be moved over to a different drive [for archiving] and thereby allow space in the working drive to import and edit more clips. After making this duplicate copy, can I boldly delete the project from my scratch disc? While making a duplicate copy of the project, what should be the option I should make? My need for the archived project would be like this: to dub it into other languages. Should I opt for duplicate project and referenced events or duplicate project+used clips only. Whichever of the two I choose, when I reopen the project at a later date from this new drive, will I be able to access all the clips in the timeline of the project and also will the referenced events also appear in the event browser?
Sort of confused and would like to be guided through this important phase of handling or managing data.

Backing up Events on an external drive... but FCP don't like it ??...

I connected an external drive on my Mac mini for dual purpose of:
1) backing up Events (captures from DV tape camera), especially that I cannot work will all projects in mind at same time... And capturing a 63 minutes DV tape takes... 63 minutes !!... So don't want to redo it over and over again, should something happen on the working HDD...
2) Eventually store ''finished projects'' with all their files to free up space on working disk.
However, it looks like FCPX becomes a little mixed up at opening (''cannot open event twice'' kind of message, as it sees it on both drives). Unfortunately, it will open (for some of the events) the version on the USB2 drive... which is not the one from which I want to create, edit, and finalize, of course.
The only turnaround I found was to disconnect the USB drive before launching FCPX ...
Can't believe there's not a way to set FCP to use from the main HDD in some settings or so ?
(I also read in a tutorial not to copy files other than doing that from ''inside FCP'' - In this case, I recognize I did the backup manually outside of FCP... But yet: this is aimed to be a backup of Events (not yet linked to a project). I can foresee it could become a nightmare once events will be linked to a project...
What would be the ''best practice'' in what I aim to do (2 objectives above ?)
Thanks,
Rob

However, the idea of a backup here is not to ''use'' the backup to edit/finalize, so I don't think USB2 will make any difference (except taking longer to backup/re-import. I just returned a so-called Thunderbolt LaCie RuggedUSB3 that claimed to do 10GB/s but took over 5 minutes to transfer 12 GB !!... (Tried it at Apple Store and it took 3:06 minutes to transfer 30GB, which in my maths does ... 10GB per minute (I can afford a ''margin'' but... 60 times more sounds to me like ... a **very big** margin. So I did not judge the drive worths $200 to gibe me a TB storage at that speed when I can get a USB drive at a fraction of that price. (Just my statement of the day )
You need to temper your expectations... no drive today can do 10GB/s - and even 10GB a minute may be only theoretical. Plus, remember that many factors may be involved. The bottleneck may be in the processor, the bus and, of course, your internal drive. A Ferrari stalled in rush hour traffic goes as fast as the next car...
A regular hard drive in a USB3 box is mor likely to be limited in throughput by the drive itself, not the connection; but with USB2, it's the other way around: the connection is slower than the drive.

Share or Backup Project to External Drive

Ok,
I've figured out a solution, and it probably isn't the best. I couldn't really find answers around, so I thought I'd post this to either; a) help or b) get better ideas.
It should be noted that FCPX crashed a couple of times while I tested this on my MBP. I found the FCP manual to be a little lacking on this subject, but I wanted to be able to work with a project on an internal media drive on my Mac Pro, then move it to external drives for sharing & backup purposes. Here's what I came up with:
1. From the media drive root, copy the "Final Cut Events" & "Final Cut Projects" folders to the root of the external drive.
2. If you have published specific motion generators or titles for your project, you will need to copy the "Motion" folder from the Username>Movies>Motion folder to the external drive. . . if you will be using another computer for this project, you will need to add all the relevant files to the new computer's Username>Movies>Motion folders so that everything is accessible from there (as far as I know, FCPX won't recognize them unless they are installed there).
3. Be sure you've copied any external files (i.e. ProRes files stored on your media drive, imported into FCPX, but original media stayed in it's initial location outside the Final Cut Events folder).
This last part is the trickiest because I've found that those clips won't reconnect using "Modify Event References" when you get to the new workstation (or at least it's never worked for me). However, I've found a trick that works great for this:
4. To reconnect media, have FCPX open to a PROJECT TIMELINE with missing media. Open a Finder window to a parent folder containing all folders & files that may contain disconnected media. Do a search for ".mov" and narrow the search to the parent folder by clicking its name at the top. Click the "+" at the top-right and change the Kind from "Any" to "Movie."
5. Drag all the resulting movies from the Finder window (BUT DO NOT LET GO OF THE FILES) and hover them over the timeline. If this search contains some media you don't want in that event, it would add them if you dropped these files. Instead, just hover over your timeline until FCPX appears ready to add the clips, then drag them BACK to the Finder window! Now, when you click on the event in FCPX, you will see the clips reconnected!
6. Repeat steps 4-5 but replace ".mov" and "Movie" with something like "aif" and "Music" for any audio files you have.
I hope that wasn't too confusing. I should have just done a screencast since it probably took me longer to type! Please let me know if anyone has a better solution.
Thanks,
Lawrence

Thanks Andy,
I saw that post, and thought the correct answer listed didn't really cover some of the caveats I have encountered (like the published Motion generators), nor the issue of reconnecting (which hopefully will be an issue resolved soon). I have tried deleting the pref's file on the new machine, but I didn't get great results. So I just thought I'd try to combine my issues more succinctly here.
As far as making a copy of the whole media drive, that's not really what I want either. I would like to be able to move the specific projects to an external drive that backs up my active media drive projects & events, but then be able to also quickly move them to archived drives and delete them from my internal media & media backup drives. As my archives go, I will usually designate drives for clients who do a lot of work.
So for my purposes, I am using Chronosync to synchronize certain folders.
I appreciate your help. Always appreciated all the great support we get from knowledgeable guys like yourself!
Lawrence

FCPX can't see external drive

This morning when I started FCPX, it no longer sees one of my Firewire 800 drives. There are projects, events and original camera files on lt. All my other applications see it, it shows up in the Finder, etc. A project on the internal drive that references the original files on the external drive seems to work. The clips show up in the timeline, no red warnngs with yellow triangles. When I try to start FCPX by double clicking on an event or project on the external drive, I can see everything in the event and project windows for of moment, the FCPX stalls as it says it is loading the compressor support and I have to force quit. Any suggestions on how to fix this?
Thanks,
Peter

Try the suggestions in this thread starting off with trashing the preferences.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4131157?tstart=0

Value of mounting FCPX events/projects on external drive

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