Why does final cut x copy events even when the copy files to final cuts events folder is unchecked

Question

When I import iMovie (v 9.04) events into Final Cut Pro X (v 10.0.2) it always copies (duplicates) the events even though the "copy files to Final Cut Events folder" import preference is unchecked. I do not want to duplicate 1 TB of data for no reason. Is this a bug or is the feature badly mislabeled? Can I impot iMovie events without duplicating them?

Answer 1

You shouldn't expect the FCP events folder to be twice the iMovie events folder. While the .dv files (or whatever the media are) are duplicated, the iMovie Movie Cache and iMovie Thumbnails folders are not. Instead, FCP creates a Render Files folder and a CurrentVersion.fcpevent file.
To compare one event, iMovie had a Thumbnails folder of 681.3 MB and a cache folder of 587 KB.  In contrast, FCP created a Render Files folder of 45 MB and an CurrentVersion.fcpevent file of 2.1 MB. So, the FCP foder is 634 MB smaller than the iMovie folder for the one event. But don't take my word for it, just compare pairs of events yourself.  You will see the media in the Original Media folder and it will be exactly the same as the media in the iMovie folder. Since you have the media, there is no reason to worry about deleting the iMovie folder.
Now I have no way of knowing if this is true, but is it possible that FCP duplicated events until it ran out of disk space? While the FCP events folders are a bit smaller than the iMovie events folders, it may not be enough to have made everything fit. And keep in mind that it takes a while for the Render Files folders to be generated. After I imported 50 events (about an hour of video each), it took a few hours for FCP to finish generating the Render Files folders.  I watched the entire Final Cut Events folder grow by several GB while that was going on.
In short, just compare pairs of events to reassure yourself that the media are in both places.