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Copy or Move Projects (to Prevent Opening All Projects)

Sorry if some of these issues are answered elsewhere, this subject confuses me quickly. I have a Library with lots of Projects and apparently need to Move or Copy projects to a new Library to work on them and not have FCP open many or all projects, most of which I don't need opened at all, which slows things terribly and even crashes sometimes.


I've tried Moving projects to the new Library as instructed with Drag + Command, pressing Command after Drag has started, also used top Menu for selected Project.  (Both Libraries are on the same drive.)  This seems to Copy the Project rather than Move, as the Projects are still visible in the Original Library.  Which I guess is fine, except I assume the original Library would continue to open all the original projects including those copied over when I have to access the original library again. Oh boy how long that takes.


I'm also confused about how original media is effected.  Is it correct that it will Copy all media associated with the projects to the new location, even just for Moving, except for external media which stays in place?  Or does it "Move" that media, which might make it unusable in the original, now or future.  Or, does it link to the original without copying it so as not to eat up hard drive space, and perhaps to make the process faster?   (And if it copies eating hard drive space is a concern, maybe I could Move / Copy to a new project on a separate drive - although that wold presumably take longer to copy over - or not?) 


I'm using proxy media in the original Library, so I assume I should copy proxy media over when the dialogue asks?   Another concern, is there any way to slow down render time for thumbnails, which my Move or Copy seem to be doing, taking a long time.  And this begs the question, can thumbnails not be Move / Copied along with the media - wouldn't that be better than wasting time re-rendering everything?


My goal is of course to have the quickest least glitchy workflow; maybe very little of this makes much difference, but thought I'd ask, especially as it may impact how I organize things with future projects.  Thanks for any help! 



iMac, macOS 10.13

Posted on Jun 17, 2019 6:45 AM

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15 replies

Jun 17, 2019 6:59 AM in response to Hepcat B

How media is handled when you move the project depends on where the media is stored. If the media for the original project is stored in the original library, when the project is moved, the media is copied to the new library, assuming the new library is also set to store the media internally. The media is not moved with the project. If the libraries are on the same drive, no more disk space is used as the system uses hard links for a single media file to a single storage location,.


If the media is stored externally, what happens to the media depends on what media storage location is assigned in the new library.


I'm not sure how much benefit you'll get from moving projects. The application doesn't load more than one project into the timeline at start up.

Jun 17, 2019 7:06 AM in response to Hepcat B

Oh, one more question. Let's say in the new Library I need extra original media from the old on that has not been Move / Copied as part of the Projects, do I Move or Copy, and is there a difference?  Same question for external media, and here once again the question, since presumably it just keeps the linkage to external media, what is even the difference between Moving & Copying? I repeatedly fail to see a meaningful difference.

Jun 17, 2019 7:24 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Thanks, I think I mostly get it. Moving projects to a new library on the same drive does not copy the media, which is great. Does that mean Copying the project *does* copy the media? In which case, I assume there's truly no reason to Copy a project unless it's going to be used on another system (with no centralized hub) or maybe for some reason an external drive?


This is my big issue, described above but maybe I can be more clear: When I start working in a Library with lots of projects, inevitably I click on something like a Smart Collection or Keyword Collection, then a dialogue come up, "Loading Project X, Y, Z, or more fitingly A thru Z." So I have long, long waits while it loads dozens of projects I don't need access to. My hope then is to move projects into a new library to use there and not have to load ones I don't need. I'm pretty sure moving projects even temporarily to a new Library has been suggested by others, unless I misunderstood.


If that doesn't work, is there a way, (or a better one,) to use projects from this Library without opening the others? It's dragging things down unbearably....

Jun 17, 2019 7:26 AM in response to Hepcat B

"Moving projects to a new library on the same drive does not copy the media, which is great."


Itr just appears too copy the media. It will be in two places in the Finder, but only one location on the hard drive.


"Does that mean Copying the project *does* copy the media?"


Copying the project does the same as moving, only the project remains in the original location as well.


Moving media is different from moving projects. If you move media it's moving, again depending on your storage location. Everything is dependent on that. The processes and what happens are different if the media is external.


The behavior of the library load time is dependent on a load of factors both your system and your media.

Jun 17, 2019 8:07 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

I appreciate it, but any suggestions on where to start with load time issues? I mean, besides hard drive performance, because I do maintenance, I do trash pref's, but anything workflow related I could try? In pracitcal terms, my issue is not that it loads *too slow* so much as it's loading **too much** stuff that I don't need!


It just seems like there would have to be a way to work with existing projects without loading a ton of others, No??


Thanks Tom

Jun 17, 2019 8:22 AM in response to Hepcat B

What version are you using? When I move a project it moves. It’s gone from one library and appears in the other. One you Cmd-drag the project to an event in the new library, what exactly do you see? You should not see any copy indication.


Perhaps I don’t understand what you mean by load. You load a project when you open it into the timeline. Perhaps you need to rethink how you use libraries if you have a lot of unneeded projects and media in it.

Jun 17, 2019 9:14 AM in response to Tom Wolsky


To the second point, I may certainly rethink in the future. I appreciate the responses but, I'm asking to please read this part closely to distinguish the problem. The problem is not when I open a project to work on it. Here's what happens, and I've seen others describe this: 1. Open FCPx 2. Select the Library I want. 3. Maybe I open a desired project, maybe not, but either way, after doing a few actions in the Browser, THIS problem occurs: 4. FCP dialogue pops up at the top, with an action progress bar and it says "Loading project "______," a project I have not selected nor was working with in previous session. THEN, it proceeds to "Load" / *Not Open* one project after another, sometimes a dozen or more. The progress bar completes on one project, then moves to the next. Unlike something in the Background Tasks moniter, there is no way to stop this, and it hangs everything up as it "Loads" all this stuff I don't want or need. If I force quit the application and restart, same thing happens. Does that makes sense as to how this problem is unique from the solutions offered above? Thanks again.



Jun 17, 2019 9:20 AM in response to Hepcat B

(2/2 replies) I don't know if maybe it's a standard function to just "Load" all the projects in a Library when you start up, but it doesn't do that automatically - were that the case I'd start it up and work on something else. No, on start up it loads the media and when that's done, the Background Tasks monitor shows nothing left to be done, even if it's idle for 10 minutes. But then when I start doing anything in the session, here comes the "Loading project bar" ordeal. So you can see how disruptive this is to workflow, and doesn't seem to make any sense?


I'm on 10.4.6 btw

Jun 17, 2019 9:36 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Well false alarm on the Moving issue, it was fixed on a restart.  What still showed in the source library before is now gone.  I do trash preferences and have used Digital Rebellion stuff for maintenance.  Could try that today but just so I know my biggest problem, a straightforward question:


Is the behavior of "Loading" these projects I'm not using an aberrant behavior, or is it just doing something it's supposed to do, but slower or at the wrong time?  Is it even SUPPOSED to load all projects in a Library including ones you're not using?   That seems like the main question before troubleshooting further.  Thanks. 

Jun 17, 2019 9:46 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Great, thanks, and I now see you did answer that in your previous reply, sorry I'm a bit frazzled. It does seem that creating a new library to hold moved projects from the old one is a fair workaround for the issue, but it's very good to know it is a malfunction and I'll do all maintenence I can. in fact I'm getting a solid state drive soon, so that might do it.


I really appreciate the help, just one last different issue perhaps worth mention regarding the Moved project thing, happening even though Move seems to be working.  In the Moved project, I select an original file and Reveal in Finder, it shows a full file in a the Original Media folder as a subset of folder under the New Library's name.  It's not an alias, a full playable file.  I checked in the original Library for the same file, Reveal in Finder, and it likewise shows a full playable file in the original media folder hierarchy.   One thing suggested it didn't create a new file is the one showing under the new library has Creation and Modified dates matching the original.  But wouldn't it show as an alias an not like it's own new playable file if it was not copied?  Just trying to understand.  Thanks. 

Jun 17, 2019 10:01 AM in response to Hepcat B

"In the Moved project, I select an original file and Reveal in Finder, it shows a full file in a the Original Media folder as a subset of folder under the New Library's name."


That's the way hard links work,. The file appears in two separate places. Both libraries have file sizes indicating real content in both, but there is only one data location on the hard drive for both files. You can reach a situation where one library is 300 GB, the second library is also 300 GB, but they're both on a 500 GB drive that still has 200 GB of free space.

Copy or Move Projects (to Prevent Opening All Projects)

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