Do I have to import media to FCPX?

It’s in a DCIM camera card folder. The application thinks it’s a camera card. It will not leave files in place that are on a camera card or a camera archive.

Please post some screenshots, what you have set in the import sidebar, where your media is on the drive, what’s happening when you import. Importing should be close instantaneous. The application uses the original media on the drive until it does any processing or copying.

You can absolutely edit in FCP while leaving your media in place in an external drive.

I strongly recommend that you take some time to follow the excellent and free introductory course by izzyvideo. This will explain the way the application works and all the terminology, and help you smooth out the learning curve.

The purple starred documents are called libraries and that is how your work are organized. If the media is kept in place, libraries arr fairly small.

EDIT: I forgot to say, import does not mean that tge files are copied. If left in place, your library will ony point tothe location where your media files arez

If you select the top level folder it should work correctly, assuming there isn’t anything else there that we can’t see that might confuse it. When you import the clips they’ll appear in the browser with links to the original media. Select a clip in the browser, right-click, and use Reveal in Finder to check it.

I’m not seeing where you’re importing from. What files are you importing? The background process, whatever it is, should not impact your editing if the clips have already appeared in the browser.

Shift-Cmd-4 lets you drag a selection on the screen that saves a screenshot to the desktop.

The import window shows that you have two libraries on the external drive. The first image shows there’s another library I think called Untitled that’s also on the external drive that’s going to be used. It seems as if you’re using the import window in FCP without a library open, so when you go to import it asks you to create a library. I think that’s what’s happening.

Please look at the izzyvideo tutorials.

You do not need your phone to take shots of your screen. Press Command-Shift-4 and drag to select the region you want to capture. The screenshot will be saved to your Desktop.

Are you importing the entire folder "Haley & Adam...", as shown in your last screenshot? What is inside that folder?

I am thinking that maybe the contents of that folder are exact copies of the contents of camera cards, or something.

That would explain why they are being copied.

If you could show us what is inside that folder (covering any private information if that is the case), it may be clearer.

It has nothing to do with the Smart Collection. Please watch the izzyvideo series.

When you use Reveal in Finder function where do you get taken to? It’s not clear from the images. It does look like the media is being duplicated, though I can’t see why.