Final Cut Pro Backups

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Level 1

4 points

Final Cut Pro Backups

how do you stop final cut pro from doing backups each time you add something to your project/video? I'll be working on a video that is in total when complete about 8G or less - but will end up taking like 300G or more of space on my computer due to all of these back ups? why? how do you stop final cut pro from constantly creating new saved versions? I can't even work on multiple projects at once because of this - and sometimes can't save the project as there isn't enough space to do so. its such a frustrating experience every time I work on something. and i have to completely wipe everything from final cut library after I'm done just to be able to work on something new. is there a way to stop this from happening?

any help with be appreciated! thank you!

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.6

Posted on Sep 12, 2022 1:16 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

terryb

Level 4

3,394 points

Sep 12, 2022 3:05 PM in response to sebbyyy

As Tom says, FCP backups in ~/Movies/Final Cut Backups/ are usually relatively small since they don't contain any media, just the databases. What can get really big is the library itself if you have Background Rendering enabled in Preferences. Or when you import if you have Create Proxy and Optimized media enabled, which is not normally needed. You can always create them on a shot by shot basis if needed by right-clicking a clip and choosing Transcode media...

To delete the render cache. Select the library in the browser, choose File->Delete Generated Library Files... Choose All Render files. These too can always be regenerated on a shot by shot basis if needed. Manage render files in Final Cut Pro - Apple Support

After dumping the cache you'll probably gain back 100s of GBs. With Background Rendering disabled, and Create Proxy and Optimized media unchecked on import, your future projects won't grow so large.

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Answer 2

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,809 points

Sep 12, 2022 1:27 PM in response to sebbyyy

The backups shouldn't be that big. The backups for a library are databases only. They go into a folder inside Final Cut Backups I Movies. Select the folder for your library and press Cmd-I to see how big it is.

What often takes up a lot of space are render files. Switch off background rendering in preferences. Select the library and use Delete Generated Library Files to remove the existing render files.

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Answer 3

terryb

Level 4

3,394 points

Sep 13, 2022 10:23 AM in response to sebbyyy

Great! You're very welcome. You would probably really enjoy and save yourself a ton of time with FCP by watching these two free YouTube tutorials. The Izzy Video tutorials are from an older version of FCP but all the concepts are still relevant, just the interface might look slightly different.

Steve at Ripple Training, 60 minute FCP tutorial overview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqUP7Zgeuck

Izzy Video tutorials https://youtu.be/_jvyrnQpR1E?list=PLp5SAgbM8S87n1qvv34-PAU2zMHLlXyfb

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