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Consolidating to a Library - weird stuff?

Normally I keep all media in an external folder, separate from the Library. I'm needing to consolidate half a dozen films now on different drives -- onto a single large drive. I've decided to have a Library for each film -- that contains all the media for that film; so I can move films around easily from drive to drive.


Every time I do this I find some of the media files don't end up in the Library, only alias's pointing back to the media still in the original external media folder. Each time this happens I simply drag that missing media clip from the external media folder over into the new-and-improved Library, replacing the alias with the actual original media. This works.


In one case I've got this weird thing happening: I get an 'alias' for the clip, which is connected to the clip in the original external media folder; AND I get a version of the original clip, now in the Library, but with an appended (fcp1) in the title. ????


When I open the new consolidated library in Final Cut, and do a 'Show In Finder' for one of those clips ... it takes me to the version in the new Library (but with the appended (fcp1) in the title.


I find this weird. Has anyone ever seen this before, and what might be causing it? I don't like the idea of all those alias's sitting there, am tempted to just delete them, but that may mean when I open the Library in FCPX all those clips will no longer be linked. I can relink them, but only to the clips now in the Library with the odd appended titles. And I can sense, but not yet see, potential issues down the line ...


MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 15.0

Posted on Nov 1, 2024 5:07 AM

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3 replies

Nov 1, 2024 6:53 AM in response to Ben Low

FCP uses aliases (links) when there's more than one copy of a file on the same drive, to save space.


(fcp1) appended to a file is because you have two files with the same name, but differing metadata, which is necessary, as you can't have two files named the same on a drive on any system.

Nov 1, 2024 7:42 AM in response to BenB

Thank you BenB,


So I should just leave it as is. And when I move that Library to another drive, it will take only ONE of those doubled media files with it (and I shouldn't be concerned that the name has the appended (fcp1) to it. Have I got that right?


Makes me wonder if I open that Library on the NEW drive, where there is NO second version of the clip, whether the appened (fcp1) will be dropped, or disappear?



Consolidating to a Library - weird stuff?

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