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iMac hard drive shows full while compiling FCPX project

Hi All,

I've been creating instructional videos for a youtube series and have been negligent in getting an external hard drive to store the files on. During the latest video compilation, I was almost done compiling the last clip into the project and I got a message that my iMac hard drive is full. I've known that I should have gotten an external drive for my movie files for some time now and just kept putting it off because life is so busy, so this is all my fault, but at this point I need to actually take care of the issue. So my questions:

- I have heard that using a Firewire 800 drive on this machine would be preferable to using USB, but would like confirmation on this before ordering/purchasing.

- If anybody has recommendations on specific drives for this purpose, feel free to recommend them! I only have cursory knowledge of such things. My backup drive is a 2TB Western Digital drive that works fine, but something like that might not be the best thing for movies.

- Once I purchase the drive, how can I move my FCPX files to it (including the current project) and still be able to edit this last project? I don't quite yet understand the concept of "proxy media".

Any and all help appreciated, as always!

Posted on Oct 1, 2013 4:21 AM

Best reply

Ian R. Brown

Level 7

21,066 points

Posted on Oct 1, 2013 4:42 AM

Unless you are doing very complex videos a USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 HDD will be perfectly OK.

I use the cheapest WD or Seagate USB 3.0s I can find.

Select the Event and choose File>Move Event.

Select the Project and choose File>Move Project.

Message was edited by: Ian R. Brown

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23 replies

Oct 3, 2013 8:37 AM in response to ChrisFitzgerald

You should have no reason to worry. If the move makes some of your media in a project to appear offline you need only do Modify Event References in the Inspector with hour project selected (I can't check the exact details, being away from my mac right now).

Oct 3, 2013 10:52 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Then it looks as though Apple is using non-standard stuff as USB 3.0 Type A connectors are supposed to have blue inserts to differentiate them from USB 2.0 unless this only occurs when both types appear on the same machine?

Oct 3, 2013 7:08 PM in response to Ian R. Brown

Turns out by dragging and dropping as Jordan suggested, I was only *copying* the files, which doesn't really do me a whole lot of good since the point was to get them off my internal drive and put them in a place where FCP will still be able to find them. Still not sure whether to delete them from the internal drive, or whether to delete them from the external drive and then *move* them from within FCP.

Oct 4, 2013 12:12 AM in response to ChrisFitzgerald

As long as you have copied every file from your Final Cut Events and Final Cut Projects folders, you can trash both folders.

They should be found in User>Movies.

To be doubly safe I suggest dragging both folders to the trash but do not delete the trash.

Then open FCP X and see if you can access all your Projects and Events with no files offline (red).

If this is OK you can go ahead and empty the trash ............. if not, drag the folders back into your Movies folder.

Oct 4, 2013 12:16 AM in response to ChrisFitzgerald

There is no problem in copying events with the Finder as long as 1) FCP X is not running, 2) you don't have both copies visible to FCP X when it runs.

There should be no problem if you delete the original - or, better still, move it to a different folder temporarily, until you are sure that everything works with the copied events.

Having two copies of the same events in this way can be a problem, because each will have the same internal id.

In this situation, usually only one of the two versions seems to appear in FCP X - and it could be the wrong one.

Doing the copy inside FCP X ensures that each copy will be recognized, because in the database structure each will have a different id.

To sum it up:

-move the events you plan to erase from the internal drive to a different folder, where FCP X will not look for them

-make sure everything works (*)

-delete them

(*) if something is not visible in this step, you may need to relink the missing files or perhaps "Modify Event References".

Oct 6, 2013 8:45 PM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Everything worked perfectly, thanks. The program now sees all files on the new folder and the lod files have been trashed, freeing up some 600+ GB ⚠ of space on the internal drive. The program kept freezing at first and I thought I had done something wrong, but as it turns out the program was in the middle of a "balance color" effect on a large event when the internal drive first filled and didn't seem to be able to finish it. So I undid it and then redid it, and all was fine. Tomorrow will tell if the setup is noticably slower this way.

Oct 7, 2013 2:29 PM in response to ChrisFitzgerald

Just as an added note, while everything seems to be working fine, the effects editing speed seems ungodly slow. I'm guessing this is likely due to the difference in speed between the internal bus and the speed of the USB 2.0 connection that the files are now on. What are some strategies for speeding this up?

Mar 19, 2015 7:45 PM in response to ChrisFitzgerald

A year and a half later and back in the same boat. it seems like FCPX has changed since this thread was posted and not the events and projects libraries are organized differently in the program. The way to move projects and events from inside FCP as described in Jordan's link no longer works (I hit Command+0 in FCPX and nothing happens). Now that I'm on 10.1.4, can I still move from the finder and delete as before, or is the protocol different now? As usual I'm afraid of deleting something important and not being able to get it back, or of moving things to a place where FCP can't find them. Right now, my Internal hard drive is showing a projects and events library that weighs in at 474 GB:

...while the same library on the Movie Drive weighs in at 664 GB:

Not sure what the difference is between the two, but when I'm in FCPX, only two projects show up in the window.

Any help appreciated - I really don't want to screw this up.

iMac hard drive shows full while compiling FCPX project